Will Retailers Be Ready for Europe’s General Trade Protection Rule?

Posted on June 22, 2017 by bermanevansretail

Recently, the U.S. Congress voted to overturn a pending regulation that would require Internet service providers (ISPs) to obtain people’s permission before selling their data about them. President Trump then signed the rollback.

As reported by NPR.org:

“This is a victory for ISPs, which have argued that the regulation would put them at a disadvantage compared with providers like Google and Facebook. Those firms are regulated by the FTC and face less stringent requirements. ISPs collect huge amounts of data on Web sites people visit, including medical, financial, and other personal information. The FCC regulation would have required ISPs to ask permission before selling that information to advertisers and others, a so-called opt-in provision.”

In contrast to the U.S. approach, Europe has a sweeping new regulation taking effect in May 2018. It will impact companies based anywhere, including the United States.

Brian Wallace, reporting for CMS Wire, describes the General Data Protection Rule (GDPR), thusly. Be sure to read the material highlighted:

“The European Parliament passed the General Data Protection Rule (GDPR) in April 2016. It is one of the most sweeping privacy laws protecting citizens ever, and is scheduled to take effect on May 25, 2018. One of the most misunderstood things about this law is that it covers EU citizens, no matter which country the firm using it is located. This means any company in the world that stores EU citizen protected data has less than a year to come into compliance with the GDPR.“

According to the GDPR’s Web site, “The EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) was designed to harmonize data privacy laws across Europe, to protect and empower all EU citizens data privacy, and to reshape the way firms across the region approach privacy. The GDPR protects personal data and sensitive personal data. This includes sensitive data: name, location, identification numbers, IP address, cookies, RFID info; and sensitive personal data: health data, genetic data, biometric data, racial or ethnic data, political opinions, and sexual orientation.“

 
Take a look at the following infographic from Digital Guardian to learn more! Click the image for a larger version.


 

Posted in Global Retailing, Online Retailing, Part 3: Targeting Customers and Gathering Information, Privacy and Identity Theft Issues | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Engaging in Intelligent Engagement

Posted on June 21, 2017 by bermanevansretail

Despite the many recent advances in enhanced retail customer service technology, many retailers are always looking for better ways to engage their customers and gain more customer loyalty. The latest technology is known as intelligent engagement.

Bold360 is an example of an intelligent engagement service provider. It:

“puts your customer insights to work in real-time, across every channel, at the point of engagement. We named it Bold360 because it gives your business a 360-degree view of your customer and guides your agents to the next best action for that customer, in that moment.”

“The Right Insights at the Right Time — With intelligence gained from previous interactions and data from disparate systems, agents are empowered with real-time customer insights for more contextually relevant interactions. Intelligent Automation that Delights — Not every customer engagement is created equal. Bold360 uses customer profile information to automate routine interactions without sacrificing quality and to automate portions of the agent workflow to deliver the next best action. Channels that Work Together as One — Bold360 provides the digital channels preferred by today’s mobile-first consumers and makes it possible to seamlessly move across self-service and live channels with full context intact.”

 
Take a look at the video below to learn more.


 

Posted in Part 3: Targeting Customers and Gathering Information, Part 6: Merchandise Management and Pricing, Part 7: Communicating with the Customer, Video Clips (non-career) | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

A Retail Checklist from Applause°

Posted on June 20, 2017 by bermanevansretail

Applause° offers “a worldwide community of digital experience experts to help you improve every phase of software development.” It “connects your apps, Web sites, IoT products, and in-store experiences to uTest, the world’s largest community of digital experience quality experts.”

Recently, Applause° published an interesting retailing checklist:

“Are you providing your customers with the right digital experiences, in-store and online? Retail is evolving and digital is the thread that ties together the customer experience. Customers expect your Web site, mobile apps, and in-store experiences to be integrated. They expect store inventory to be available online. They expect promotions in your mobile apps to match promotions on your site. They expect an enhanced digital experience when they are standing in your stores and they expect payments to be simple and fast. It is the retailer’s responsibility to keep pace and provide customers with great experiences. Check out these five topics to see if you are doing digital right.”

 
Click the image to see the retailing checklist.

 

Posted in Online Retailing, Part 1: Overview/Planning, Part 3: Targeting Customers and Gathering Information, Part 5: Managing a Retail Business, Part 6: Merchandise Management and Pricing | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment