He who has the most data wins. Five rules retailers should follow when collecting data

Data is the driver of most business decisions so why should retail be any different. I just received my quarterly Search Engine Optimization report for my website. The breakdown of data is incredible, session, page views, average duration, new sessions and, returning sessions. All the search terms used are broken down geographically and by all the search engines. Know that I have all this data what’s the next step to make it useful. I’ve scheduled a call with the company hosting my site to discuss what we can to tweak my site to create more visits since this is my main marketing tool.
For retailers to be successful in this new age of age of data aggregation it’s essential that they not only collect data but become skillful at utilizing that data. For years it was sufficient to have data on inventory but now it’s equally as critical to have customer data. It’s the convergence of these two data silos that’s the pot of gold. Knowing the specifics of a customer’s purchases, their shopping frequency, the last date they shopped for starters allows you to market to them intelligently. I realize there are concerns about data beaches but the fact is consumers will become somewhat inured to them as a fact of life. The calculus is simple if they derive a benefit by allowing you to collect their purchase history the majoring of customers will opt in. A few key rules:
• Make your offers relevant
• Understand your not giving away margin, you’re creating additional sales
• Provide some content that is informational not just promotional
• Allow customers the option to easily opt out
• Monitor the results of your offers and keep tweaking them
Data is you new friend, embrace it. As with all friendships both parties must benefit to make it sustaining.