Joel Warady

Retailers Still Working on CRM

January 5, 2010

FROM RETAILWIRE:
Retailers 'get' the need for customer relationship management (CRM) but many, if not most, have not quite gotten the hang of making it work to its fullest potential, according to a piece on the CRM Buyer website. What is your assessment of the state of CRM in retail marketing today?      [more...]

The article is correct. Retailers still do not grasp the importance of CRM, nor do they execute their programs correctly. Look at what Amazon does. They are a perfect example of a customer centric company. The emails that are sent to their consumers are personalized, customized based on the customer's purchasing history, relevant, and expected. Compare this to the way retailers still market their products. They hold generic store-wide sales for the masses, with the same offer being made to all customers. That is no way to manage relationships.

When Walmart says that they feel eventually they can beat Amazon at online sales, they simply don't understand the power of understanding the customer, building a relationship on a one-to-one basis, and then executing their strategy, one customer at a time. Traditional retailers have a long way to go before CRM becomes a true driving force for their companies.