Retail Week Live: Better insight needed to boost loyalty

Ruth Spencer, Boots director of loyalty and multichannel, warned that the modern era of retailing requires a deeper and more thorough understanding of customers.”If you don’t get that right you are bound to fail,” she warned.

Spencer cited the example of females over 60s. “Too many brands and retailers talk to these women as if they’re talking to their grandmothers,” she said. In reality, she said, they have a young mindset attuned to modern-day shopping habits. “These people have often been through higher education and are well travelled,” she said.

To boost loyalty across all customer segments, she added that there is more retailers can do to make their marketing to different customer segments more timely and more personalised, particuarly in light of customers’ rapidly evolving use of mobiles.

To make customer offers work better, she warned, retailers need to ensure robust investment in technology.