Canadian Retailer - Store 2015 - 22

KPMG ROUNDTABLE

KRUH: As retailers, you've got an incredible responsibility to your customers to protect their
data. However, the opportunities to leverage that
data to your advantage are also incredible. It's
a cliché now, but it's often been said that over 90
per cent of the world's data was created in the last
2 years. As a result of the vast amount of data
available, many companies are daunted by the
"3 Vs"-volume, velocity, and variety. The volume
is immense, the velocity is intense, and the sheer
variety of information can make it difficult to organize information in a meaningful and logical
manner. If the information can be organized, however, it presents retailers with a level of detail and
insight into their consumers that can allow for
more targeted marketing campaigns to facilitate
a deeper level of intimacy with them. How are you
leveraging big data and analytics to better familiarize yourself with your customers, improve their
shopping experience and drive sales?

DINAN: The data provides us with a multidimensional view

of our business. We use it to analyze and spot trends and
nuances between markets. But we're a smaller organization,
and we want to avoid becoming paralyzed by the abundance
of data. We spend a lot of time looking at which data is important to our business, to run effectively as a company and
satisfy our customers. We want to know about our customer.
And we've found that analytics have helped us spot differences in customer behaviour by store and region. This information is important as it allows us to be a lot more sophisticated in our approach.

PRUD'HOMME: The notion of big data is very interesting.
You can lose yourself in the data by misusing it, and it can
end up driving negative behaviour. The point of data is to
use it to work with a given strategy, and to find out how the
data supports that strategy. If the strategy is in place, it's a
question of using the data to prioritize customer preferences
and enhance profitability. Data can help validate that you're
heading in the right direction.
BEBIS: Everyone has seen
how useful big data can be.
Retailers today can drive
transactions by sending targeted information to customers in the way of suggestions
and recommendations. It can
add real value to your company. But the value that it
adds to the business and the
customer experience needs
to be shown, explained and
proven. For smaller companies, you need to prove the
value of investing in big data
and then grow your capacity
from there. You can't just
turn a switch on and say that
you've suddenly got big data.
You have to grow the capacity little by little.

BRUCE DINAN ON ZONAL PRICING
Operating in the marketplace today is like
living in a glass house. The Internet has made
it unbelievably easy for customers to do
price comparisons and to understand what's
out there. It was not unusual for retailers to
operate a national brand with five different
pricing zones across the country. You can't do
that today and for good reasons. Your pricing
strategy must engender your customer's trust
at all cost, excuse the pun.

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CANADIAN RETAILER | STORE 2015

ROSEN: We have a small analytics department, and we use

it to support our marketing efforts. Our key competitive
strength is the relationship between our frontline associates
and our customers. We have great client files containing a
lot of information, and we use it to help us service our clients
even better, to find more interesting and innovative ways of
offering them that exceptional service. There's an enormous
amount of potential when it comes to the harnessing of big
data. We're trying to achieve the optimal benefit at the CRM
level. You've got to link it to your strategy.

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