Do you keep customers first in your day-to-day operations? A recent report from strategic consulting firm O Alliance reveals that nearly 70 per cent of retailers struggle to keep the customer at the centre of their business.

The report, “Retail Transformation Underway: Achieving Customer-Centric Commerce,” revealed that retailers in multiple industries, such as health and beauty, struggle to move from an omni-channel to a customer-centric model. Omni-channel promises the customer a seamless shopping experience on multiple platforms, such as online and from a mobile device. Customer centricity places the customer at the centre of the business.

“Customer-facing tools such as smartphones, tablets, and in-store kiosks have become mission critical to the shopping experience, yet most retailers still have not integrated these tools into a cohesive system that creates circular commerce,” says Andrea Weiss, Founder of The O Alliance.

According to Weiss, the omni-channel gives customers one view of a brand across multiple touch-points while the customer-centric model gives the brand a single view of the customer. Who is the customer? What does the customer want? How does the customer behave?

In order to achieve their findings, O Alliance researchers categorized 150 respondents (senior retail executives from multiple industries) into three groups.
– Leaders: Respondents who have moved forward with trying to gain a better understanding of consumer data and investing in customer insights
– Followers: Respondents who have big plans and have already made strides in changing operations into a customer-centric business
– Bystanders: Respondents who showed a lack of meaningful plans or progress

Where do you fit in this model? If you want a customer-centric business, the report has five key strategies that you can use to become industry leaders.

1 | TRACK CUSTOMER BEHAVIOUR
For many businesses, tracking behaviour for individual customers across a brand’s entire platform has become increasingly difficult as technology continues to enable customers to engage across multiple channels. The report recommends that retailers should connect their customer’s activities in the store, online, on social media and on mobile apps to create a universal customer profile.

2 | MEASURE SUCCESS OF CROSS-CHANNEL MARKETING
Many retailers use email campaigns and other cross-channel promotional tools to drive in-store purchases; however, there are some who lack the necessary applications to measure the success of their campaigns. The study recommends to start using tools that provide a strategic view into each promotional campaign. Retailers can gain valuable insight that can be used to gauge the effectiveness of previously launched campaigns as well as make business decisions on future marketing campaigns.

3| CENTRALIZE DATA
A large number of retailers do not have proper integration solutions in place to manage a cross-channel shopping experience effectively. These retailers do not have e-commerce and in-store transaction data in one central database. The report recommends that retailers centralize all product and customer information into one place utilizing cloud-based solutions.

4| CREATE STRUCTURE
A customer-centric organization involves structure. The study recommends that retailers should integrate their business functions across multiple channels. In the report, 97 per cent of the respondents in the Leaders category have integrated at least one team to date. Additionally, respondents in this category are addressing talent and leadership challenges associated with this change.

5| REMOVE OBSTACLES
What stands in your way to customer centricity? Inadequate talent, cash restraints, and doubts in the benefits of technology are legit concerns—and there is no quick fix—however, according to the report, retailers can only achieve seamless circular commerce by making directional shifts in all areas of their company, such as human resources and finance.

With consumers everywhere striving to maintain health-conscious, organic and environmentally friendly diets, it’s no surprise that processed foods boasting a “natural” label are gaining attention—but just how “natural” are these foods, really?

According to a recent survey by Consumer Reports, two-thirds of health-conscious shoppers are now choosing to purchase these sorts of goods. However, they are doing so with the assumption that these fares are free of artificial ingredients and colours, toxic pesticides, and genetically modified organisms (GMOs).

Ali Ramadan, a homeopath and co-owner of supplement distributor GNA Naturals, notes that unless companies can verify these claims, the term “natural” is nothing more than “a marketing tool.” Currently, neither Health Canada nor the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) have official definitions or regulations when it comes to packaged foods bearing a “natural” label.

“From a food science perspective, it is difficult to define a food product that is ‘natural’ because the food has probably been processed and is no longer the product of the earth,” says the FDA on its website. The agency adds that it doesn’t object to the term’s use if a food “does not contain added colour, artificial flavors, or synthetic substances.”

This lack of definition has sparked recent debate in the U.S. After receiving three citizen petitions to define “natural” or ban its use entirely, the FDA has put out a request for comments on the situation. Until May 10, consumers may offer their thoughts to the organization on how to properly delineate the term.

In January, The Organic & Natural Health Association also abandoned its plans to create a certified “natural” seal, citing a “conflict of interest with an inherent legal risk” in “[defining] the standards for natural.” However, Karen Howard, CEO of the association, notes that there is still a strong need for the industry to clearly outline the phrase.

Ramadan adds that this overwhelming lack of clarity also makes it difficult for retailers to tell the difference between “good” and “bad” products.

As a result, he says, vendors should focus on purchasing non-GMO vitamins instead of supplements labelled as “natural”—companies are required to verify that their products are non-GMO. In fact, Health Canada does a safety assessment on all genetically modified foods proposed for sale nation-wide, demanding that organizations submit detailed scientific data for review and approval before their products can be sold.

Despite all of this, the “natural” label is still extremely appealing for consumers. As it happens, 87 per cent of those surveyed by Consumer Reports admitted that they would even pay more for “natural” foods—if they met their expectations. Nonetheless, retailers must consider the controversy surrounding these products before they stock their shelves with them.