On Thursday 20th April, the Trigg Digital team teamed up with Salesforce to host an exclusive retail media event with market leaders and disruptors, to talk about how UK businesses are leveraging data to fuel growth and reinvent the consumer experience. Keep reading to learn some of the key insights we shared.

What’s the big deal with retail media?

One of the first things covered in the event – hosted by Abigail Byre, Salesforce’s Regional Vice President – Retail, and our CEO, Steven Paul – were the changes to today’s retail and data landscape with the question pondered;

There’s been a big shift in recent years, thanks to low margins caused by inflation, and ecommerce’s growing share of the market. Online sales counted for 14.3% of total retail sales in Q1 2022 – a huge increase from Q1 2019 when it was just 10%. First-party data is far more valuable than ever before, a result of the deprecation of third-party cookies and the increased pressure on companies to protect consumers’ private data.

Retailers are beginning to see the potential that first-party data can provide, especially when it comes to driving customer value. First-party data can help retailers to increase both their own revenue and suppliers’ revenue. When it comes to retailers, first-party data such as user demographics, contact information, search and transaction history, and even the devices they use can help them to offer customers a more personalised experience, increasing customer loyalty and lifetime value. New research has shown that 65% of consumers will remain loyal to companies if they offer more personalised experiences. Retail media isn’t something completely new – it’s an evolution of search advertising and online advertising, but it’s come a long way, and retailers should take advantage of this strategy if they want to stay one step ahead.

Meeting growth expectations is not easy; it requires a careful strategy, expertise and a suite of new capabilities. The retailer, brand and customers’ journey can be fractured, new advertising technologies are constantly emerging, service expectations are high, and there’s increasing pressure to maximise return on ad spend. 

So just how can you deliver a profitable, connected and consistent experience?

Dynamic interoperable workflow management is fundamental to delivering a frictionless experience for customers, retails and brands, to achieve this you must invest in the following areas…

How you… 

… Sell media and manage relationships

… Segment, target, forecast and manage inventory

… Orchestrate and optimise omni-channel campaigns

… Track, measure and deliver valuable customer insights

… Reconcile delivery actuals, invoicing and accounting

How to establish and scale a retail media network

One brand that’s building a sustainable and scalable retail media network is John Lewis Partnership, the largest employee-owned business in the UK with over 21 million customers a year and 8+ million loyalty members. The brand has a huge range of media touchpoints, from print and onsite media to events and social media, out of home and in store point of sale, enabling them to reach customers across their shopping journey and offer a seamless and connected experience.

Jemma Haley from John Lewis Partnership talked about the key learnings on the journey so far. Firstly, to ensure long-term success, retail media must be a strategic top-down priority with a clear vision and accountability. To be as effective as possible, it needs to be integrated across various teams, who all need to be aligned on how they can support retailer trade, customer marketing, and the brand’s overall needs. Also, retail media propositions should all be designed to deliver ‘win win win’ outcomes, which help the customer find what they need, the retailer grow their sales, and the brand understand the impact of the campaign. It’s pivotal that retailers underpin their proposition with customer insights to fuel media sales and planning. Not only can these insights help to measure the impact of campaigns, but they can also help target new potential customers.

The importance of a robust data and partner strategy

Ben O’Mahoney from Ocado was up next a share a perspective on how UK Retail Media has evolved since 2016 from his days at Sociomantic from Dunnhumby to the first party data market shift fast-tracked by GDPR and Ocado’s latest partnership announced in March with the Trade Desk.

Brands in the UK and across Europe have had to be more innovative in how they approach first-party data, because of data privacy laws like GDPR.

It’s important that retailers embarking on a retail media journey think carefully about their data strategy. They need to monetise with meaning and think carefully about how to utilise their assets and their first-party data. Not only do brands need to drive sales, but they also need to enhance the customer experience. Quality is more important than quantity, after all. This kind of approach lies at the heart of a new kind of strategic partnership model between both brands and retailers. 

When it comes to retail media networks, if they’re built on a foundation of privacy and transparency, brands are more likely to improve their relationships with their customers – retail media networks should be built with the customer in mind. 

At the end of the presentation, we were joined by Henry Eccles from Google to share his insights on the retail and consumer goods industry. Through the panel and subsequent Q&A session, we had the opportunity to learn more about our speakers, their professional journey, and their knowledge of retail media, including their predictions for the future.

The demand for retail media networks is huge across the world, and although setting one up can be complex, the benefits speak for themselves.

Whether it’s through enhanced analytics capabilities, understanding consumer demand, or leveraging consumer data – here at Trigg Digital, our retail-media team with all the skills and industry knowledge they need to help set up, scale up or improve your retail media network.

To find out more about how to unlock the power of first-party data and launch your own retail media network, or to learn about our next event, get in touch.

+44 203 239 8492

hello@triggdigital.com 

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