Personalization vs. Privacy: Striking the Right Balance in Retail

Retailers are entering a new era of marketing strategies in which personalization significantly increases brand awareness and customer loyalty. On one hand, it has countless benefits for retail business growth. On the other hand, maintaining an equilibrium between personalization and privacy is to be considered seriously to avoid misusing customer data.

Customers always want a seamless shopping experience no matter whether it is an online store/app or a physical store. If they are not satisfied with the shopping experience they are getting from the brand they have currently chosen for purchasing products, then without a second thought they will search for another one that can provide a better user experience than the previous one. So retailers around the world are now conscious about the fact of customer personalization and user experience, and they are implementing different strategies to satisfy their customers and retain them as loyal customers for a long time.

What is personalization in Retail?

Personalization includes collecting customer data (personal information and social data), shopping journeys, etc. through surveys, forms, and data that customer directly provides through apps while checking out, etc. This data is used to provide more tailored products and services to each customer according to their preferences and needs. Once the data is collected, the retailers will keep connected with that client by providing personalized promotions and offers. This will help the retailer to boost sales and customer loyalty.

A deeper analysis of customer data which includes previous purchase history, shopping behavior, demographic behavior, etc. will be used to decide what kind of promotions or offers will work for that particular customer. This kind of targeted marketing can be done with the help of deep insights from an advanced POS system, in-store analytics software (for brick-and-mortar stores), or real-time event tracking (for online). With the use of machine learning and artificial intelligence, customer data can be collected and analyzed for the betterment of the retail business.

How to keep the right balance between personalization and privacy in retail?

According to the customer data protection law, collecting customer data without their concern is illegal. So retailers have to follow certain guidelines while consumer data collection. Retailers must be aware of these rules and regulations and must ensure that they are following laws and regulations properly.

Retailers have an ethical commitment to protect consumer data and to use that data responsibly and ethically. Retailers must be transparent about how they use consumer data and be prepared to respond quickly and effectively if any kind of data breach occurs.

           Finding the right balance between privacy and personalization is a tough task and that has to be done effectively. Retailers are responsible to protect customer data. Transparency is the primary thing to take care of while collecting data. The customers have the right to know what retailers are going to do with the collected data. There should be options for customers to select what kind of information can be collected. Retailers have to implement proper security technology to encrypt collected data to avoid any kind of misuse.

 By following these things, retailers can build trust among the customers, which will help them to grow their brand into more customers.