Personalization has been a key driver of retail success for a number of years. Today, user data serves as a crucial enabler of personalized experiences. 82% of customers are comfortable in sharing their personal information with retailers for customized experiences. However, they have become more conscious about who they share their data with and how their data is used.

Last year, 70% of customers in Latin and South America claimed that their purchasing decisions are based on a retailer’s reputation for data protection. In fact, 40% admitted that they stopped purchasing from companies that violated data privacy laws, or just their digital trust. It is clear that retailers who fail to safeguard their customers’ data can lose their loyalty.

Data breaches have serious consequences. They impact consumer trust and bring financial, reputational, and legal implications. Retailers may be forced to pay huge penalties and suffer reputational and financial damage. Retailers must be able to mitigate these risks, and technology can play a pivotal role in helping them achieve that.

Mitigating Risks

To protect data privacy, retailers should take into account some actions beforehand. Cybersecurity training for employees and deploying a wider cybersecurity solution are essential practices today. However, these may not be enough to protect against the increased threat surfaces. To ensure high-level security, retailers must select their individual retail solutions wisely too.

Retailers utilize customer relationship management (CRM) tools to manage and store customer data. These tools must be compliant with the legal requirements of watchdogs. Teamwork Commerce’s Secure CRM solution is GDPR compliant and uses the highest level of security to protect customer data.

Furthermore, the state-of-the-art technology keeps customer data secure in a separate repository, allowing associates, devices and other integrations to access the information as required. The advanced CRM allows retailers to store all data centrally and ensure that information is not revealed or imported to local devices and systems.

Driving Personalization

Consumer habits and preferences continue to evolve, and retailers must ensure that the experiences they curate are valuable for their customers. They must use the latest solutions to reach their goal. These solutions can work with a retailer’s retail technology stack.

Teamwork Commerce’s all-encompassing software serves as a one-stop-shop solution for retailers, offering a variety of retail tools. These include a mobile point-of-sale system, secure customer relationship management, data analytics, order management, and Clienteling.

What’s more, the solution facilitates a clear retail vision in one place and makes it easy for retailers to track data and develop new strategies. At an individual store level, with this real-time data at their fingertips, store associates can answer customer queries and offer customized discounts accurately and quickly.

Taking a 360-Degree Approach

Personalizing customer experiences is essential. However, retailers must not put consumer data privacy at stake in order to achieve that. The retail sector is a primary target for cybercriminals who are looking for opportunities to penetrate and steal customer data. Retailers who skimp on securing this data can easily become vulnerable to potential cyberattacks.

Retailers must take a holistic approach that covers all aspects of their business. Retailers’ strategies and solutions should work together to ensure long-term success. This includes driving personalization, managing supply chain efficiency and ensuring high-level security.

Want to prioritize data privacy while still being able to tailor customer experiences? Get in touch.

Consumer demands are at the heart of retail and being able to cater to these efficiently helps retailers drive sales. However, retailers who want to thrive in the long-term must understand that customer values are just as important as their demands. Of course, these values differ from generation to generation and retailers must be able to navigate their priorities as consumer preferences continue to evolve. For example, with the growing purchasing power of Gen Z, colloquially known as Zoomers, retailers who are able to win their trust will ensure long-term success as they become an increasingly dominant customer.

Zoomers are highly conscious about the impact their purchasing decisions have on the environment. According to Statista, 62.7% of Gen Z consumers care about tracking their environmental impact, with 75% ranking environmental sustainability as a top factor in their purchasing decisions. It is clear that environmental impact is becoming a significant priority for today’s consumer, and retailers must find ways to minimize their carbon footprint, and establish greener operations.

Technology can play a prominent role in delivering this. From supply chain management to in-store services, retailers can harness the power of advanced solutions to become more environmentally sustainable by making a few considerate adjustments. 

Going Green With Effective Forecasting    

As a consequence of ineffective forecasting, retailers often face situations where they have either run out of stock, or have an overabundance of it. The former has a negative impact on sales, whereas the latter unnecessarily increases waste. The additional emissions created from manufacturing, transporting and storing these products further impact the environment negatively.

To be able to forecast effectively, retailers must have clear visibility of their inventory and wider retail operations in real-time. Teamwork Commerce’s Inventory Management solution allows retailers to gain dynamic control over their inventory with just a tap of a button.

Going beyond automation and real-time reporting, the state-of-the-art solution provides customized recommendations to retailers based on their historical data and ongoing trends. These personalized reports enable retailers to order appropriate items, at the right time and in a suitable quantity – all of which ultimately helps them boost efficiency and reduce waste and carbon footprint.

What’s more, the solution can be integrated with in-store point-of-sale (POS) systems to also help in-store associates make more informed decisions. With 87% of Zoomers wanting a personalized shopping experience, the right POS technology can help store associates customize experiences, having all relevant information at their fingertips.

Enhancing the Value of In-Store Shopping

In addition to providing the ultimate in-store customer experience, retailers must put sustainability at the core of their bricks and mortar operations to win Zoomers’ trust. They can achieve this in a number of ways, whether by rewarding customers who bring their own recyclable shopping bags, or promoting paperless transactions leveraging mobile POS (mPOS) solutions, retailers need to adopt ways to prioritize sustainability at every single touchpoint.

Retailers can leverage Teamwork Commerce’s cutting-edge POS solution to visualize customer purchasing habits across all sales channels and segment customers. This can further enable retailers to create exclusive discounts and rewards for customers who bring their own recyclable shopping bags.

What’s more, retailers can create individual customer profiles from the POS solution and keep their order receipts stored in the cloud to promote paperless transactions. This also eliminates the hassle of carrying receipts to exchange an item or process returns for customers.

Preparing for the Future

Zoomers are expected to remain a key generation for retailers, and those who meet their demands and values can put themselves in a winning position. In a fiercely competitive retail industry, it is essential that retailers begin to transform their traditional approaches based on the values of Gen Z. Moreover, becoming more sustainable at its core enables retailers to reach corporate social responsibility (CSR) goals more easily.

Retailers should go the extra mile to reduce their carbon footprint, not only to appeal to consumers, but also to play their wider role benefiting the environment. Leveraging technology to its full potential can help retailers create environment-friendly choices for customers, which can ultimately put them at a competitive advantage.

Need a hand in sourcing the right solution for your business? 

Teamwork Commerce is a flexible tech stack for retailers that includes POS, OMS, Clienteling, Inventory Control and Reporting – a cloud-based system that is constantly evolving to provide cutting-edge technology to meet the needs of the ever-changing retail landscape. With Teamwork’s omnichannel solution, retailers gain a deeper understanding of their customers to provide personalized experiences through invisible technology.

Trusted by top retailers globally including, Moose Knuckles, Colorado Rockies, Asics, Milwaukee Bucks, and Catbird. 

Learn more at www.teamworkcommerce.com.