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I think it’s safe to say that there are at least two thousand fifty-four point seven initiatives that retailers are planning and budgeting for. But there are a few that stand out: 1) Micro-moments, aka what everyone knew about already but Google coined into one phrase, 2) Mobile payments, or trying to reduce that forsaken cart abandonment rate, and 3) a 360° customer view, or making sure Jon, John, and Juan are just one Jon who’s interested in your suits.

Ray Wright, our Director of Demand Generation, and I teamed up to discuss what we thought should be the top priorities for retailers in the near future through the lens of those three focuses listed above. And of course, we brought it back to data quality because that’s what we do best.

Trees have a wise way of teaching us quite a lot. In fact, there is a popular poem that can be found on everything from stationary to posters alike that puts into words all of these reminders that a tree can give.

Becoming the world’s greatest bank is no easy task. But that’s exactly what this bank hopes to accomplish through its world-class services and excellent customer experience. The bank serves over 225,000 personal and commercial customers at its 150 stores across the Pacific Northwest, from Oregon to California.

Experian Data Quality recently got back from CS Week 40 in Phoenix, Arizona. CS Week is the premier utility customer service conference for professionals at electric, gas, and water utilities. With more than 150 exhibitors, 60+ workshops, and three and a half days to network and connect with utility executives, CS Week is what our team likes to call, "the Catalina Wine Mixer of utilities."

There were three key takeaways from CS Week this year: data, demos, and Diamondbacks. 

If you’ve ever wandered around our blog and landed yourself onto my blog bio, you’ll know that I am a marketer. My handle on industry insight is pretty good (if I do say so myself), but it’s not the same as getting out there and getting feedback from customers themselves—that’s where our sales reps enter the scene.

I chatted with three of our most senior retail sales reps—with Ecommerce platform, software integration, and enterprise-level retailer experience—and recorded their insights to share with you. In this blog post, you’ll learn:

• How frequently you should cleanse your data
• What retailers are currently doing to manage customer data
• What technologies retailers are investing in

What is the mobile phenomenon in retail?

What we’ve found over the course of the last three to four years is that more purchases have come over mobile than ever before. At least 45 percent of the time, shoppers are using their mobile devices to make educated decisions, do research, and purchase items quickly and easily. And they want to do it on their terms.

The vast majority of people are shopping on mobile devices now, and between iPads, iPhones, and Androids, people are so accustomed to using their phone that it’s not just a piece of equipment, it’s an extension of themselves. You have, for the first time ever, a generation where the use of technology as an integral part of everyday life is the norm. In fact, 80 percent of all babies today will be born to millennial mothers.

Innovators, connectors, and creatives dispersed throughout the city of Boston for yesterday’s first annual MassTLC NewCo Boston event. Attendees toured the offices of members of the tech community, understanding the ideas, tools, and people that make these organizations exceptional. In reflecting on what I learned throughout the day, each session came back to something that we live and breathe by here at Experian Data Quality: it’s all about the story you tell.

What was GSI Commerce? GSI Commerce was the Ecommerce and payments platform acquired by eBay Enterprise a number of years ago. The great thing about GSI for its customers is that it had feature functions inherently built into the platform. So their retailer customers didn’t need to think about their add-ons, because GSI did a good job of handling it for them. Some examples of their add-ons were address validation, tax calculations, etc.

Today is National Telephone Day, serving as a day to celebrate the first telephone. While thinking of that first telephone, I look down at the mobile phone in my hand, an item I would be close to powerless without. I think of the growth and innovation around telephone technology and how today’s reliance on these objects compares to the time of their inception in 1876. I believe the evolution of the telephone has a similar story to something we are growing more dependent on every day: data quality.

That’s right, retail marketers. I’m calling you out. You all say you care about better customer data; you say you want to really understand your customer base; you may even give both pinky toes to get to the unicorn that is the single customer view. But here’s the thing: I don’t see people stepping up to actually invest in the things that make those wishes a reality.