Making first party data work harder
Moderated by Wunderkind
Storytellers: Clarins, Harvey Nichols & Samsung

• Your email open rate is your most relevant KPI to assess your CR strategy
• How community can give you more data than just online adverts
• Use data to engage customers in more genuine ways that link to your brand purpose
• Create community through a sense of belonging, e.g. engage with and feel a part of the brand
• The need to understand how you’re acquiring customers to then understand how to use their data best.
• Use your community to enrich data. Everyone is still using popups to capture data!
• Allow brand advocates to run with ideas
• Community is powerful in collecting data and retaining it
• Interesting customer identification concept: monetising site traffic
• Make the data consent appealing
• Value exchange needed to yet qualify 1 st party data
• Data silos and legacy systems hamper process
• Membership as a loyalty tool is evolving
• 1st party data or 1st value?
• Is the cookie apocalypse really a threat?
• Hard to measure success
• Consider how to ensure we’re not “over-using” or “exhausting” our 1st party data asset
• CRM teams are not only marketing or eCommerce, but assisting all parts of the business
• Holistic view = analysis + insight
• KPI including NPS – beyond just profit 
• 1st party data becomes more valuable when amplified with other data sourcing 
• Customer data is key – sharing is everything 
• Must collect NPS at each site stage 
• Ideas for gathering data at checkout 

Building trust and emotional connections
Moderated by Empathy
Storytellers: Boden, G Star Raw & Thistle Digital

• Great after sales support creates trust. Good recovery is so important
• Trust is a feeling, it can be evoked through control and transparency
• Reassurance through the whole customer journey is important  – you will recover minimum purchase if it goes wrong
• Trust is frequently broken where there are errors and friction during an omnichannel experience
• We need to learn to be more transparent
• Trust and control don’t need to be in conflict
• Decentralising is next… it’s not scary it’s just evolution
• Need to find that balance between healthy privacy and enough control
• Data of emotion
• Trust can’t be measured
• Authenticity
• Trust leads to LTV (lifetime value)
• Does every brand need to have an altruistic story to gain customer trust?
• Go back to the reason the brand was born, the authentic story 
• Respect customer data and don’t ignore things you can’t measure
• Listen to customers, understand what’s on their mind and build that into your storytelling to them
• Build a connection
• Remember we all sell to people – they need/want trust, empathy, authenticity
• Don’t bow to authority
• More difficult to maintain the trust of customers
• Customers are subjects not objects
• The difference between trust and emotion
• Emotional intelligence and the future of consumer trust, 1 st party and more
• Transparency and honesty
• Balance data and trust

Resilience in Retail
Moderated by Stripe
Storytellers: Simple Human, Bamboo Clothing & Value Retail

• Flexibility
• Pivot!!
• Re-selling is the future
• Sustainability as an opportunity
• Opportunity for resale
• 70% of luxury retail is resell.
• Outlet, omnichannel, re-use second-hand manufacturing
• Flexibility, creativity
• People 1st, hope, resolution 
• Tracking where sustainability messages have moved in last year in hierarchy 
• Outlets, omnichannel, re-use 2nd hand marketplaces
• Are our operating models fit for the future?
• Demonstrate your profit focus
• B2B brands have been forced to go D2C. Are they at risk of over-committing?
• Temper your expectations of growth!
• You need the buy-in of your staff!
• Invest in the right people to remain resilient
• Growth planning and budgeting are very complicated post-covid
• Building resilience means investing in your teams and in new, more flexible operating models.
• Ability to change fast is key to long-term resilience
• Beta businesses/Supply chain/D2C/Experimental retail
• Supply chain challenges = forecasting + pressure
• Difficult to maintain agility post covid lockdown
• Flexibility is key. Continue to be brave post covid
• Be more focused with faster action plans
• Flexibility of planning and execution… in spite of constant changes you must stay true to your brand
• Keeping up the pace of innovation will be a challenge after covid
• Is there a new normal?
• Question everything
• Transformation into the new ways of working are essential
• Focus on flexibility and culture
• Use covid as a chance to question everything
• Keep the habit of fast decision making – be ruthless on what is important

Removing friction from the shopper journey
Moderated by Fast
Storytellers: Benefit Cosmetics & Stanley, Black + Decker

• If you can hit customers with a one click buy checkout option at the moment they encounter the brand it would be ideal
• An amazing user experience can be massively ruined by a clunky checkout and turn customers away, they want to just click and buy
• International and translations – mix of machine translations and human tuneups seems best for efficiency and accuracy
• A better online experience will future proof you
• Not a matter of just transacting – but need to make the last transaction point as seamless as possible
• Losing the physical in 2020 was tough and checkout causes the most friction online
• Brexit also caused a big price point stop – how can we overcome this at checkout
• Friction is different for every business and is difficult to measure 
• Friction is not one thing
• Payment options and data capture are key
• Meet the customer where and how they want to be met. Speed = convenience
• Experience / reduction in payment methods… building a network is important
• Live chat & Video are great for removing friction and helping the customer
• Have to learn how to streamline the checkout experience to empower the consumer
• Data & tools
• Some customers have decided before they even visit your site – allow them to transact easily
• Hard to gauge how the customer is impacted by different friction points 
• Different businesses have different “frictions” – you should know the customer expectations
• Customer friction vs commercial friction
• Internal friction and external friction is just as important to the customer 
• If you’ve got your checkout right you’ve sorted your main friction
• Friction is relative: find the right moment that matters most to the consumer
• Smarter, faster, swifter, frictionless check-out = guaranteed uptake in conversion
• Be where your customer wants to shop – and it’s not necessarily your website
• How can we decide if behaviour is good or bad?

Demand forecasting and planning
Moderated by Peak
Storyteller: Robert Dyas

• Forecasting supply is critical
• It’s never been harder to forecast forward
• It’s never too late to ask!
• Data is key but what to do once we have it to optimise opportunities?
• Traditional buying and merchandising still core to demand planning
• Online data informing store merchandising 
• Bringing more data sources together to turn into insight and decision making
• How to forecast using AI for continuity and seasonality
• AI will improve the forecast and plan. The “old” methodology of forecasting isn’t working in current situation
• The utopian challenge of combining: buying, customer, forecasting

Unifying and activating customer data
Moderated by Blueshift
Storytellers: Fruugo & Crew Clothing

• Create supplier/brand cohorts
• Be aware of internal data silos
• How can we focus on the data outputs rather than the input?
• Use data for actions
• Keep customer data simple – hard to know what the output is – this is key to start with
• Return of QR codes – could be used and build loyalty if unique
• You must be able to organise data in order to utilise it
• Post covid there is a new normal. Thing that you thought were temporary are now permanent
• Important to know what to do to activate customer data
• Unification of data should be utilised beyond commerce, i.e demand planning /product
• Pandemic experiences progressing post pandemic
• QR codes are back…
• Data is valuable only if shared internally
• Key focus should be understanding the goal of data implication fast. Implementation should follow

Getting the biggest bang for your marketing buck
Moderated by Tapestry
Storytellers: Bamboo Clothing & Biscuiteers

• The many ways to track marketing 
• Best way to collect data
• Click stream analysis for brand journey to customer
• Incrementally testing to understand channel attribution
• Consider regional tests as a means to measuring incrementality
• Think about regionalised testing to measure ROI when transaction isn’t owned
• Attribution is difficult for all, but test test test and you’ll make it clearer
• Clickstream analytics to understand long term attribution
• Work with the tapestry agency(!)
• Don’t be afraid to turn things off
• Incrementality can be achieved, be brave and turn things off
• Find better attribution methods
• Don’t measure everything in google analytics
• You can turn off affiliates
• Don’t be afraid to turn off and test paid for channels
• QR code at till for data capture/attribution

Connecting online & offline
Moderated by Emarsys
Storyteller: COOK Foods

• Attribution of offline campaigns
• Online – offline. Capturing data – is it through brand loyalty or transactional (eg. discount)
• The benefit of surprise and delight
• Gifting / samples – hard to see attribution but building brand love has a £ value
• Customer data acquisition is possible where there is brand trust and creativity
• Challenge of attribution – not just across channels, but all initiatives, e.g. free samples
• Removing data silos, data capture in physical stores, define the why and the information exchange balance 
• There is a path to offline and online understanding
• Very hard to attribute in store sales from online customers
• Linking offline to online – attribution is key! Can we have data moving in both directions, adding value?
• Data capture: what is the value trade off – why should I identify?
• VIPs sending samples/gifts has a huge impact (halo effect) on sales through word-of-mouth marketing

The role of the store in the future of shopping
Moderated by Blue Yonder
Storytellers: Gentle Monster & Crew Clothing

• Customer experience can come first
• Get more robots
• Future shopping – no CRM data, just experience, experiencing experience in stores
• Focus on the experience first – product second
• Bring customer experience to store using technology through mobile, e.g. customer reviews product info
• Retail experience should be driven by brand values/vision
• Don’t think of online and offline as separate channels – promote/provide a seamless customer journey
• Find out more about endless aisle 
• Stores – some will have more, some less, some staying the same.
• Forecasting with multiple outputs
• Location will dictate the role of the store
• How to effectively manage stock levels with delivering, in store and click and collect models
• There is a future for stores being able to support the rest of the business with stock being key
• Fulfil from store. Benefit to create agility between channels
• It is still a mystery what the future of the store looks like!
• Store still relevant. Retailers are not generally looking to close stores over the next 5 years.
• Opportunity to aid stock flexibility during period of challenging forecasting

Personalised product discovery
Moderated by Attraqt
Stories from: Lovehoney & adidas

• Data science & business creates a stronger collaboration
• Personalisation in key to product discovery and showing the right products
• AI recommendation should be based on your behaviour – so not 1 algorithm fits all
• Personalisation based on customer segmentation and enabling different decisions to be made
• Personalisation should be used with care and respect. It’s not just about £, remember the brand impact
• Every customer journey is different, must remember this at all times
• How do we tailor recommendations to customer groups and funnel stages
• AI can conflict with best practices from merchandisers
• Brand values vs commercial goals is a delicate balance

Building confidence in your tech investment strategy
Moderated by Thistle Digital

• Should platform hamper tech innovation
• Try to align objectives across teams before tech discussions
• Transparency of project
• Differentiation between pitches
• How do we decide what to build or what to buy?
• Assessing tech: refrain, refresh, retire, replace
• Tech being up to date with a support method to the brand
• Data – what to do with it, optimise it and align the partner to do the job
• Question over org design and decision making re: ecommerce and tech strategy
• Legacy systems often have legacy values
• Where do we start? Who do we start with?
• Define the business needs early! Before speaking to vendors

Tools to drive loyalty
Moderated by Virgin Media

• Emotive response to a brand drives loyalty
• Important to increase frequency of purchase – one of the main focuses
• Brand awareness is more of a loyalty driver than a lot of other potential channels for halfords
• How do we measure loyalty in different segments/groups?
• Are customers loyal or are we just convenient for them? 
• Loyalty can be learned
• How do we test loyalty programmes before initiating them?
• What shop per year frequency is the right to aim for? How do we measure this?
• Active consideration is an early indicator of potential loyalty
• Loyalty is an emotional role, not just monetary
• Loyalty depends on sector, product and willingness to consider
• How do we define loyalty? Must consider transactional loyalty vs. emotional affinity
• If customer retention is over a longer time frame, how can you make sure the customer continues being an advocate?
• Loyalty is having an infinity with a brand

Intelligent customer segmentation
Moderated by Peak
Storyteller: Joules

• Hindsight, insight, foresight
• Understanding AI/data points connection
• Keep segmentation open to allow customers to move from one to another as their needs change
• Utilising customer data across the org is fundamentally about people
• Segmentation should be based on need/use etc. not traditions. Data helps to inform.
• Find the balance between human decision making vs informed ? driven by real data
• Let marketing/digital teams influence buying teams
• Tie up marketing and merchandising
• Track ? and frequency of each segment over time
• Marketing should steer merch discussions
• Segmentation must be paired with use. Value is ? when segmentation can drive decision making effectively