Big Data / How do you do use customer data without being accused of insidiously doing so for corporate gain or infringing on consumer rights? Turns out that in research conducted by KPMG, the majority of consumers would be happy to share their data if it improved their own personal experience. In other words, it is critical to ensure relevance for the consumer.
We recently covered how Pedigree sidestepped EU GDPR tracking restrictions and used its data to specifically target dog owners through an algorithm that targeted their dogs with dynamic-out-of-home ads. Here the dog food brand ensured relevance with its target audience and as a result, no one batted an eye at the ethical implications of tracking dogs to target their owners.
S Group’s Omat Ostot app uses a lot of personalised and sensitive data to provide an incredibly useful tool for its consumers. Worried about your carbon footprint? The CO2 calculator feature can help you reduce it. If you want simplified nutritional information to help you stay healthy, there is a nutritional calculator for that as well. This high level of personalisation ensures that the service is relevant for all consumers looking to make more informed purchasing decisions.
But most importantly, it’s putting the information at the hands of the customer rather than positioning it as a tool for the company.
Simply does it / We are all constantly bombarded with messages encouraging us to change our purchasing habits, whether that is to eat less sugar, buy local, or to consider carbon footprints.
But actually implementing these changes is a lot more complicated in practice for consumers wishing to change their own purchasing behaviour.
What S Group’s Omat Ostot service does is respond to this consumer demand and eliminate the consumer pain point of having to stop mid-shop and collate all this information themselves. In fact, we have seen a similar initiative last year from another Scandinavian country. Danish supermarket group Coop DK introduced a climate impact tool into its mobile app. Rather than an all-around service, Coop DK highlighted the carbon footprint of a consumer’s purchases and allowed them to see which products have the largest carbon footprint.
With S Group creating a fully integrated service, the Finnish co-operative goes a step further, collecting, collating and personalising the crucial information for each shopper, placing it firmly on the side of the conscious consumer. In doing so it’s also engendering loyalty. The shopper has a real reason to continue spending with S-Group versus another supermarket, because, armed with a wealth of knowledge about themselves, it can help them make more informed spending decisions.
