How data quality can help optimize delivering goods during the pandemic

The impact of the COVID pandemic is being felt across industries but one industry has been hit particularly hard—the retail industry. Since Amazon entered the market years ago, most brick and mortar retailers have already added an e-commerce platform as an extension to their operation. With the onset of COVID-19, non-essential, brick and mortar stores were forced to rely exclusively on their e-commerce platform, which left them with a declining bottom-line and customer experience.

Varying state and government stay-at-home orders mean consumers and retailers are limited to digital purchasing and selling, requiring a new level of concierge service. To adhere to the new way of shopping, retailers have been thinking outside-the-box by offering curbside pickup. Although some retailers, like Amazon, have been practicing an innovative way to deliver goods through buy online, pick up in store partnerships (BOPS) for years, many other retailers still struggle to adapt to the changing retail landscape.

New technology is needed as retailers re-evaluate the approach of how people will shop in a COVID-19 world. E-commerce platforms and existing databases will now serve as essential components to understand consumer expectations as they adapt to a time of crisis. The engagement model is shifting, and it necessitates retailers to shift with it.

Experian is here to help retailers, like you, easily shift to this new market by improving customer loyalty, package delivery, and overall customer experience with modern e-commerce technology.

Our e-commerce technology equips retailers with automatic data entry and validation to alleviate shopping cart abandonment and ensure accurate customer contact data is entering the database at all times. In addition:

Creating an easier check-out process means you offer a better customer experience and more transactions, leading to revenue growth.
Capturing accurate contact data means you stay connected with customers to build loyalty now and in the future.
Equipping the distribution team with correct addresses means your customer receives their package on time, saving time and costs on return mail.

There are countless ways accurate contact data can help retailers better understand their customers that in turn can promote stronger loyalty and more transactions. With the rapidly changing market landscape we are facing today, validated customer contact information can allow retailers to very quickly respond to market shifts and challenges.

See how Experian helped big-time, multinational beauty company, Shiseido, improve their customer experience with data quality—check it out!

As companies navigate this pandemic and find new ways to engage with their customers, they are finding several challenges when it comes to delivering packages through traditional mail—there are delays, lost packages, and overwhelmed distribution centers due to stay-at-home orders and online shopping. To mitigate these shipping challenges, adhere to stay-at-home orders, and keep customers safe, retailers like Dick’s Sporting Goods, Target, and more, are doing curbside pickup.

With Experian’s contact validation services, retailers can be confident they can reach their customers to deliver goods while upholding a positive customer experience during this pandemic.

With our phone validation and email validation services, retailers are able to connect and stay connected with their customers by providing the option to opt-in for text/SMS messaging to receive order confirmations or curbside pickup notifications, email campaigns, customer service inquiries, and more.

When retailers have valid phone numbers and emails, they can get in touch with customers right away, keeping the curbside pickup process easy and convenient, and less stress for those who are delivering and receiving purchased goods. By equipping sales associates with accurate phone numbers for curbside pickup, they can be confident they are handing the right products to the right customer, minimizing risk of fraud and undelivered packages.

As a trusted partner, Experian is here to work through new and existing challenges and face the unprecedented future with retailers like you. To shift to the new normal of socially distant shopping, it’s time to adapt your operation to respond to your customer’s new set of expectations and needs.