Using data effectively for the bigger picture

As the UK’s largest payment services company, our scale gives us a unique view of the UK marketplace – one which is becoming increasingly competitive and fast moving.

Because of this, in addition to the card payment reporting we provide to them, some of our large retail customers have approached us to see if our data could help provide them with greater insight into spending across channels.

As a result we developed Consumer Insights, a service that uses spending analysis to help businesses segment customer groups.

This allows them to gain a deeper understanding of how those groups spend or visit across their stores and critically, via benchmarking, allows them to understand and measure success against other anonymised peer groups in their industry.

Our customers can then use these insights to adjust their marketing approach to target specific consumer groups and then measure the success of those campaigns at a local or national level.

Optimising sales performance

Card payment data is becoming increasingly important for retailers. We all know that the retail sector is highly competitive, making valuable and measurable insight crucial in the battle to optimise sales performance.

The data need of retailers is therefore becoming more and more complex. Gartner predicts that by the end of this year most retailers will have moved from annual or quarterly research and analysis to daily analysis in order to meet the needs of their consumers.

“Loyalty and sales data are great at generating insight around what goes on when consumers are in their store, but it doesn’t tell them about their customers’ spending habits outside their stores”

Why is this? Well, companies with above average performance using customer data and analytics are said to generate two to three times more revenue than competitors (Harvard Business Review, March 2015).

The potential impact is significant. For businesses that do not have an existing loyalty scheme, Consumer Insights can help by using fact-based payment data to unlock deeper understanding of their customers.

Retailers that already use internal insights to inform their decision making, whether loyalty or sales data, can also benefit from Consumer Insights.

Loyalty and sales data are great at generating insight around what goes on when consumers are in their store, but it doesn’t tell them about their customers’ spending habits outside their stores.

We feel our Consumer Insights service addresses that gap. The data we provide to retailers helps them connect external data on consumer group spending habits and behaviour with customer groupings in their own stores.

Retailers can then assess and measure the impact of strategic changes and, crucially, whether the changes have attracted the target consumer group to spend more or visit more frequently.

Consumer behaviour

At Worldpay, we’ve seen particular interest from retailers with high volumes of customers across the UK that want to understand more about consumer behaviour – what they spend, where they spend it and whether different marketing campaigns are working.

We’ve helped a number of retailers with large store footprints to understand and measure store-to-store performance for different consumer segments following a specific marketing campaign.

“54% of consumers would consider ending their relationship with a retailer if they are not given tailor-made, relevant content and offers”

If marketing teams are able to ensure their campaigns are better targeted and more relevant to the type of customers they want to reach then the implications are clear.

Research by the CMO Council states that 54% of consumers would consider ending their relationship with a retailer if they are not given tailor-made, relevant content and offers.

What makes Consumer Insights so valuable is the ability to see a 360-degree view of customer segment spend behaviour that allows you to track and measure the success of campaigns in real terms.

As a result, payments data is becoming more and more appealing to retailers looking to capture the full customer journey.

To find out more, please go to worldpay.com/uk/consumer-insights or email us at insightservices@worldpay.com