News

Customer identification remains a challenge for retailers, reveals survey

November 1, 2018

Just 23 percent of brick-and-mortar retailers are able to identify a customer prior to checkout, compared to 60 percent of online retailers and the inability is likely thwarting the customer personalization effort.

According to BRP 2018 Customer Experience/Unified Commerce Survey, 13 percent of brick-and-mortar retailers identify a customer when they enter a store and 10 percent identify the customer pre-checkout.

When it comes to e-commerce, according to a press release, the figures are much more robust as 30 percent identify online shoppers hitting a retail site and 30 percent identify pre-checkout.

"While most online retailers are able to identify customers early in the browsing process in order to create a more personalized experience, identifying customers in the store continues to be a challenge for most brick-and-mortar retailers," said Ryan Grogman, senior vice president, BRP, in the release.

"Those online experiences have heightened customer expectations for personalization and they now expect the same level of service while shopping in a store. This is a tremendous opportunity for retailers to improve the customer experience — turning anonymous shoppers into loyal customers."