Most stores are not short of marketing activity. They are short of meaningful customer engagement.
Many stores have only a small share of their local community shopping with them. That creates an obvious growth challenge, but it also points to a more immediate opportunity. Retailers may not need to rely only on expensive new customer campaigns if they can get more value from the customers who already know them, trust them and buy from them.
The top 10% of customers drive 40% of revenue and 60% of profit. A retailer that cannot identify and engage its best customers is leaving value exposed. These customers are already profitable. Getting just 20% of them to shop twice more per year can have a bigger impact than chasing new customers through broad campaigns.
Regular customers, described as the next 30%, can also be encouraged to shop more often. The point is not to keep discounting. Discounts can protect footfall in the short term, but they can also reduce margin and weaken price discipline. The better approach is to recognise customers, reward them properly and make the retailer the natural place to return to.
Together, these two groups represent 40% of customers and more than 80% of profits. That is why customer engagement is an operational issue, not just a marketing issue. Retailers need to know who their best customers are, what they buy, where they shop and what will bring them back. Without that single view, engagement becomes fragmented and the retailer risks treating valuable customers like anonymous footfall.
This is the problem itim-UNIFY is built to solve. It gives retailers one view of every customer across every channel, with engagement built into the platform rather than added on afterwards.
itim Group plc (LON:ITIM) is a SaaS-based technology company that enables store-based retailers to optimise their businesses to improve financial performance and effectively compete with online competitors. Itim adds retail value by helping multi-channel retailers optimise their business and their stores to improve financial performance and compete more effectively with the “Amazons”.
