A retail CRM, on the other hand, is optimized to help support the high frequency, repeat purchasing of a business-to-consumer (B2C) model. Good retail CRM software will provide insights on when it’s best to reach out to a specific customer again and what the customer is likely looking for. For example, Endear’s CRM solution informs its users about a customer’s lifetime spend and their average order value (AOV), along with a thorough omnichannel order history so that sales associates know what to focus on in their outreach. 

As you’re deciding on what CRM you want to use for your business, it’s important to first think about what sort of data and workflows your sales team needs in order to do their jobs easily and efficiently.

We often talk about clienteling—that’s because clienteling is one of the strongest retail strategies a brand can use when it comes to increasing customer retention and building loyalty. 

As we explain in our definition of clienteling, clienteling refers to the process of efficiently using customer data in order to create intimate customer relationships. While clienteling is easy on a small scale with just a handful of customers, larger brands can get dramatically better results with a CRM because you’ll be able to target a wider audience without sacrificing personalization. 

While new customers are always the goal, customer loyalty should also be celebrated.

In fact, a retail CRM can serve you best once you’ve acquired a customer and are ready to focus on cultivating loyalty. A CRM should be your go-to resource for understanding what sort of incentives and rewards your customers are most likely to respond to, and can help you keep track of what their response has been to your various offers and services. As you develop your retention strategy, you should also be able to count on your CRM to actually segment your customers to determine who is eligible for your various perks, tiers, and prizes that make up your loyalty program. 

Which brings us to a third benefit of a CRM—personalization. Emails with personalized subject lines are 26% more likely to get opened, and the more targeted you are with your audience, the higher your conversion rate on messages will be. 

A CRM can help you achieve both those things. The more data you’re tracking in your CRM, the more you’ll be able to segment and personalize your audience to ensure that the content of your message feels ultra-relevant to the final group of recipients.

Especially for brands with 10+ stores (or 100+!), CRMs are particularly helpful for management teams who want to stay on top of how each salesperson is contributing. With most CRMs, users are able to “claim” a customer or a deal. This aspect is no different for retail. 

Encouraging your retail teams to be accountable for customers’ spending behaviors will motivate them to be even more thoughtful and strategic about their work and the way they reach out. A CRM will also therefore be able to report back how each salesperson has impacted your bottom line, whether that’s on a per-transaction basis or across their customers. 

It goes without saying that a retail CRM can help you better serve and support your customers, both new and returning. Oftentimes there can be a disconnect between what your corporate digital team knows and what your local retail team knows about a customer. That’s where having an omnichannel CRM can truly make a difference.

The more your whole team can be on the same page about a customer’s various interactions, the happier your customer will be when she needs support and doesn’t have to start from scratch with someone who knows nothing about her past. Leveraging a CRM as a way to document a customer’s preferences will result in service a customer will remember and cherish. isn’t starting from scratch.