Retailers are widely employing identity management strategies to improve their targeting in email and other channels, and 58% have implemented technology for identifying their customers.
That doesn’t mean they are succeeding, judging by Campaign Intelligence: How Retail Marketers Use Customer-Focused ID Management to Increase Satisfaction & Profitability, a study by Etail
Insights, sponsored by IDme.
Many retailers are struggling to understand their customers because they can’t integrate their technologies. And while 26% can identify a shopper who makes a
purchase, 34% have no strategy in place for doing so.
In addition, 42% have not employed ID management technologies for personalization and better targeting, although 35% are considering
it.
At the same time, 30% are working with these systems but say it’s still a developing part of their business. And 28% are using the technologies, saying it’s a core part
of their business.
Companies that do have such ID processes are using them with these goals in mind:
- Using this data for customer insights and/or predictive modeling
— 51%
- Website personalization — 51%
- Gaining a deeper understanding of customers — 47%
- Triggered emails — 40%
- Remarketing to
audiences in online media channel — 37%
- Targeting audiences in online media channels — 30%
The benefits include gating group discount options for
affinity groups and/or fraud protection, cited by 59%.
In addition, 55% are tailoring marketing opportunities to customers in innovative ways. And 49% say they are pinpointing their best
customers.
But there are challenges. The main ones are:
- Our technologies do not integrate in a way that facilitates data integration and enrichment — 38%
- We have a data aggregation and enrichment strategy, but we are not there yet — 32%
- We have struggled to index or key our internal data to outside data sources —
24%
- We have none, because this is not a priority for our company — 23%
- We are still working on integrating and mining our internal data — 21%
- We have none,
because we are doing this successfully — 20%
The study also found that millennials are the most sought-after group — 47% target them directly. Specific consumer
categories are next (43%), followed by college students (39%), company employees (35%) and military & veteran (35%).
Major percentages also prioritize these group, while not directly
targeting them.
Etail partnered with WBR Insights to survey 100 retail processionals in the U.S.