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Experian Data Quality continues to show our strength in the data quality market. We were recently named a Strong Performer in the Forrester Research December 2015 report: The Forrester Wave™: Data Quality Solutions, Q4 2015.

I believe this further demonstrates that we are providing our customers with products and services that help them get the most out of their data through easy-to-implement and easy-to-use software tools that enable anyone in the organization to gain data insight.

“No man ever steps in the same river twice for it is not the same river and he is not the same man.” - Heraclitus

While writing this 35,000 feet in the air, I’m thinking back on this quote said during the opening keynote session on the first day of Email Insider Summit, and it couldn’t be more true. This was my first EIS event—hosted by Media Post, to whom I owe a thank-you for a wonderfully run event—and I had no idea what to expect. What I realized after the end of this three-day event is that those in the email industry are some of the closest-knit, snarkiest, and most passionate group of people who could work in an industry. I came out of this event with a lot more knowledge than when I came in.

What is customer loyalty driven by? If you take a look at some of the companies today with the most successful loyalty programs, you would come to the conclusion that success in loyalty programs is the result of accurate data-driven insights.

Retailers focus on loyalty programs. Why? In an era when consumers have more control over their shopping experiences than ever before—with multiple digital channels and a 24/7 at-their-leisure shopping cycle—loyalty programs are an integral part of continuous engagement with, and being relevant to, the customer. They enable you to encourage and motivate your best consumers to keep purchasing your product or service.

The majority of companies today are using email as a key channel in their marketing practices. Most marketers are always looking for new trends or best practices to improve email content and delivery, all to increase consumer engagement with messages. And while those are worthwhile efforts, new Experian Data Quality research finds that many of us are falling short on the basic concept of email database maintenance.

You probably don't think about receipts very often (unless of course, you happen to be shopping at CVS where impressively long receipts are their thing). No one talks about receipts because it’s such a ubiquitous piece of transactional information that we don’t imagine purchases without it. Receipts are typically handed out in paper form at the end of any transaction; however, email and SMS receipts are growing in popularity.

Using these channels can do more than just reduce paper waste. By using emails and text messages to send receipts, your organization can engage, interact and offer your customers additional value through a medium with almost 100 percent open rates. Read this blog post to find out how the smartest businesses are using eReceipts and text receipts to their advantage as well as what they can improve on.

When your organization decides to start leveraging its data as an asset, the first thing you should do is build a data quality team. This team of people will be responsible for the quality of the data and the support of data quality activities and initiatives company-wide.

A lot of people traditionally think of data quality as a technical person’s concern. In reality, business users have a major part to play on the data quality team. We have seen many organizations start to understand the need for centralized data ownership with the rise of the Chief Data Officer (CDO). One of the first things that should be on a new CDOs agenda is building out a team of individuals that can help elevate data management and data quality on the corporate agenda. 

The Baymard institute has documented that the average online shopping cart abandonment rate is a whopping 68.53%. The reality is the usability issues that cause that number to be so high are largely aviodable. See the top 10 principles that should be utilized to reduce shopping cart abandonment rates.