Insight

Get Ahead of Fluctuating Market Dynamics with a Customer Data Platform

It takes a lot to market, sell, and get products into the hands of customers. Marketing targets and captures customers through relevant advertising and outreach. Digital shapes the user experience and manages the data that underpins those campaigns. Technology manages the e- commerce platform. Customer services handles customer queries and aims to improve satisfaction. Supply chain gets the products where they need to go. But does each entity know what the other is doing?

When these efforts happen in silos, there is no single picture of problems to solve or opportunities to seize. For instance, if marketing runs a promotion in collaboration with the supply chain team, they’ll be ready to handle a spike in volume. If the logistics team informs customer service if there’s a break in the supply chain, they can be ready to field questions and appease customers who may not have received the product they ordered. Or if a high percentage of customers from a certain region browse a particular product or style, the company can ensure the right products are in stock at brick-and-mortar retailers.

In today’s competitive landscape, businesses must do all that they can to earn loyalty and deliver exceptional experiences. A customer data platform (CDP) allows a business to better target marketing activities across channels and share actionable intelligence throughout the enterprise.

Publicis Sapient worked with a large fashion retailer that was suffering the effects of silos between internal functions and systems. The business was investing marketing dollars in products that were actually costing the company money. For instance, one product had a high return rate due to challenges related to fit;. for every dollar the business spent, it was making 62 cents. Or marketing would run a promotion without informing fulfillment, creating delivery lags that can damage a company’s reputation and Net Promoter Score.

We worked with the client to create a CDP that housed all customer data. By having information from across internal functions in one place, the business began to discover several “a-ha” patterns that they were otherwise unable to see given the limitations of standard analytics platforms.

This CDP made it possible to identify top-selling products that were being returned at rates that made those items unprofitable. The retailer was able to connect ads and promotional events with inventory systems to avoid advertising low-inventory or out-of-stock products. They also eliminated shipping delays that led to unhappy customers. One very useful discovery was the ability to identify people who cost the company money by returning too many items, and then suppress them from receiving online promotions or access to perks such as free shipping.

Marketing dynamism is just one use case for having a CDP. Connecting customer data across internal silos allows a business to identify problems before they occur. It also reveals patterns that allow a retailer—or any business—to adapt in real time to fluctuations in customer behavior, market dynamics, production and delivery issues, and more. The connections begin with a CDP.