By Glenn Taylor, Senior Editor
Two weeks ago when I attended Salesforce Connections in
Chicago, one major theme captured my attention: it is vital
to track, analyze and understand shopper data. “Data is the bedrock,” noted Heike Young, Manager of Industry
Strategy and Insights at Salesforce, in a panel discussion that continually
emphasized why today’s retailers won’t succeed without knowing the customer’s
every move.
It appears that successful brands are getting this message. Elite
performers — brand leaders that reported a revenue increase of at least 10% in the past fiscal year — focus on
data at nearly 2X higher rates than
underperformers across all areas, on average, according to the Salesforce-Deloitte
Consumer Experience Report.
As more retailers seek to achieve that elusive goal of
putting the customer at the center of every
interaction, it’s no doubt data is crucial — and these merchants are realizing
it. In fact, there will be a 3X increase
in demand for data scientists over the next three years, according to Rob Garf,
VP of Industry Strategy and Insights at Salesforce. H&M
is one of the latest examples of a retailer increasing its reliance on data
scientists, working with 200 (both internally and externally) to diversify the merchandise
in individual stores.
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But despite this influx of human intelligence, data
scientists won’t be the panacea for retailers, according to Garf. It all has to
be driven with a direct purpose, he said. Retailers may vary in how they define
the role of their data management capabilities, but they must build out a clear
strategy of what they’re looking to find
out about the consumer.
One of the most-referenced statistics throughout the event
highlighted the challenges in delivering this strategy. In total, the average
brand has 39 different front-end,
customer-facing systems working for them at once, ranging from POS, mobile,
call center, e-Commerce, email marketing, social and content management. Most
retailers are still in the middle stages of adopting a single platform to merge
this disparate data under one roof: 31%
are either creating a formal plan, developing a business case or seeking
budget. Only 11% of 550 brands
studied said they operated on a unified platform.
With Google
Integration, MuleSoft Acquisition, Salesforce Sets Out To Conquer Customer
Engagement
Platform unification is where Salesforce enters the picture.
The company spent a lot of time during the event sharing its new slew of tools
designed to further enrich the customer engagement process. Salesforce debuted
a new solution that combines the company’s Marketing Cloud platform with Google
Analytics 360, allowing users to leverage campaign data for tailored audiences
and unlock deeper customer insights.
The cloud commerce giant also unveiled its Integration Studio,
which consists of three platforms: The Integration Platform, Integration Builder
and Integration Experiences. The platform is essentially the offspring of
Salesforce and its recently acquired $6.5 billion subsidiary MuleSoft, and is
designed to deliver personalized experiences across channels (such as email,
social, mobile, digital ads or in-store kiosks) in response to real-time
signals from the customer’s actions.
Experiences come in the form of personalized offers — such
as a discount for shoes because a pair of shoes were placed in a shopping cart
on a web site but not purchased — that can be made through any channel
supported by the Salesforce platform. These offers can be automatically
coordinated with any ongoing campaigns, such as an email blast.
The addition of the Integration Studio on top of the
partnership with Google Analytics is a clear signal that Salesforce is
positioning itself as a do-it-all solution for all cloud-based personalization
needs — a development that would take the company well beyond its CRM roots.
Top Trailblazers Include
Lacoste, Samsonite
During the Commerce Cloud Keynote, Salesforce execs
highlighted numerous Trailblazers — members of which learn the Salesforce
Commerce Cloud program through a series of training courses. Trailblazers such
as Samsonite, Milk Makeup, Lacoste and Asics
Digital also have improved the customer experience and used data as a
competitive advantage via the platform.
In a video played during the
keynote, members of the Lacoste team shared that approximately 75% of its e-Commerce strategy is built
on Salesforce, while 8% of the
company’s revenue is driven by an in-store app driven by store associates.
“We can leverage great functionalities like the universal
cart, and we offer return in-stores anywhere,” said Olivier Peil, Group
Omnichannel Program Manager at Lacoste in the video. “We have a customized polo
[shirt] and we use Salesforce tools [to connect] all the touch points. I think
we’re the only company to build an entire polo on what the customer has chosen
— color, trims, the croc. It’s a unique product. Within an hour or so, it’s
made in a French factory and directly sent to the customer, so it’s a great
competitive advantage for Salesforce.”
