From Insights to Impact: Driving Value with Analytics

At eTail West this week we were thrilled to give a joint presentation with Chris Duncan, VP of Strategic Marketing for Kohl's, a $19B+ retailer making big strides in omni-channel analytics.  Casey Carey, Head of Marketing for Google Analytics, kicked off the presentation with highlights from our new report with Harvard Business Review.  Following Casey's introduction, Chris gave the audience a glimpse into the Kohl’s Greatness Agenda, launched in 2014 with the goal of becoming “the most engaging retailer in America.”

Kohl’s has seen the growing effect of micro-moments on their business in recent years and has used measurement and analytics to gain key insights:

• They had more visits on digital devices last year than in all stores combined.
• Most of their sales are driven by people who have engaged with more than one marketing channel.
• Customers who engage online are spending more in-store.

Kohl’s has taken action, finding better ways to engage consumers across channels.  They combined direct mail with digital display to make their direct mail dollars go further, they blended email marketing with social media to increase app downloads by 180%, and they got hyper-local with digital display and paid search.  In other words, they used their insights to drive action.

The Google Analytics team is all about turning insights into action, which is why we commissioned a study with Harvard Business Review—we wanted to understand how great companies are using insights to drive customer value.  The findings are compelling:  some companies who capture the full customer journey with integrated data are generating up to 8.5x higher shareholder value.