Retail Tech Update #2 — Why Nike Said Goodbye to Amazon
In this issue, we’ll take a look at how Nike said goodbye to Amazon, why Sephora is the most personalized retail brand 3 years in a row, and how a bias in AI caused discrimination against women.
How Sephora Gets Personalization Right
Historically, too many brands have tackled personalization channel by channel: they had an e-mail strategy, a mobile strategy, a web strategy and an in-store strategy. But retailers such as Sephora show that what works best is a unified omnichannel strategy that reaches customers on the right channel at the right time — something that only an advanced targeting AI understands automatically. Read more >>
Nike vs. Amazon — Who’s Stronger?
Nike withdrawing from Amazon should serve as a warning — no retailer is indispensable. Although few brands are strong enough to completely cut deals with major retailers, many are already switching their budgets from retail media towards own marketing channels. Read more >>
How Best-in-Class Brands Acquire and Retain Customers Today
Over half of loyalty program memberships are inactive, and nearly a third of members abandon them without capitalizing on collected rewards. The best ways to create more engagement are easy access to program’s benefits and personalized offers delivered to the channel of choice, a new study by Gartner suggests. Read more >>
“Brand Loyalty” – new cartoon and post on the fickle nature of customers and keeping loyalty in perspective https://t.co/zBT19O2q96 pic.twitter.com/JMAinpk8eO
— Tom Fishburne (@tomfishburne) December 4, 2016
What Do We Do About the Biases in AI?
Machines can be biased, too! There are plenty of examples when AI was unfair or discriminating in areas such as governmental services, education and HR. And this applies even to large tech innovators such as Amazon, where AI showed bias towards women. That’s why we at SO1 are spending so much time on getting rid of any biases in our targeting algorithms that might occur. Read more >>
Brands Need Wake-up Call on Customer Experiences
The challenges brands face when attempting to provide excellent customer experiences are real, but the reward is certainly worth it. Even a 3% increase in loyalty can correlate to a 10% cost reduction. Whether the challenge is real-time engagement, customer understanding or personalization, marketers are frustrated. Brands may have multiple systems handling customer touchpoints and face issues with integrating data. Read more >>
Walmart vs. Amazon: Where Are Shoppers Spending Money This Holiday Season?
Great in-depth research looking at the U.S. consumer preferences this Christmas. Clearly, the emphasis many retailers are placing on omnichannel retail is not misplaced. It’s not physical or digital; it’s physical AND digital. Something that applies for holidays as well as everyday shopping. Read more >>
PS: We, at SO1, are constantly trying to keep up with the latest retail trends and now we’d like to share the best insights with you. Every now and then we’ll handpick the most interesting articles and studies about retail technology, promotion targeting, loyalty programs, customer experience, shopping behavior, and AI. If you don’t want to miss the next selection, subscribe to our newsletter below.