Retailers, forced to stretch themselves thin across content creation, data mining and tech building, are facing a string of struggles.
At the Digiday Retail Summit in Nashville, executives came together to discuss what they’re dealing with, and how they’re responding to it. Attendees wrote down the single biggest source of strife they’re combating at their companies. The major takeaways: attribution across channels is still impossible to completely crack, data overload is real, and connecting with customers with a strong brand identity is a lot easier said than done.
We tracked down a few of the retailers behind the challenges and asked them to elaborate, anonymously, on what’s troubling them:
Increasing return customer rate
“Regular customers are the true champions of the brand. My customer return rate is 24 percent, which is pretty good, but how do get to 50 percent? The hardest part is figuring out what your customers will respond to, what recommendations to put in front of them, and what product designs will appeal to a mass, rather than just niche, audience.”
Cross device attribution 
“With limitless data available for expansion of brick and mortar brands — especially around where, how, when, why — we struggle with how to combat those. We have watched other brands move in and take market share in a market dominated by us for years. How can digital help combat these intrusions and drive traffic back through our doors?”
What KPI wins?
“So many metrics, so many reports, what’s the WINNER for social media? Can it ever be just one thing? Or three? What is overload?”
Convincing them to try new things
“My struggle is to convince others of the value of new technology and social channels before it’s easy to prove out the ROI. In order to innovate, testing is so important.”
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