It’s Not Always About New Technology, Focus On Fundamentals
eCommerce director of Evidea, Ayşe Gedikli discusses several aspects of customer experience, technology and trends.
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“Understanding customer behaviour is crucial but not enough. So, it’s very important to have the best technologies but make sure that your feed is high quality. You can only recommend the best for the customer by knowing what you want to sell,” said Ayşe Gedikli, eCommerce Director, Evidea.
An experienced digital sales expert with a history of working in the retail industry, Gedikli talks about the significance of behavioural data, eCommerce trends, and the strategic approach towards customer loyalty.
Excerpts from the interview
What technology applications can improve customer loyalty?
From the retailer’s perspective, regardless of the channels you have, when a customer meets the brand, the goal is to support them in continuing the journey in the best way and make them come back or recommend us around. So, we are always looking for efficient and high-performing tools to support us. In this context, technology applications are flexible and easy tools to give a try. In my opinion, it doesn’t always have to be about the newest or the coolest technologies.
First, the brands should focus on the fundamentals, such as the existence of a convenient customer experience during the journey, searching-purchasing, and post-purchase phases. After securing the basics, there are several tools to improve customer loyalty. We know that the more engaged relations, the more loyal customers you have. So, we focus on giving this opportunity via these tools. AR application helps with product presentation, conversation applications for answering the questions and steering the sales, recommendation engines for a better experience, and loyalty programs where we reward and encourage the customers.
How can behavioural data enable customers to get smart recommendations?
This is a very common way of segmentation. Not only on the website and mobile apps, but we can track and merge customers’ behaviour on the sales transactions data, CRM systems, or marketing systems. In this sense, maybe we can highlight how to do it smartly and strategically. Understanding customer behaviour is crucial but not enough. So, it’s very important to have the best technologies but make sure that your feed is high-quality. You can only recommend the best for the customer by knowing what you want to sell. Moreover, the recommendation will be optimum if you can simulate the possibilities.
To make it much clearer, here is a simple example: There is a marketplace offering more than 300 thousand SKUs, and a mother of a two-year-old has logged in. You know that she has been buying diapers every two weeks for two years. She always prefers the ones for extra-sensitive skins. But it’s been more than a month since she bought any. What would you recommend? Try to find the answers to these questions:
- What are the possibilities?
- Does the need for diapers disappear?
- Did she have a complaint about the last purchase?
- Or did she have a better deal?
- What can we recommend? A pair of diaper pants? A different brand? A discount coupon?
This is just an example of a persona and the possibilities about upcoming behaviour. So, working the data with this approach in your CRM systems may be a strategic way to do it. Apart from the relevance of a smart recommendation, I should also emphasise speed, being real-time or dynamic, and A/B testing quality.
Share some tips on choosing the right CRM.
Regardless of the channels, providing centralised and deduplicated customer data is the primary expectation from a simple CRM tool. Besides, flexible campaign management and an easy dashboard simplify the daily or monthly workload. Finally, the systems we use and the teams representing the system should be agile. Improving the existing setups or developing new features usually requires more than two parties. A lean project management process allows all parties to focus on strategies rather than hassles. A good CRM tool is expected to lower the churn, increase loyalty, and pay off its costs.
What trends and technologies can strengthen the blend of eCommerce and in-store shopping?
The omnichannel experience is more important than ever. This is what the customer expects, and leading companies are focusing on. So, the ambition has to align with our visions and the technologies we use to secure a seamless and convenient experience on offline and online touchpoints. This is something very easy to say but challenging to do and maintain. Under the vision of letting the online tools assist you in-store, having kiosks, omnichannel mobile apps, and contactless payment options are the basic actions. Moreover, according to the strategies and budgets, this concept may be improved due to the trends. For instance, live streaming from the stores, video calls with store salesmen, and social media engagement via influencers are the trends we will witness soon enough.
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