Even though holiday sales numbers grab the headlines, many marketers see the shopping season as just the beginning of their relationship with a customer. Using the influx of first-time buyers as an opportunity to expand their databases and better understand consumer behavior, marketers are finding that effective CRM strategies can make it feel like Christmas all year long.
This holiday season, Best Buy joined a number of other major retailers in rolling back Black Friday into Thanksgiving Thursday. Promoting “Doorbuster” deals and online-only offers through print and online ads, the company helped fuel a record-breaking kickoff to the holiday shopping season with national retail sales hitting a record $52.4 billion, up 16% from last year, according to the National Retail Federation.
But with every online and in-store transaction, Best Buy sought ways to learn more about who was buying what and to refine its messaging.
“We have to use data and predictive models differently to appropriately target messages,” says Matt Smith, Best Buy’s VP of integrated marketing. “We are also sensitive to the gift-giving aspect of purchases during this time of year, so we suppress many of our triggered messages to reduce the likelihood of ruining holiday surprises.”
With about a quarter of all purchases happening the final five weeks of the year, the period offers a wealth of insight to those who can corral all the incoming data into their databases.
Consumers are not just spending money during the holiday season. InterContinental Hotel Group (IHG) sees the more than 61 million members of its loyalty program redeem about a third of their non-hotel points during a year’s final weeks, providing information about their preferences.
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