You can’t have a meeting these days without someone throwing out the platitude “data is key”, but all too often, we find that even with the vast amounts of data being collected, business leverage of this valuable data is a problem
We just came back from sponsoring the Ai4 Retail conference in NYC on Monday, June 24th and Tuesday, June 25th at the Convene located in Midtown West that was a great opportunity to comment on the state of AI in retail and the key question is that most still had on their minds. Over the two days, an interesting mix of technology-savvy business execs and big data/machine learning practitioners from leading retail brands got together to discuss how AI & ML have (and will continue to) transform their businesses.
Love the first half of the year. It’s the time I get to speak our customers on their initiatives to grow their digital revenues via experience personalization. If there’s one thing that’s different than last year, it’s the shift in the key challenges as personalization moves from helping shoppers BUY, to helping them SHOP!
It Turns Out the Joke Is on Us
One the of the great cosmic jokes we almost all struggle against as we get older is the belief that the following generation had an easier time of it than ours. While the reality is that each new generation has its own context that really can’t be compared to the one that came before or after, I’m starting to think that the current business climate might just be the exception.
MAKING THE LEAP TO HYPER-PERSONALIZATION
One trend continually on the rise is shopper dissatisfaction with what once passed for personalization. More so than ever before, your customers want and even demand that you know them better, understand their individual needs, and inspire them to continue shopping. The time has come to rethink personalization by making the leap to Hyper-Personalization. With Hyper-Personalization, and the new features launched in support, we allow you to take the next evolutionary step and do what the marketing clouds and rest of the personalization industry can’t: deliver real-time personalized and shoppable experiences at the individual level.
Part 1: Why a Segment-Based Marketing Approach Is So Hard for Business to Quit
If you’ve spent any time around personalization, then you’ve probably encountered the three
great truths about it. The first is that every business needs it. The second is that every
marketing tool is keen to “help” you achieve it. And the third is that rarely, if ever, does it actually involve a real-time personalized experience for the individual shopper on the other
end.
Commerce changed in 2018 – and brands and consumers both came out winners.
It was a great holiday for retailers. A record holiday, in fact. Seasonal sales grew 5.1% to hit their highest level in 6 years, buoyed by 19% growth in digital purchases. As eMarketer principal analyst Andrew Lipsman presciently told CBS MoneyWatch last month: “Really, it’s the story of strength at brick-and-mortar retail and e-commerce.”
The future of B2B is consumerized and therefore personalized. At least, that’s the takeaway from industry leaders with whom I shared the stage for a keynote panel on digital transformation at the recent B2B Online conference.
As we discussed the internal challenges and external forces confronting the industry, a dominant theme emerged: Personalization is the only way to drive differentiation and growth for B2B companies who want to become the Amazon of their category … before Amazon is.