To Stay Relevant, Stores Need To ID Customers As They Come Through The Door

According to Boston Retail Partners’ 18th Annual POS/Customer Engagement Survey, retailers are still struggling to find the best way to identify customers as they walk through their doors. More than 500 top North American retailers were contacted in November and December of 2016 for the survey. Seventy percent of retailers indicate customer identification is their top customer engagement priority, up from 62 percent last year. Currently, however, most retailers still use “traditional methods” to identify customers which entail the customer providing information at the point of checkout. More than 80 percent use the customer’s telephone number, name/address and e-mail for identification, with about half using a loyalty or credit card. Boston Retail Partners noted that first identifying the customer at checkout puts the in-store experience a step behind online, where website visitors immediately receive personalized offers and recommendations based on their purchase and browsing history. Read more at Forbes.