Survey: Retailers see big benefit in individualized customer experiences

Retailers estimate they could earn an extra 10% in revenue — which translates into $100 million annually for a $1 billon company — by offering customers and employees a highly individualized experience.



That’s one of the key retail takeaways of new report by Oracle, which surveyed 300 C-level executives across 10 industries to understand how prepared organizations are to address the fact that consumers increasingly expect, and even demand, to have it their way—whether shopping, communicating, working, or enjoying leisure time.



The report, “The Era I Enterprise: Ready for Anything,” found that 77% of retailers have experienced a trend toward customers wanting a more individualized experience and 67% have experienced the trend from employees.

More than half (56%) say the trend is a growing challenge in this ability to compete effectively.



For all industries studied, fewer than 20% of respondents give their organization an “A” in its ability to offer individualized experiences. And in the retail sector, only 13% of retail executives give their organization an “A” in this regard.



“What is interesting is that retailers are harder on themselves, grading themselves tougher than other industries while we know that as a whole they are significantly further along than their peers in other industries,” said Mike Webster, senior VP and general manager, Oracle Retail and Hospitality. “They have been delivering personalized offers, cross-channel services such as click to collect and endless aisle shopping."



As to how retailers can realize that 10% increase by offering an individualized experience, companies said business intelligence tools, customer experience solutions, and other industry-specific applications will play a vital role. Indeed, 73% believe there is an important link between cloud- based IT solutions and their organization’s ability to deliver individualized employee and customer experiences



Webster noted that while retailers got mobile and ecommerce innovations out to their markets relatively quickly, the back end piece is critical.



“The back end stuff is the harder piece,” he explained. “You can’t personalize unless you have the right inventory in place, and you cannot support click to collect unless you’ve got all of the systems lined up to do it."



Asked where the greatest opportunity lie for the industry to take advantage of more individualized content, products, and services for customers and/or employees, the top choice (57%) of retail respondents was empowering associates to improve customer service effectivness, followed by leveraging customer data to upsell and cross sell merchandise (53%).



Asked the biggest obstacles their industry faces in delivering more individualized content, products, and/or services, retailers responded as follows:



• 50% — Inability to put the right information in associates hands when they engage with customers via call center, online help desks, or in stores;



• 43% — Budget/cost constraints;



• 30% — Inability to analyze multiple sources of data to help shape customers’ experiences;



• 27% — Difficulty providing customers with consistent information, prices and experiences across all channels including mobile, ecommerce, and in store ; and



• 17% — Inventory visibility and fulfillment across channels to meet customer expectations.



Respondents asked to select all that apply.