Mastering customer engagement: The key to retail and e-commerce success

In today’s hyper-competitive landscape, mastering customer engagement isn’t just an option – it’s essential for survival and growth.

The Braze 2024 State of Customer Engagement in Retail and eCommerce report reveals insights to transform your approach to personalisation and lifecycle marketing, highlighting how top-performing retail and e-commerce marketers are anticipating market shifts and driving stronger customer engagement, retention and brand loyalty.

In this article, we explore key strategies shaping the future of retail and e-commerce, including:

• Anticipating the future of retail and e-commerce.
• Data-driven personalisation: A game-changer.
• Collaboration: The fuel for success.
• Measurement matters.
• Unlocking potential: The channel capabilities you can’t afford to ignore.
• Preparing for the AI revolution.
• Understanding ‘ace’ retailers: The who and the why.
• Summary and free access to the Braze State of Customer Engagement in Retail and eCommerce report

Anticipating the future of retail and e-commerce

Retail and e-commerce brands plan to increase their customer engagement budgets by 19 per cent in the coming year – a higher rate compared to other industries. This reflects the growing recognition that customer engagement plays in the sector’s performance, whether that’s maintaining a competitive edge or growing market share through data-led, action-based personalisation.

Data-driven, action-based personalisation: A game changer

Data-driven personalisation isn’t just a buzzword – it’s about creating meaningful customer relationships.  When that data is driven by a consumer’s action, you’re leaps and bounds ahead of the competition. In saying that, only 36 per cent of retailers excel in segmentation maturity, while 22 per cent are adept at personalised messaging. 

That’s a big gap when you consider that ‘ace’ brands enjoy 59 per cent higher engagement and 74 per cent more purchases per user. Personalisation is in more demand by consumers than ever before and is vital to building brand trust, engagement, advocacy, and conversions. Successful brands are not just driving consumer actions through their own data-led personalisation models, but more and more by real-time consumer-led actions. 

Imagine the impact on your bottom line by successfully implementing a data-led, action-based personalisation strategy. On the flip side, imagine the impact on your bottom line by doing nothing at all.

Collaboration: The fuel for success

‘Ace’ retail and e-commerce brands are moving away from siloed functional marketing streams. Leaders in retail and e-commerce tend to sync weekly at a minimum in order to foster a unified, omnichannel approach to campaigns and activations. Their approach ultimately adds value to a consumer’s experience by delivering seamless brand interactions that build trust, and ultimately, lead to conversions.

Measurement matters

Gone are the days of vanity metrics. Today, 78 per cent of retailers measure their engagement programs based on tangible outcomes like retention and revenue impact. More sophisticated approaches not only validate brands’ marketing efforts but also guide future strategies, ensuring every marketing dollar is well spent. Metrics are enablers to ensure your marketing efforts are focused while cutting out inefficient programs that fail to deliver. 

Ultimately, more focus through metric-based data-led outcomes removes the noise, allows for a more strategic approach, and provides teams more space to deliver creative approaches.

Unlocking potential: The channels you can’t afford to ignore

While email and SMS remain critical channels, only 37 per cent of retailers utilise in-browser or in-app messaging effectively. This is low-hanging fruit for marketers that can unlock significant opportunities during the shopper journey by delivering real-time, contextually relevant messages – whether those messages are product, promotion, or content-led. Retailers and e-commerce marketers not already leveraging these channels need to embrace them. You’ll reduce customer friction, and drive higher conversions and engagement that will set your brand apart from the competition during critical buying moments.

Preparing for the AI revolution

AI is a game changer, unlocking more productivity and creativity for integrated marketing teams. Over half of retailers plan to leverage AI to optimise strategies, automate tasks, and unleash creative potential in the coming year. AI is helping marketers anticipate customer needs and wants, experiment with new approaches, and optimise at scale – all while delivering innovative experiences that delight audiences.

Understanding ‘ace’ retailers: The who and the why

An ‘ace’ retailer, according to the Braze Customer Engagement Index, represents the best-in-class brands in terms of customer engagement program maturity and performance. Key characteristics of ‘ace’ retailers include:

1. Customer-centric approach: ‘Ace’ retailers prioritise meeting customer needs at every touchpoint of the buying journey. They leverage data to create highly personalised experiences that resonate with individual consumer preferences and behaviours.
2. Lifecycle-oriented strategies: Instead of viewing engagement as isolated interactions, ‘ace’ retailers orchestrate continuous engagement across the entire customer lifecycle; including acquisition, last mile and retention. This approach ensures consistent brand experiences that foster long-term brand loyalty and advocacy.
3. Cross-functional collaboration: Unlike siloed approaches, ‘ace’ retailers integrate insights and efforts across marketing, data analytics, and customer service functions. Collaboration enables them to deliver cohesive, omnichannel experiences that exceed customer expectations.
4. Real-Time Data Utilisation: ‘Ace’ retailers harness real-time data streams to drive immediate action-based relevance in their customer communications. Whether through personalised messaging or dynamic content delivery, they adapt swiftly to changing consumer behaviours and market dynamics.
5. Performance-Driven Metrics: Instead of focusing solely on superficial metrics like opens and clicks, ‘ace’ retailers measure success through metrics that directly impact business outcomes. This includes metrics such as; customer acquisition, abandonment and retention rates, average order value, and lifetime customer value.

‘Ace’ retailers achieve significant performance advantages through these tactics. They experience 59 per cent higher engagement, 74 per cent more purchases per user, and 30 per cent higher 90-day retention rates compared to their industry peers. These metrics underscore the effectiveness of their customer engagement strategies and the impact on the bottom line.

Summary and free access to the Braze State of Customer Engagement in Retail and eCommerce report

This has been a short summary of the Braze 2024 State of Customer Engagement in Retail and eCommerce report. The full report provides retail and e-commerce marketers with detailed insights and a roadmap to elevate your customer engagement, lifecycle and personalisation strategies. Whether you’re aiming to refine your personalisation approach, foster cross-functional collaboration, unlock new channels, or harness AI, the Braze State of Customer Engagement in Retail and eCommerce report will provide actionable insights to drive growth.

Download the Braze 2024 State of Customer Engagement in Retail and eCommerce report now and unlock strategies to take your business to the next level. Don’t miss out on the opportunity to gain a competitive edge in today’s shifting retail and e-commerce landscape.

• Click here to access the full report and discover how you can master customer engagement to drive lasting success.

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