The Record - Issue 21: Summer 2021

147 R E TA I L & C PG 365 Customer Insights, Azure Synapse Analytics and Power BI to help broaden its brand appeal across multiple demographics, double purchase frequency and expand its product range to include everyday fresh produce, as well as gifts. The company, which delivers thousands of gifts every month via its online and physical stores, now has a centralised view of customer, inventory, supply chain and merchandising data. “Edible Arrangements has simplified decision-making and can predict customer purchase behaviour and automatically tailor communications and promotions to individuals,” says Tadepalli. “It plans to extend the capabilities of its CDP to other areas of the business and also use it to develop more personalised browsing experiences on its e-commerce site.” Microsoft collaborates with an extensive net- work of partners to help retailers build on its tech- nology to create end-to-end solutions that enable them to provide omnichannel personalisation at scale. For instance, it worked with PwC to help Dubai-based conglomerate Al-Futtaim Group build a CDP using Microsoft Azure Databricks, Azure Data Factory and Azure Synapse Analytics. The group relies on the AI-based CDP to capture data from more than 40 data sources and cus- tomer touchpoints across the 120 brands it serves in the retail sector and other industries in the Middle East and Africa. “Al-Futtaim Group is the ‘poster child’ for a successful CDP implementation because the platform has transformed the way it understands and interacts with customers on a massive scale,” says Tadepalli. “The CDP links together all the group’s physical and digital channels, empower- ing it to harness previously inaccessible data and real-time insights to better predict individual or collective purchase behaviours and identify new sales opportunities. “It also enables the group to deliver consistent personalised experiences for all customers, ensur- ing they are presented with the right products, recommendations, offers and assistance via the right channel at the right time. This will accel- erate customer acquisition, prevent churn, boost loyalty and drive profits.” Once they have developed a strong customer base, retailers must also introduce ways to reward individuals for their loyalty. “Customers want to feel valued, and research indicates that they’re much more likely to shop F E ATUR E We asked several Microsoft partners how they are helping retailers to create the types of physical and virtual shopping experiences that will drive customer loyalty Partner perspectives “Adobe and Microsoft are working together to help retailers put the customer at the centre of everything they do, and also help them to derive maximum value out of their existing investments in our technologies. The Adobe Experience Platform, which is built on the Microsoft Azure cloud, enables retailers to pull together data from all their Microsoft Dynamics 365 and other systems into a central customer data platform so they can create a unified profile of every customer. This equips retailers with the insights they need to personalise all customer interactions, thereby improving the overall customer experience and boosting loyalty. In addition, we have worked together to create campaign management tools and other solutions that allow retailers to manage and deliver high-quality, post-purchase customer experiences that encourage loyalty and retention.” Michael Klein Director of Industry Strategy and Marketing at Adobe with retailers that offer exclusive discounts, cash back, the chance to attend VIP events, and other special perks and incentives as a way of thanking them for their loyalty” says Tadepalli. “Studies also show that loyalty programmes not only drive cus- tomer retention and repeat purchases, but they also encourage people to purchasemore expensive items and recommend the brand to friends and family. “By offering loyalty programmes that span all their channels, combined with unique personalised experiences that are tailored to consumers’ individ- ual needs, retailers can easily turn customers into brand advocates and retain their business for many years to come.”