A new report released by the Retail Industry Leaders Association (RILA) in partnership with Retail Systems Research (RSR) finds merchants viewing data protection as a means to build their brand and business across channels in the minds of consumers.
"For 47 percent of overall respondents, proactively addressing privacy and security issues enables them to move forward with an aggressive cross-channel agenda," said Steve Rowen, a managing partner of RSR and co-author of Building Trust and Growing the Brand: The Role of Privacy and Security in Retail 2010, in a press release.
Forty-two percent agreed with the statement: "Capturing and adequately securing customer data enables us to consider a more active dialogue with our 'best' customers" while 28 percent saw it as a "marketable reason for consumer loyalty."
Casey Chroust, executive vice president for retail operations for RILA, added, "Retailers have gone to great lengths to incorporate privacy as a strategic component of their daily operations and remain vigilant in protecting customer data while providing the value customers want. When utilized properly, customer-specific data can be used to enhance the shopping experience for consumers."
While it is not easy to quantify a strategic advantage from protecting consumer information, the report submits there is a clear disadvantage when data security and customer privacy are not protected. "Consumers give retailers zero-percent credit for handling these issues well, but are merciless on retailers who violate their trust. It's a risk not worth taking," write the authors. "Retail Winners have, by their behavior, created a roadmap for others to follow: elevate the challenges to the policy level, define business-level accountability, define and communicate the company's commitment, develop repeatable 'best practice-based' processes, and implement them."
Discussion Questions: Do you see a strategic advantage in protecting shopper data and utilizing customer-specific data? How do you think retailers are doing on these two fronts and what can they do to improve?