Arm launches unified data management solution for retail

January 22, 2019

While ecommerce has become an important engagement channel and continues to grow (up 24.8% in the past year according to eMarketer), the physical store is still king when it comes to big chain retail. According to the same study, nearly 90% of global retail revenue still comes from physical store locations. In reality, it doesn’t need to be an either-or situation for retailers. Solutions that combine the Internet of Things (IoT) and customer data platforms (CDP) can help retailers eliminate silos between physical in-store data and digital customer data to drive more personalized customer experiences, lower costs and increase sales.

Retailers are increasingly equipping stores with IoT sensors, beacons and cameras, to capture information about how shoppers engage with store items and brands, according to a recent SJC report. However, these deployments need to be able to easily scale across the retailer’s physical store environments. In addition, the IoT data is only useful if it can be combined with other disparate customer data sources – such as web, mobile, email and social.

Delivering on the Promise of Data for Retail

Today, ARM introduced a full, easy to deploy retail solution that enables retailers to securely consolidate, unify and manage their previously siloed digital customer data and physical in-store IoT data to provide more personalized offers, build brand loyalty and drive better operations. The solution combines our Arm Pelion IoT and Arm Treasure Data CDP to help retailers break down data silos and obtain a holistic view of their shopper’s path to purchase. The magic happens when all of the customer data and in-store IoT data is responsibly collected, unified and made accessible to the right stakeholders.

The solution builds on the value CDP is already delivering to marketers of consolidating and unifying the data collection process from any type of digital touchpoints – display advertising, email, web, mobile and more – by including physical in-store IoT and POS data. Leveraging Pelion IoT, the solution will provide data management of real-time data in-store and API-enabled integration for digital maps, beacons, computer vision and store execution software.

A Personal Approach to Marketing with Hyperlocal Merchandising

The Arm Retail solution enables merchandisers to hyperlocalize items in the store based on shopper preferences. Retail store operations can optimize store layout, item placement, and store associates’ priorities based on inferences drawn from real-time data on metrics such as item popularity/SKU velocity, aisle traffic, dwell time, etc. Retailers can also personalize their marketing campaigns to deliver new value to their shoppers. For example, a retailer can provide a personalized in-store advertisement for a type of apparel through an aisle digital signage based on the shopper’s online interest in the product. The solution also seamlessly integrates with retailers’ existing systems and software, including those from our partner Reflexis, the world leader in store execution software solutions used by more than 250 retailers globally.

The Reflexis ONE platform then brings an additional layer of value by providing retail store associates with actionable tasks based on real-time data insights from the solution. For example, data captured from a shopper's engagement with a product in-store and their online shopping behavior can trigger an alert in Reflexis ONE on potential interest in the product, areas to provide better customer service and opportunities to deliver a personalized offer so that the store associate can prioritize their tasks. Our partnership with Reflexis minimizes the costs of change management and will allow retailers to quickly deploy the solution in stores and train store associates.

Deeper Insights to Help Marketers Measure Success

According to a 2018 Nielsen CMO report, “only one in four marketers reported high levels of confidence in their ability to measure the ROI of their media spend.” Through the combination of Pelion IoT and CDP, marketers can derive deeper insights on their shopper in-store and online behavior to run tailored promotions or campaigns that bring the shoppers back to the store, and more importantly, measure the campaigns so that they can improve the shopper experience.