Protecting customersâ privacy requires more than anonymising their data. Excellent article by Sachin Gupta and Matthew Schneider for Harvard Business Review
discussing the âtrillion-dollar questionâ - whether businesses can âreap the promised benefits of data-driven marketing while maintaining the privacy of customersâ dataâ. đ
Gupta and Schneider explain why current approaches to protecting data are âwoefully inadequateâ - as once âa company shares data either internally or externally, its ability to control access deteriorates rapidlyâ. Furthermore, pseudonymisation is âno longer sufficientâ as the dataset can be combined with others, for example through a second-party data sharing partnership, to re-identify customers. đľď¸
The suggest companies should instead consider using statistical approaches - such as converting âthe original data to synthetic data so they remain valuable for data-driven marketing, yet adequately protectedâ.Â
The survey, conducted by OnePoll for the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM), finds 48% of consumers do not understand where and how organisations typically use their personal data. That is up from 31% when the research was last conducted two years ago.Just 7% feel they have a good understanding of how companies use their data, with 45% saying they âsomewhat understandâ. But less than a fifth (18%) believe businesses treat peopleâs personal data in an honest and transparent way.A third of consumers (29%), say they have received communication from a business they did not give permission to contact them in the past month, while 19% believe they have received something in the past six months and 13% in the past year. Just 17% believe they have never been contacted by a brand without their permission, while 17% are unsure.
Think Tank: New age of retailing and big data analytics. Vic Bageria, chief executive and chief visionary officer of
Xpandretail, discusses the
future of retail and the impact of data analytics in a piece for Womenâs Wear Daily.Â
Bageria argues that retailers need to move from predictive to prescriptive analytics, and to use data analytics to optimise product assortment and store operations. The ability to âforecast demands and shopping patternsâ should also be used to improve efficiencies with suppliers. đ
Retailers should also be deploying technology which automates the bringing together and analysis of data from omnichannel touch points, to get âa holistic view of their brandâs overall performanceâ. Bageria concludes:
Because data analytics ensures that in-demand items will be in stock, prices are adjusted in real time and deliver relevant and timely promotions â consumers will benefit from a smarter, more pleasant shopping experience. Retail data analytics is not just a competitive edge anymore, rather a necessary tool to compete with other retailers.
