Consumer Analytics

Blue Bell, Pa. – The government is not typically an institution that inspires consumer confidence, and when it comes to protecting personal data, neither is the retail industry.

A large percentage of Americans believe that a breach of their personal data held by a retailer or a government agency is likely within the next year, according to the 2015 Unisys Security Insights survey released today by Unisys Corp. in partnership with Lieberman Research Group.

It’s no secret that the rise of mobile devices is empowering consumers and altering the way they shop. But mobile isn’t just changing the game for consumers. It’s also empowering chain stores to take advantage of those behavior changes to strengthen customer relationships and distinguish the in-store experience.  

Here are five simple ways that chain stores can take advantage of mobile devices like tablets to enhance and differentiate the in-store experience and drive sales:

Retailers use variety of technologies, channels for CRM success

Customer relationship management (CRM) is the strategy a retailer uses to develop an ongoing, individual relationship with a customer to ensure satisfaction and loyalty. But the specifics of CRM can mean different things for different retailers.

Toronto - Staples Canada has released its 2015 recycling objectives and first quarter update. Highlights include a plan to collect three million ink cartridges and 4,000,000 kg of electronics in 2015.

Staples Canada partners with Call2Recycle to collect and recycle batteries (rechargeable and alkaline) in every Staples store. In the first quarter, 37,111 kg of batteries were collected, an increase of 22.5% from the same quarter a year earlier. The retailer has set a goal of collecting 125,000 kg of batteries in 2015.

Efficient Collaborative Retail Marketing (ECRM) continues to expand its capabilities and has done so again with another key retail industry hire.

ECRM recently hired retail and consumer packaged goods data veteran Jennifer Zannelli to the newly created role of ECRM Data Sales. In this capacity, Zannelli will lead strategic sales initiatives for ECRM Data and also help develop new products and services.

Redwood Shores, Calif. -- Oracle is enhancing its efforts to attract customers in the e-commerce sector.

The company on Monday officially launched its new Commerce Cloud, a flexible and scalable SaaS solution designed to make it easy for retailers to include e-commerce as part of their larger digital customer experience strategy. The new tool, built for the Oracle Public Cloud, is part of Oracle’s Customer Experience (CX) applications portfolio.

Cincinnati -- Consumers, especially millennials, are willing to ante up for fee-based loyalty programs.

In a survey by LoyaltyOne, 62% of respondents said they’d consider joining a fee-based rewards program if their favorite retailer offered one. The number was even higher among millennials with 75% of 18-24 year-olds and 77% of 25-34 year-olds saying they’d consider joining a fee-based rewards program.

Louisville, Colo. - U.S. online grocery shoppers are upping the amount of grocery shopping they complete online. According to a new survey of 1,100 U.S. online grocery shoppers from natural and organic online grocer Door to Door Organics, more than half (54%) said in the past year they had increased the amount of grocery shopping they do online by an average of 29%.