This past year has been overwhelming for retailers across the globe. In fact, many have had to become more innovative than ever before—they’ve grown their eCommerce operation and maximised marketing as they expand their product lines and customer base.
When retailers are trying to build their eCommerce efforts or stretch their marketing capabilities, their success is dependent on one thing: Data quality.
Our 2021 Global data management report shows that 72 percent of business leaders say better data insight could have helped improve the response to the pandemic.
With the right information, retailers can know who their customers are, where their customers live, and their preferred channel of communication. Our latest research reported that 75 percent of businesses say they’ve seen a dramatic change in their consumers’ behavior during the pandemic. Accurate consumer data helps you keep up with these shifts.
However, your time is limited, and you need the data now to make the best decisions for your organisation. It’s possible to get the best of both worlds. Introducing: Data-driven integrations.
Experian has partnered with companies like Salesforce, Microsoft and more eCommerce platforms that can automate your data collection and validation for online retail sales and marketing (A.K.A The perfect combo)—saving you time, money, and resources.
Andrew Abraham, Experian’s Global Managing Director of Data Quality, says in our latest research report, “From the efficiency of the customer experience online to the data that helps us analyse markets and attitudes changing at a dizzying pace, the right data has become indispensable.”
Want a head start on integrating data quality into your existing tech stack?
Learn how Experian can help you today.
How data integrations work together
Let’s start with eCommerce data integrations as this is where you are most likely capturing new customer data.
These integrations marry real-time contact data validation and your eCommerce checkout process to automate the data collection and validation process as the contact information is entered into each field.
The best way to think about this is putting yourself in your customer’s shoes. When you purchase a product online and go to checkout, you enter your shipping, billing, and credit card information into the form. If the platform asks you to confirm or verify your address, there is likely a backend integration between the eCommerce site you are on and data validation software. As a customer, think about the difference this makes during the online purchasing process—you can feel confident knowing that the retailer has the right information to deliver your package.
An eCommerce checkout form is one way to capture high-quality contact information before it even hits your database. This consumer data is then ready to use to fulfill the operational and marketing tactics.
Now that you have the information, think about how you can leverage this contact data in your automated marketing platform, like Salesforce Marketing Cloud.
Automating your marketing campaigns is a huge time saver. However, you may feel uneasy if you don’t know the quality of the contact information in your campaign database. For instance, if you are running an email campaign, there’s a good chance a handful of your emails are inaccurate in some way.
If your automated marketing platform is equipped with data validation, your confidence grows drastically as your email campaigns are sent to existing inboxes. In turn, this minimises your risk of being an unreputable sender and increases your marketing return on investment.
Benefits of data-driven integrations
Integrations equipped with data quality control go beyond saving you time, money, and resources. Here are the top benefits of having a data-driven integration:
- Deliver a seamless customer experience
By reducing keystrokes, the checkout process will be made easier. Furthermore, with accurate customer contact information, your organisation will confidently be able to reach your customers through multiple channels.
- Protect the integrity of your contact data
Invalid contact data can result in unnecessary costs. Automating data quality monitoring and verifying emails can ensure accuracy and deliverability for campaigns and more.
- Maximise colleague and customer satisfaction
Preferred contact data, like email, is essential to maintain strong relationships with customers.
- Increase marketing accuracy
With accurate customer contact data, users can reach customers via email, phone, or mail with confidence their campaign and sales messages will reach the right person at the right place in a timely manner.
- Cut operational costs
Leveraging accurate email data results in a higher ROI due to the reduced risk of bounced emails and spam traps.
Seventy-seven percent of business leaders say investing in data management initiatives today will help businesses better weather the next crisis, according to our 2021 Global data management research report. Integrating data quality control into your existing eCommerce and marketing tech stack will automate operations while increasing your marketing accuracy.
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