A keynote presentation about data privacy and policy, and the ways leading retailers use data and advanced analytics to humanize and personalize consumer experiences of their brand.

1. BIG DATA’S BIG PARADOX:
HOW DATA & ADVANCED ANALYTICS
HUMANIZE CONSUMER EXPERIENCES
Dr. Nita Rollins
Consumer Experience Futurist

2. UNDERSTANDING HOW WE DEFINE
AND ENRICH HUMAN EXISTENCE…
IS EVEN MORE IMPORTANT IN
OUR DIGITAL AGE.
My humanities
journey
took me
to six
universities

3. OUR GOALS
Learn The “Big Picture” with Key Stats
and Six Experience Trends That Put
Today’s Data Dynamics in Context
Learn from Leaders Using Advanced
Data Analytics for Better CX
Become Astoundingly Data-Savvy

4. Toys R Us
Walgreens/Rite Aid
Ann Taylor, Loft, Dress Barn
Teavana
Best Buy
Mattress Firm
Gap Inc.**
The Children’s Place
Foot Locker
Kmart
Gymboree
Winn-Dixie, Harvey’s, and Bi-Lo
Sam’s Club
Abercrombie
Sears
Michael Kors
Crocs
Bon-Ton Stores
Guess
J. Crew
Target
Macy’s
Charming Charlie
Last Call by Neiman Marcus
JCPenny
Kroger
STORE CLOSINGS IN 2018
REASONS?
AMAZON?
Yes, but while Amazon is a behemoth
online, it has only captured 4% of total
retail sales so far.
SOURCE: One Click Retail
A SOCIOECONOMIC SPLIT?
Yes, 58% of low-income consumers
are choosing to shop in-store, while
52% of high-income consumers are
choosing to shop online.
SOURCE: Deloitte Insights
WAS THE US OVERSTORED?
We’re at 23.2 square feet per
human being in the US versus
16 sf in Canada and 4.8 sf in the UK.
SLOW TO ADAPT TO
CHANGING TASTES AND
NEEDS?
That too.
3,800 TOTAL

5. AND YET.
American consumers log 1.5 billion visits to shopping
malls every month.
More DTC (direct-to-consumer), web-born, tech-savvy
brands are opening stores every month. And bringing their
data-driven insights with them.

6. CONSUMER EXPERIENCE VIRTUOUS CIRCLE
86 percent of consumers
say they would pay more
for a better customer
experience, with customer
experience projected to
overtake product and
price as key brand
differentiators by 2020.
—Total Customer 2018 survey
MORE DATA &
ADVANCED ANALYTICS
A MORE PERSONALIZED EXPERIENCE
DEEPER CONSUMER
ENGAGEMENT
MORE CONVERSIONS
65 percent of U.S.
consumers find a
positive brand
experience to be
more influential
than great
advertising.
“Experience is Everything: Here’s How to Get It Right,” PWC
2018

7. Rick Caruso, “Data Can Make Our Malls Great Again, CBNC Squawk Alley interview, quoted
75% of consumers say they want MORE human
interaction in the future, not less.
64% of consumers feel companies have lost touch
with the human element of CX. (SOURCE: PwC)
A personalized high-touch + high-tech
consumer experience is the key.
Today’s consumers are saying to us,
“To know me is to love me.”

8. 74% expect companies to “treat me as
an individual, not as a member of some
segment like ‘millennials’ or ‘suburban
mothers’.”
Yet these are consumer data privacy concerns:
• Only 1 in 5 consumers are willing to
provide data up-front in order to
improve their experience.
THE DATA QUID PRO QUO: IT’S COMPLICATED
33% of respondents expect brands to
anticipate needs before they arise.
70% say it’s important that brands
understand a consumer’s individual
situation (e.g. marital status, age, location,
etc.) when they market to them.
• 75% express concerns with a brand’s
ability to track their behavior—even on
the brand’s own website and mobile apps.
• 88% report concern that their data will be
shared across companies without their
consent.
Selligent Marketing Cloud 2018 report

9. 62%
of retailers report that the use of information (including
big data) and analytics is creating a competitive
advantage for their organizations.
“Analytics:The Real-World Use of Big Data in Retail,” IBM Institute for BusinessValue
of enterprises are seeing a significant increase in
customer retention and loyalty from using customer
analytics.
58%
of enterprises have increased their spending on real-time
customer analytics solutions over the past year.
70%
of study respondents identify people and process issues
as the obstacle to business adoption of Big Data/AI
initiatives, not technology.
93%
“How to improve customer experience with real time analytics,” Forbes, 7/8/18
Data is Delivering, But People Have to Help
“Real-Time Analytics: The Key to Unlocking Customer Insights & Driving the Customer Experience,” HBR Analytic Services
“Real-Time Analytics: The Key to Unlocking Customer Insights & Driving the Customer Experience,” HBR Analytic Services

10. Geek Cheat Sheet 1:
What Makes Big Data BIG
Volume: inconceivable quantities. One temperature
sensor can generate 525,950 data points in a year.
Facebook stores 250 billion images.
Velocity: how fast the data is coming in. 5G (Fifth
Generation Wireless network architecture) will have
data download speeds potentially up to 1000X faster
than 4G. You might be able to download an entire
HD film in less than a second.
Variety: big data doesn’t fit into neat columns and
rows. Tweets & weather. Sales & Instagram posts.
Mall traffic & website browsing.
V
V
V

11. Human and Machine-Made
point-of-sale data
loyalty data
market data
inventory, product hierarchies
phone numbers
Social Security numbers
ZIP codes
Human-Made
text files
email (metadata makes it semi-structured)
social media content
mobile text messages, locations
chat, IM, phone recordings, collaboration software
MP3s, digital photos, audio and video files
MS Office documents, productivity applications
Geek Cheat Sheet 2: Data Types
RELATIONAL DATABASE
Machine-Made
satellite imagery (weather, land forms, military
movements)
scientific data: oil/gas/space exploration, seismic
and atmospheric data
surveillance photos and videos
sensor data, e.g., traffic, weather, oceanographic
STRUCTURED DATA UNSTRUCTURED DATA
DATA LAKE

12. “Winter storm headed
our way? We need 7X
our usual amount of
Strawberry Pop-Tarts.”
—a very data-savvy WalMart employee
PREDICTIVE ANALYTICS USING
UNSTRUCTURED DATA (SATELLITE IMAGERY)

13. LIFELIKE
TECHLASH
ANTICIPATION
NATION
GLIDEPATH PLATFORMED WE TOO
2019 EXPERIENCE TRENDS

14. 1
TECHLASH
A growing
animus against
monopolistic
tech companies
and data
breaches ushers
in more data
privacy and
digital addiction
concern,
regulatory
pressure and
analog nostalgia.
1
TECHLASH

16. AUTOMATION
DATA PRIVACY
ROBOTICS
MOBILE PHONE ADDICTION

17. •At least 75 companies receive anonymous, precise
location data from apps whose users enable location
services to get local news, weather or other
information
•Several of those businesses claim to track up to 200
million mobile devices in the US
•The database reviewed by The Times reveals people’s
travels in startling detail, accurate to within a few
yards and in some cases updated more than 14,000
times a day
•These companies sell, use or analyze the data to
cater to advertisers, retail outlets and even hedge
funds seeking insights into consumer behavior
•Sales of location-targeted advertising will reach an
estimated $21 billion this year

18. “If the price of getting the weather
forecast is the sacrifice of your most
personal info about where you spend
your time, you need to be clearly told
in advance.”
—Los Angeles City Attorney Jack Feuer

19. •Goes into effect January 2020
•Makes it easier for consumers to sue
companies after a data breach
•Not as expansive as Europe's General
Data Protection Regulation
“I applaud this legislature for passing
the first-in-the-nation digital privacy
law last year. But California’s
consumers should also be able to share
in the wealth that is created from their
data. And so I’ve asked my team to
develop a proposal for a new data
dividend for Californians, because we
recognize that your data has value and
it belongs to you.”
GAVIN NEWSOM, GOVERNOR
OF CALIFORNIA
1 2 3

20. •Goes into effect January 2020
•Makes it easier for consumers to sue
companies after a data breach
•Not as expansive as Europe's General
Data Protection Regulation
“I applaud this legislature for passing
the first-in-the-nation digital privacy
law last year. But California’s
consumers should also be able to share
in the wealth that is created from their
data. And so I’ve asked my team to
develop a proposal for a new data
dividend for Californians, because we
recognize that your data has value and
it belongs to you.”
GAVIN NEWSOM, GOVERNOR
OF CALIFORNIA
1 2 3

21. •Goes into effect January 2020
•Makes it easier for consumers to sue
companies after a data breach
•Not as expansive as Europe's General
Data Protection Regulation
“I applaud this legislature for passing
the first-in-the-nation digital privacy
law last year. But California’s
consumers should also be able to share
in the wealth that is created from their
data. And so I’ve asked my team to
develop a proposal for a new data
dividend for Californians, because we
recognize that your data has value and
it belongs to you.”
GAVIN NEWSOM, GOVERNOR
OF CALIFORNIA
1 2 3

22. DATA SNAPSHOT
•Has an in-depth privacy page
•CEO Tim Cook: “Our own information, from the everyday to the deeply
personal, is being weaponized against us with military efficiency. And
these stockpiles of personal data serve only to enrich the companies
that collect them. This should make us very uncomfortable. It should
unsettle us.”
•The ANDROID mobile operating system is harvesting/sharing data from
90% of the apps running on it. 43% of these apps transfer data to third
parties, including Facebook and Twitter.

23. 2
ANTICIPATION
NATION
Accelerative
technology, an
economy powered
by constant
upgrades and
newness, and the
VUCA nature of
our present
moment all
contribute to a
pervasive affective
state riveted on
what’s next.
VUCA=volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity

24. MERCHANDISE DROPS

25. MERCHANDISE DROPS
MERCHANDISE DROPS
DOOMSDAY PREPPERS
BINGE WATCHING
SUBSCRIPTION COMMERCE

26. DATA SNAPSHOT
•Algorithms save an estimated $1B per year in value from customer
retention
•In 2006, Netflix offered $1M to the group who could create the best
algorithm for predicting how customers would like a movie based on
previous ratings.
•The winning entry’s key elements remain the same, although the
algorithms are constantly revised.
•The recommendation system influences about 80% of the content
streamed.

27. •Digests over 85 "meaningful" data points its customers voluntarily
give it, from such basic information as their size or price
preference to details including the parts of their bodies they would
like to hide.
•Use some classic collaborative filtering with a lot of photographic
and textual data: inventory style photos, Pinterest boards, and the
vast amount of written feedback and request notes from clients.
•The brand’s “active clients” surged to 2.7 million, or 30%, in Q1
2018 quarter.
DATA SNAPSHOT

28. Amid growing
digital distraction
angst and
comingled work
and play modes,
the quest is on for
friction-free tasks,
performance and
mood
enhancement.
“Time well spent” is
not only a good
way to live; it’s a
movement, born of
the digital ex-
executives who are
conscious of digital
media’s capacity to
keep us frittering
away our time.
3
GLIDEPATH

29. MERCHANDISE DROPS

30. MERCHANDISE DROPS
CANNABIS CULTURE NOOTROPICS
COGNITIVE OUTSOURCING
MINDFULNESS APPS

31. Consumer Experience Enhancements
DATA SNAPSHOT
•Walmart processes over 2.5 petabytes of its own and alternative
data every hour.
•It pulls data from over 200 internal and external sources, including
weather data, economic data, Nielsen data, telecom data, social
media data, competitor data, and local events databases.
•Jetblack looks to pioneer “conversational commerce,” or the ability
to shop via text messaging, online chat or voice.
•The service leverages AI and expertise from professional buyers to
provide curated shopping recommendations sent via text.
•

32. DATA SNAPSHOT
•“More and more we are seeing millennials want to be in complete control of
any and all of their shopping, and that includes payment.
•Rebecca Minkoff team, in addition to removing lines, wanted to remove the
“Pretty Woman moment.”
•“I think there’s a need to look at the wider implications of automation beyond
the desire only for speed and convenience – understanding the mileage these
concepts also have because of the sense of control they present to the
consumer, who doesn’t always want to be steered or cajoled into line or,
particularly in the case of luxury brands, have to contend with a rather
intimidating experience.” — Katie Baron, head of retail, innovation and insights at trends service Stylus

33. Stickiness is back
with the new
economics of
disintermediated,
data-driven
marketplaces that
leapfrog category
boundaries for
wholly new value
propositions.
These platforms
simply put
producers and
consumers
together and
volume creates
value.
4
PLATFORMED
McKinsey predicts that an emerging set of
digital ecosystems could account for more than
$60 trillion in revenues by 2025, or more than 30
percent of global corporate revenues.
Retail revenue increased for 83 percent of the
world’s 250 largest retailers (208 companies).
Deloitte
75% of people in the U.S. who shop online use
Amazon to do it the majority of the time
PLATFORM CATEGORIES AND COMPANIES

34. MERCHANDISE DROPS
NETWORK EFFECTS

35. MERCHANDISE DROPS
NETWORK EFFECTS
SHARING ECONOMY
FAANG
NETWORK EFFECT
SUSTAINABILITY

36. DATA SNAPSHOT
•Under Armor bought MapMyFitness and MyFitnessPal apps and the data
gathered dialed in hyper personalized CX.
•The sensors in Under Armour shoes are synced with its consumer app to
automatically track stats like distance and pace, as well as wear and tear to
make recommendations on replacement.
•Based on customer preferences, Under Armour can connect with customers
multiple times a day through its MapMyRun app. Even when a customer is
traveling, it instantly knows how to adapt its communications and functionality
to cater to the customer’s immediate needs based on location.

37. •During an average five-minute session on the Farfetch site, 15,000 data points
are collected.
•Pioneered the concept of Store as OS—open system with APIs for boutiques
to build on, data to share, build out a store
•Also pioneered concept of the “offline cookie”
•A 5-person computer vision team is working on powering visual search, not
just to render accurate search results but to build product recommendations
off of the context of an image, to act as a styling guide around what jacket
matches which dress.
DATA SNAPSHOT

38. Robotics, Artifical
Intelligence and
Machine Learning,
not to mention self-
sovereignty, chatbots
and co-bots,
prosthetics, human
microchipping and
the uncomfortably
realistic robots that
land us in the
“uncanny valley”—
make computerized,
digitized phenomena
a lot more, well,
human.
5
LIFELIKE

39. MERCHANDISE DROPS
MERCHANDISE DROPS

40. MERCHANDISE DROPS
MERCHANDISE DROPS
CHATBOTS
HANDS-FREE
VISUAL SEARCH
AR/VR

41. •European retail property group Hammerson has added a
Style Seeker, powered by Cortexica’s visual search and
image recognition technology, to its PLUS mobile app
•90% of consumers who tried the PLUS shopping app said
they found it useful and 92% said they would use it again.
•In terms of brand engagement, 94% said that the app would
encourage them to visit different or more stores.
DATA SNAPSHOT

42. The timeless
human need to
be part of
something
greater than
oneself is
reinvigorated by
growing
loneliness,
socioeconomic
polarization,
partisanship and
institutional
mistrust.
6
WE TOO

43. MERCHANDISE DROPS
EVENT APPS

44. MERCHANDISE DROPS
EVENT APPS
MASS ACTIVISM
DAYBREAKERS CITIZEN BRANDS
LOCAL OPTIMISM

45. DATA SNAPSHOT
• Analyzing 381 responses to the question, “What is your dream cleanser?”
led to the hugely popular Milky Jelly Cleanser
• Using a cross-domain analytics tool to connect the dots of movement
around and across Glossier.com and IntotheGloss.com. Glossier had
previously relied on third-party cookies to track customer behavior and
acquire new ones.
• 600% revenue increase in 2016 and has continued its growth—leading to
physical stores
•

46. DATA SNAPSHOT
•Their beacon-enabled app notifies customers if an item in their mobile
shopping bag is in stock
•Also shows online options to in-store shoppers, make suggestions based on
the customer’s interests, and expediting try-on and check-out.
•The same kinds of data support their “clientelling” app for sales execs
•Centerpiece of the new loyalty club is the Nordy Portrait, a unique user
profile each customer can create through the app. Customers can customize
style profiles, see accumulated points, how much they need to spend to
reach the next level, etc.
DATA SNAPSHOT

47. Provides a new type of all-inclusive primary care membership that combines
24/7 concierge-level access to doctors with advanced technology without copays
or hidden fees.
•Unlimited access to your primary care doctor and care team
•Specialized visits for Heart Health, Cancer & Genetics, and Wellness
•Genetic analysis to better understand your risks
•Personalized digital health plans updated in your app
•Take home wearables to diagnose and monitor issues
•Immediate responses to questions, anytime/anywhere
DATA SNAPSHOT

48. •51% of Americans now regularly clear browser
history or cookies to be more digitally secure.
•60-70% of consumers block cookies.
•More Americans are turning off location
services due to the negative press.
•55% of consumers say they are less willing to
share their personal data
•More than 55% of consumers in a study said
they would be comfortable sharing their
personal data with government bodies, which is
where data ownership might be headed.
•A recent study by E&Y says the era of free data
is coming to an end.
SOME
FINAL
DATA
POINTS
ON
BIG
DATA’S
MOMENT
OF
TRUTH

49. IS THE BIG DATA PARTY OVER?

50. IT’S JUST GETTING STARTED.
(with a caveat or two)
Consumers will increasingly limit their brand loyalty to
organizations that know them well enough to be able to enrich
their lives.
Consumers will invest time and money in fewer but deeper,
more meaningful relationships.
IS THE BIG DATA PARTY OVER?

51. Explain the benefits that customers will receive.
Give customers full control over the types of data they
share and treat their data as currency, which is what it is.
Provide tools that easily allow customers to edit
their privacy settings.
Maintain consistency.
Use AI to help build a single view of each customer
that outlines all past behavior and communication
with the brand.
BIG DATA RULES OF THE ROAD

52. Thank You!
Dr. Nita Rollins
Consumer Experience Futurist