Q&A: Kristyn Wallace, Maropost Country Manager Australia & New Zealand Kristyn Wallace, Maropost Country Manager Australia & New Zealand explains how retailers can transform customer experiences.
Maropost commerce software is changing the way global retail and ecommerce brands operate. With a robust suite designed to empower merchants to confidently launch, grow, and scale their operations, Maropost is committed to driving innovation and efficiency across its international markets, including significant investments in Australia and New Zealand (ANZ).
Kristyn Wallace is the Country Manager for Australia and New Zealand at Maropost, where she leverages over a decade of regional expertise to help merchants attract, acquire, and retain customers. Before her current role, she significantly increased business as the Regional Vice President of Revenue and Country Manager for Emarsys in the Asia Pacific and Japan, enhancing retailer strategies in ecommerce and physical stores.
On her role, Wallace says, "Building on the successful local foundations of Retail Express and Neto is exhilarating. It's a privilege to lead Maropost's growth in ANZ, a testament to our commitment to these markets."
We asked Kristyn about how retailers can transform customer experiences.
Consumer confidence is in a pretty dire state. What can retailers do to break through to customers and build a much-needed connection? I wouldn't say consumer confidence is dire, but it's true that current economic challenges are impacting spending globally. To build stronger connections, retailers should focus on providing exceptional customer experiences.
One effective approach is to use first-party data to enhance personalization across all customer interactions. This is data that shoppers provide to retailers throughout their journey, whether it's on your website, in stores, during sales and support calls, or through other touchpoints.
By using the insights locked inside first-party data, retailers can tailor experiences, offers, and communications to meet the unique preferences and needs of their customers. The best part? Retailers already have this data and have permission to use it. Doing so will foster stronger connections and trust with their customers.
How to collect first-party data
What are the mistakes retailers are making when it comes to marketing? Many retailers still rely on outdated third-party data and broad segmentation strategies, which can lead to ineffective marketing campaigns that fail to engage the modern consumer.
Also, there's often a lack of integration across various marketing and customer service channels, which can create disjointed and frustrating customer experiences. To address these issues, retailers should build a more robust first-party data infrastructure and strive for consistency and personalisation in their marketing efforts.
An interesting note about personalisation: Shoppers don't just want it. According to McKinsey , 71% of them expect it, and 76% are frustrated when they don't get it.
Let's go through some areas where marketing can be utilised to build better customer experiences. In a recent report, you identified 5 Ways to Level up Commerce Marketing (and transform customer experiences). Can you provide a summary of these five ways (without giving all your tricks away)? Sure thing, five key strategies include:
Personalising your marketing: Use insights from your first-party data to tailor marketing communications and offers to individual preferences, enhancing engagement and effectiveness. Creating seamless omnichannel experiences: Integrate online and offline channels to ensure a consistent and unified customer journey across all platforms. Using mobile notifications: Personalised SMS notifications are great for reaching customers directly, maintaining engagement with high open rates, and providing timely updates and offers. Go all-in on social selling: Integrating social media selling into the marketing strategy allows for direct interactions and sales through social platforms. Dealing with so much data can take lots of time that marketers don't have. Unified Customer Profiles are a handy tool for personalisation, can you expand a bit on how marketers can use them and where AI comes into this? Unified Customer Profiles, or UCPs, consolidate all customer interactions, behaviors, and data into a single, comprehensive profile. This holistic view allows marketers and service agents to deliver highly personalised experiences efficiently and effectively.
AI takes this to the next level by analyzing large datasets to identify patterns and predict customer needs, enabling real-time personalisation and smarter customer engagement. Plus, AI can automate routine tasks, freeing up marketers to focus more on strategy and creative efforts.
Example: Unified Customer Profile
Creating a seamless omnichannel experience is easier said than done! Retailers are often dealing with a delicately balanced tech stack. How can Maropost help in this case? Maropost has a robust suite of solutions — including Neto eccommerce software and Retail Express cloud-based POS software — that creates cohesive omnichannel experiences. Plus, with tools like Marketing Cloud , Service Cloud , and Findify , we offer advanced capabilities for data integration, personalisation, and automation across all customer touchpoints. This not only simplifies the technical complexities but also enhances the customer journey, making it smoother and more responsive to individual needs and actions.
Is there anything else retailers need to know about transforming their customer experiences? Retailers must continuously adapt to the evolving market conditions and consumer expectations. This includes investing in the right technologies that enable better data collection, integration, and analysis to deliver personalised customer experiences. It's also crucial to maintain transparency about data usage and uphold high standards of customer privacy. Ultimately, understanding and responding to customer needs at every touchpoint in the journey is essential for building lasting loyalty and driving business success.
Rosalea is the Editor of Power Retail. With a keen interest in consumer behaviour and tech, she covers everything ecommerce and hosts the Power Retail Power Talks Podcast.
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