Retail Online Integration

You will be automatically redirected to retailonlineintegration in 20 seconds.
Skip this advertisement.

Advertisement
Advertisement
 
 
Blogger

Dear Dr. pROfIt

By Kevin Hillstrom

About Kevin

Kevin Hilstrom is president of MineThatData, a consultancy that helps CEOs understand the complex relationship between advertising, customers, products, brands and channels. His clients include billion dollar retailers, international direct marketers, publishers, catalog brands and online pure-plays.

Prior to founding MineThatData, Kevin spent nearly 20 years in multichannel retailing at some of the most well-known brands in the U.S., including Nordstrom, where he was the vice president of database marketing, Eddie Bauer and Lands’ End. Kevin is also author of numerous books, including his most recent, “Online Marketing Simulations,” available at Amazon.com.

 

Return on Inventory

Joe Palzkill
Strategies For Training Your Inventory Staff
Jan 18, 2011

Inventory is the single largest expense for direct retailers. It has a dramatic impact on all key financial metrics —...



Return on Intelligence

Jim Gilbert
How to Mess Up a Perfectly Good Customer Experience
Jan 11, 2011

As a marketer, you should be overly concerned about how your customers experience your brand, products and customer service. I...



Merchandising Musings

Andrea Syverson
How Exclusive Merchandise Wins Sales
Jan 17, 2011

Investing in customer-centric proprietary product development fends off consumer ennui and extends the brand experience in all the right ways....



Creating Positive Customer Experiences

JoAnna Brandi
The Season to be Jolly
Dec 23, 2010

I was away last week teaching positive communication. Twice while walking through the lobby of the hotel, people stopped me...



Retail Rants & Raves

Joe Keenan
Happy Thanksgiving ... Now Get to Work
Nov 23, 2010

While Black Friday has long been viewed as the traditional kickoff to the holiday shopping season, getting the frenzy started...



Integrating Your Data to Drive ROI

Page Not Found : Retail Online Integration
Advertisement
 
 

Page Not Found

The page that you requested could not be found.
Please contact webmaster@napco.com, indicating what page you were trying to access.

Return to Retail Online Integration






 
 
 
 
The “multichannel mantra” is back. For much of the past decade, catalogers promoted the concept of multichannel marketing. They suggested that their best customers used a combination of traditional advertising and newer channels. By catering to best customers, the theory suggested, sales and profits were likely to increase.

The theory is now resurfacing, being reintroduced by a vendor community eager to capitalize on key business trends.

Web analytics and business intelligence vendors seem to be rushing “to the middle,” looking to integrate online and offline data for the purpose of truly understanding customer behavior. Similarly, email marketers are looking to integrate email with social media, trying to explain that the combination of the two channels yields productive customers.

At the heart of all of this multichannel chatter is the concept of data integration. Marketers are being told that they have to integrate data from all channels to thoroughly understand customer behavior — i.e., execute relevant marketing campaigns that increase sales and profit.

That’s the theory being taught.

The reality of data integration is that some data elements are more important than others. The fact that you visited a website on Monday is important. The fact that you visited eight landing pages on Monday, viewed 13 products, put three items in a shopping cart and then abandoned the cart is important in some situations. Intuitively, the latter scenario should be more important. However, that level of data is only important when used the right way.

Most marketers don't have the resources to integrate data at the level they're being asked to integrate data — and that’s OK. You can start at a small level and build toward the future.

Traditional direct marketers can begin by capturing the most recent date that activity happened on their websites. Simply store in a database the date of a consumer's most recent visit, most recent merchandise department landing page visit, most recent shopping cart abandoned, most recent email campaign clicked through, most recent paid search visit and so on. Then link that activity to name/address information, where possible.

At this point, you have actionable information. A customer who hasn't purchased in 38 months visits a certain merchandise page but doesn't purchase. An email marketing campaign can be crafted for customers with this type of behavior, in hopes of reactivating the customer.

Or look at your catalog marketing activities. Who would you rather mail a catalog to: a customer who hasn't purchased in 38 months, or a customer who hasn't purchased in 38 months but visited your website last week?

Data integration is a hot topic and for good reason. Balance the need to have all data stored perfectly in your database with the opportunity to summarize a few key data points — data points that are highly actionable.

Kevin Hillstrom is president of MineThatData, a database marketing consultancy. He can be reached at kevinh@minethatdata.com.
Page Not Found : Retail Online Integration
Advertisement
 
 

Page Not Found

The page that you requested could not be found.
Please contact webmaster@napco.com, indicating what page you were trying to access.

Return to Retail Online Integration






 
 
 

COMMENTS

Click here to leave a comment...
Comment *
Most Recent Comments: