Properly used, customer data gleaned online can help not only web sales but the top line across all channels, says Joanna Perry

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As multiple channels really do begin to become multichannel, there is a huge opportunity for retailers to take information gleaned in one channel, and use it to inform decisions across the business.

The most obvious way to do this is to take customer information collected through the data-rich online channel, and use it to optimise sales, profitability and customer service in other channels.

Waitrose director of ecommerce Rob Collins is eager for the grocer to present a single view of its customers. This will be necessary as its plan to double the size of the business between 2008 and 2016 means the grocer needs more shops and more channels, including the development of its convenience stores and website.

Collins says Waitrose’s biggest challenge is to create a seamless view of its customers. It needs to do this, as it has evidence of increased spend coming from customers who shop across more than one of its channels. It wants to service such customers better.

Linking online and stores

Waitrose

Since Waitrose reports online wine purchases to stores, its in-store wine experts offer more help on buying online

Although Waitrose has some way to go, it is already improving customer service by providing better visibility of web sales to its stores. By reporting online sales to stores, Collins says he can get better buy-in from store colleagues.

For instance, since stores have started to be given credit for sales through its wine website, its in-store wine experts are more prepared to give advice on wine customers can buy online, as well as what they can buy in-store.
The same is true at Waitrose stablemate John Lewis, where closer integration between the department stores and its Direct business is leading to improved customer service.

The website is available on all tills, and John Lewis staff can help customers complete transactions online. The service launched in February, and it has already generated £750,000 in sales. For two thirds of customers who make an assisted web purchase, it is their introduction to the site; 15% go on to make self-serve purchases.

John Lewis Direct managing director Robin Terrell says that it is not just a platitude that the company puts its customers at the heart of the business.

And Tesco.com has done similarly, taking what it knows about its customers - their normal weekly shopping habits - and pre-populating a basket for them on the web to speed up the process of an online grocery transaction.

Better customer service is one thing, but deep insight on how people shop online and what they buy is of enormous help to multichannel retailers, especially if they do not have a loyalty card to track store purchases over time.

SAS ebusiness consultant Jonathan Opperman says: “What you learn online can inform your decision making elsewhere. For instance, how you present products in-store could be based upon online product associations that you might not spot elsewhere.”

Opperman says that even anonymous behaviour on websites is useful.

“Tools such as Google Analytics serve a purpose for simple decisions, based upon web page-oriented interactions, but they don’t give you any insight about your customers as individuals. Our approach is quite the opposite.

We collect highly accurate records of individuals’ online interactions which we can then integrate with offline data to get a more accurate representation of people’s behaviour. Which in turn will provide a more beneficial dialogue with your customers.”

Argos Extra, Tunstall

Argos uses customer reviews to hone its products and how it describes them.

Actionable data

Argos is using the masses of information that customers provide through ratings and reviews to hone its product descriptions and improve the products it sells.

Sam Decker, chief marketing officer at social commerce specialist Bazaarvoice, explains that 90% of clothing retailer Boden’s design team looks at customer ratings and reviews content to inform their design decisions, with feedback in one year affecting their work in the following season.

Ubar

Phones 4U set up the UBar to engage with its target 16- to 24-year-old market

Phones 4U created an online customer panel - the UBar - in late August as a platform for flexible customer engagement, to gain a deeper understanding of what its target 16- to 24-year-old market wants.

Phones 4U head of customer insight Graeme Ford says the retailer has decided if it wants to properly understand its customers it must let them set the questions as well as give answers.

He explains: “In its traditional sense, research works on a level of one-way communication. The UBar brings in elements of co-creation and, through the surveys, respondents are prompted to ask their own questions for other panel members to answer in future surveys, to make sure we address real consumer needs.”

And the insight generated is being designed to be used right across the organisation - not just for marketing. “All surveys, mini-polls, and communications will be designed to add valuable consumer feedback on a variety of business objectives to our key stakeholders,” adds Ford.

The wider web also provides significant opportunities for staff to gather insight. Marks & Spencer, for example, is beginning to gather and analyse the conversations customers have about M&S on the web, so its staff have access to these customer voices.

In addition to product and service improvements, the web may change the way you try to communicate with customers. Opperman says: “If you can make sense of forums or Twitter discussions about your brand - using techniques such as text mining and sentiment analysis - you can begin to categorise opinions, and use this insight to tailor your search marketing to include these categories.”

As well as being an increasingly important sales channel in its own right, the nature of the internet makes it the perfect place for testing and measuring. Customers are familiar with the concept of “beta”, or work in progress as the non-technologists would describe it, and this gives retailers freedom to try things out before they are ready for a full, store-based launch.

“Anything you do should be measurable, so you can show whether it is successful,” Opperman concludes, pointing out that it makes the web a great place to test new products and services, as the feedback is high quality and almost instantaneous.