Gifts are on the agenda for many consumers this Valentine’s Day, but the ongoing disruption of the global supply chain could be causing reluctance in purchases for this peak shopping event, according to customer engagement platform Emarsys.
The aftermath of purchases not arriving on time during the Christmas period has caused consumers to yearn for more transparency from retailers when purchasing Valentine’s Day gifts.
To rectify this uncertainty, findings from Emarsys have found that pricing practices and sustainable offerings are the best ways to connect with consumers by explaining price inflations, item sourcing and realistic delivery timeframes. By creating a full picture for consumers, retailers are empowering consumers to understand the difficulties plagued by supply chain disruption.
Retailers are increasingly required to deliver more sophisticated work, across a broader spectrum, in the same or less time, meaning it has never been harder to meet consumer expectations. Considering this, 46 per cent of retailers are turning to more personalised technologies this year, which can play a major role in customer experience, CRM, branding, customer acquisition and customer retention.
Nearly all (96 per cent) of retailers are wanting more time to get to know customers as people and Valentine’s Day enables retailers to get more personal with their customers than before. As such, implementing the right technology and tools within marketing campaigns will further encourage accurate data collection and leave siloed data in the past.
One of the retailers to start further investing in their customer relationships is Bendon Lingerie. “With Valentine’s Day serving as the next big retail event of the year, we want to tailor individual shopping experiences to suit our shopper’s preferences,” explains Jennie Leng, GM ecommerce and digital at Bendon Lingerie.
“Having insights into our customer behaviour provides us with a better picture of how they shop and interact with our brand, so we can adjust or amplify our personalised communication as we see fit.”
Without siloed data, retailers have the ability to predict customers’ future behaviours with high accuracy based on collected past behaviour. This allows retailers to encourage consumer actions or prevent undesirable behaviours.
Unsurprisingly, 14 per cent of last year’s consumers planned to buy various lingerie items as Valentine’s Day presents. In these circumstances, Bendon can evaluate past data of consumers that bought items during this period last year and to further encourage the same behaviour of shopping again this Valentine’s Day.
“Retailers are gaining valuable insights from having their data stored in one central location which is allowing personalisation to be at the centre of customer engagement approaches,” says Kristyn Wallace, director of client success ANZ at Emarsys.
“Taking the time to identify shopping behaviours lessens the stress for customers buying a loved one a gift this Valentine’s Day. Personalisation is about making the shopping experience more enjoyable and ensuring the purchase meets the consumers wants and needs at that time. Brands want to give back to their customers and siloed data is not going to enable them to do it.”
