Software for enterprise retailers: The ultimate martech stack

With a seemingly never-ending array of technology solutions that promise to solve the grocery industry’s challenges, it can be hard to determine which investments to make. In this article, we will debate the merits of online and in-store grocery technologies and offer our take on technologies providing clear value to food and fashion retailers.

This is the definitive guide to marketing tools specific to enterprise retail.

So if you want to:

• Increase sales
• Enhance brand recognition
• Improve customer experience
• Utilize data-driven insights

Then you’ll love this article.

Let’s get started.

In this article, you’ll find a suggested list of software for enterprise retailers, along with a bunch of product recommendations for each category and their unique selling propositions or USPs. The specific tools and platforms will depend on the retailer’s unique needs and marketing strategy.

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Overall, the marketing technology stack of an enterprise retail business would be a comprehensive suite of tools and platforms that enable them to deliver personalized, engaging, and data-driven marketing experiences to their target audience.

Customer Data Platform (CDP):

A CDP is a tool that helps grocers collect and unify customer data from various sources (such as online transactions, loyalty programs, and in-store purchases) into a Single Customer View. With this holistic view of their customers, grocers can then effectively hyper-personalize marketing efforts and deliver targeted promotions.

Think about a CDP as a CRM on steroids.

Overall, a CDP is different and better than a CRM for an enterprise grocer because it provides a more complete view of customer data, enables real-time data processing, and allows for more flexible data analysis.

Here are specific CDP use cases for which a Customer Data Platform is better than a CRM for an enterprise grocer:

Data unification:

A CDP unifies customer data from multiple sources, such as online and offline purchases, website interactions, and loyalty program data. This enables an enterprise grocer to have a more complete view of their customers, which can help them personalize their marketing campaigns and customer experiences.

A CRM, on the other hand, typically only captures data from a company’s own interactions with customers.

Real-time data processing:

A CDP processes customer data in real-time, which means that an enterprise grocer can respond to customer behavior and preferences in real-time.

For example, if a customer makes a purchase online, a CDP can use that data to trigger a personalized email or mobile notification in real-time. A CRM typically does not have real-time data processing capabilities.

Flexible data analysis:

A CDP allows an enterprise grocer to analyze customer data in a more flexible and granular way. This can help them identify trends and patterns in customer behavior, as well as develop more targeted marketing campaigns.

A CRM typically has more limited data analysis capabilities.

Read our article: 5 CDP use cases your didn’t know about

Here are some some popular CDP solutions among enterprise grocers across the globe:

1. Segment

Segment is a customer data platform that helps grocers collect, unify, and activate customer data across various channels. Its USP is its ease of use and flexibility, as it can be easily integrated with other marketing tools and platforms.

2. Lytics

Lytics is a customer data platform that helps grocers create personalized marketing campaigns based on customer behavior and interests. Its USP is its ML algorithms, which can help grocers predict customer behavior and make data-driven decisions.

3. BlueConic

BlueConic is a customer data platform that helps grocers collect and unify customer data in real-time. Its USP is its ability to create and update customer profiles in real-time, allowing grocers to deliver personalized experiences across various channels.

Retail Analytics Platform

A retail analytics platform is a software tool that enables retailers to collect, process, and analyze data from various sources to gain insights into customer behavior and preferences, optimize operations, and drive revenue growth. The use cases and benefits of a retail analytics platform can vary depending on the specific needs and goals of each retailer, but some common examples include:

Customer analytics:

Retailers can use analytics platforms to collect and analyze data on customer behavior and preferences, such as purchase history, browsing behavior, and demographic information. This data can help retailers personalize marketing campaigns, improve customer engagement and loyalty, and optimize product assortments to meet customer demand.

Marketing analytics:

Retailers can use analytics platforms to measure the effectiveness of marketing campaigns across various channels, such as email, social media, and search. This data can help retailers identify which campaigns are driving the most revenue and engagement, optimize campaign targeting and messaging, and allocate marketing budgets more effectively.

Operational analytics:

Retailers can use analytics platforms to track and optimize key operational metrics, such as inventory levels, supply chain performance, and store performance. This data can help retailers identify inefficiencies and opportunities for improvement, reduce costs, and optimize inventory management to avoid stockouts and overstocks.

Supplier analytics:

Supplier analytics in the context of retail refers to the use of data and analytical tools to analyze supplier performance, identify trends, and optimize supplier relationships. This involves collecting data on supplier performance metrics such as delivery times, order accuracy, and product quality, as well as sales and inventory data to gain insights into product performance and consumer demand.

Overall, the use cases and benefits of a retail analytics platform can be diverse and extensive. By leveraging the insights gained from analytics, retailers can make more informed decisions, improve operational efficiency, and drive revenue growth by better understanding and meeting the needs and preferences of their customers.

Here are three popular retail analytics platforms for enterprise grocers and their unique selling points:

1. Loyal Guru:

Loyal Guru offers retail-ready analytics, dashboards and reports for enterprise retailers to never again miss red flags or major opportunities.

The analytics platform helps enterprise grocers detect business gaps and act on them swiftly, as well as gaining deeper insights into customer behavior and preferences. In essence, it helps optimize their operations, create new streams of income and improve their bottom line.

Loyal Guru is obsessed with offering the best advanced retail analytics to Enterprise Retailers. That means we listen to our customers’ feedback, we round up our engineers and developers and deliver to our clients the most sophisticated and powerful retail-ready dashboards and reports.

Javi Fernández, co-founder & CTO of Loyal Guru

2. Tableau:

Tableau is a powerful data visualization and analytics platform that allows enterprise grocers to analyze data from multiple sources and create interactive visualizations and dashboards. One of its key USPs is its ease of use, which allows non-technical users to create custom reports and visualizations without requiring extensive technical expertise. Additionally, Tableau offers a range of advanced analytics features, such as predictive analytics and statistical modeling.

3. Domo:

Domo is a cloud-based platform that offers a range of analytics and business intelligence tools for enterprise grocers. One of its key USPs is its ability to unify data from multiple sources, including point-of-sale systems, loyalty programs, and social media. Domo also offers advanced analytics features, such as machine learning and artificial intelligence, which can help grocers gain deeper insights into customer behavior and preferences.

Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning Tools

AI & ML are increasingly used in marketing to automate processes, analyze data, and personalize customer experiences. In retail, AI and ML can help businesses optimize pricing, inventory management, product recommendations, and customer service.

Here are three popular AI and ML tools for enterprise retail businesses:

1. Salesforce Einstein:

Salesforce Einstein is an AI-powered platform that helps businesses automate sales, marketing, and customer service processes. It uses predictive analytics to identify customer behavior patterns and deliver personalized experiences across all touchpoints. Salesforce Einstein’s USP is its ability to integrate with Salesforce CRM and other marketing tools to deliver a unified view of the customer.

2. Dynamic Yield:

Dynamic Yield is a personalization platform that helps businesses deliver tailored experiences to their customers. It uses AI and ML algorithms to analyze customer behavior and preferences and deliver personalized content, product recommendations, and pricing. Dynamic Yield’s USP is its ability to deliver hyper-personalized experiences across multiple channels, such as web, mobile, email, and in-store.

3. Adobe Sensei:

Adobe Sensei is an AI and ML platform that helps businesses create, manage, and optimize digital experiences. It uses machine learning to analyze customer data and deliver personalized content, images, and videos. Adobe Sensei’s USP is its ability to automate creative tasks, such as image editing and video production, and improve the ROI of marketing campaigns.

In summary, AI and ML are powerful tools for enterprise retail businesses to optimize marketing, sales, and customer service processes, based on real-time data and AI-driven insights.

Web Analytics Platform:

An analytics platform can help grocers track and analyze customer behavior across various channels. This can include website traffic, social media engagement, and in-store purchases.

Our research has revealed that consumers are becoming increasingly intentional about the types of data they share and with whom. The way companies handle consumer data and privacy can become a point of differentiation and even a source of competitive business advantage.

Grocery seems to be in an ideal position to extract data from web analytics: it boasts high purchase frequency, rich customer data, and a focus on efficiency. Yet with at least 100 documented analytics use cases in grocery, retailers often have difficulty determining which pockets of innovation matter most. In our experience with leading grocers, just a fraction of use cases represent most of the value.

Here are 3 popular web analytics platforms for enterprise grocers and their unique selling points:

1. Google Analytics

Google Analytics is an analytics platform that helps grocers track and analyze website traffic and customer behavior. Its USP is its user-friendly interface and integration with other Google products.

2. Adobe Analytics

Adobe Analytics is a cloud-based web analytics platform that helps grocers track and analyze customer behavior across various channels. Its USP is its advanced analytics features, including real-time data visualization and predictive analytics.

3. Piwik PRO

Piwik PRO is a web analytics platform that offers retailers full data ownership and privacy compliance, as well as a range of powerful features such as heatmaps, session recordings, and A/B testing. It also offers integrations with other marketing tools, such as email marketing software and tag management solutions.

Loyalty Program Management Software:

A loyalty program management tool is a software platform that helps retailers design, implement, and manage customer loyalty programs.

These tools enable retailers to create customized member programs that reward customers for their repeat business, encourage engagement, and drive revenue growth.

Loyalty automation platforms offer a range of features, including:

Loyalty program design:

Loyal Guru provides an AI-powered, smart and retail-specific loyalty platform. Its drag-and-drop interface that allows retailers to create a customized loyalty program tailored to their specific needs and goals, whether it involves points, tiers, discounts, rewards, gamification and more. With Loyal Guru’s loyalty management solution you get unbeatable retail intelligence powering the whole buyer’s journey.

Retailers can choose from a range of loyalty program types, including points-based systems, tiered programs, and VIP programs, and customize the program’s earn&burn rules, rewards, and incentives.

Omnichannel communication:

Loyal Guru’s omnichannel communication solution enables retailers to connect with customers via email, SMS, push notifications, and other channels to keep them engaged with the loyalty program. The platform also offers targeted marketing tools to help retailers promote their loyalty program and encourage member sign-ups.

Loyalty data and analytics:

Loyal Guru provides retailers with detailed data and analytics on their loyalty program’s performance, including customer engagement, program participation rates, and incremental revenue generated from loyalty program members.

Retailers can use this data to optimize their loyalty program and make data-driven decisions about program design and incentives.

Here are three popular loyalty program platforms for enterprise grocers and their unique selling points:

1. Loyal Guru

Loyal Guru is perfect for enterprise retail businesses that are serious about increasing revenue with loyalty initiatives but don’t have time to learn complicated software. Loyal Guru provides a full suite of tools to engage your retail customers and keep them coming back for more. Loyal Guru’s USP are its industry focus, its flexibility, and its quick time-to-market.

As interest rates and inflation continue to rise in 2023, its clear shoppers are making more mindful decisions around their spending habits. As a result, grocers are reporting more engagement with loyalty programs that offer exclusive deals and discounts, private label growth, and a need to explore new monetization opportunities. In this regard, the hottest topics right now revolve around next-gen loyalty solutions, retail media, and building stronger customer relationships via technology.

Borja Sanfeliu, co-founder & CEO at Loyal Guru.

2. Voyado

Voyado is well suited for small retail businesses that want to dip their toes into loyalty programs. Their loyalty module features basic earn and burn mechanics, expiration and activation policies and rewards.

The best thing about Voyado is the focus on e-commerce use cases. Online players can build customer journeys without worrying about integrating complex and siloed data from POS.

3. Eagle Eye

Eagle Eye delivers are range of tools across multiple sectors to drive footfall and loyalty with multi-channel marketing. These tools don’t include data management (collecting, cleansing, enriching, etc) or data analysis (churn rate, lifetime value, etc). Where some platforms focus on simplicity, Eagle Eye’s differentiator is its complexity. Along with those advanced features comes a steeper learning curve. For example, there’s much more to understand about omnichannel personalization in Eagle Eye . But if you have lots of experience and some extra time to work through it, these additional customization options can be useful.

Offer Personalization and Coupon Management Software:

Every facet of grocery retail is becoming more personalized, a trend that is jeopardizing established operating models rooted in a one-to-many mass approach. Advanced analytics has proven its potential to transform grocery operations, but many retailers struggle to harness these capabilities to improve performance and truly differentiate themselves in the market.

Recognizing this trend, many grocers already offer simple personalization, either through segmented promotions (selected campaigns targeted to segments with similar preferences) or by matching predefined offers with the customers who have the highest propensity to buy.

These efforts typically increase sales by less than 1%. When done right though, promotions can provide a substantial benefit of 4-8% sales increase and 2-3% net income and EBIT uplift.

To achieve this level, grocers should take a true “customer lifetime value” approach, in which customers are notified of the right offer at the right time, with the right message, and through the right channel.

To run thousands of individual campaigns, grocers need to implement an appropriate martech stack and potentially make changes to the underlying infrastructure. For example, allowing traditional point-of-sale (POS) systems to print individual coupons.

Personalized promotions create a level of complexity that strains the management capabilities of retailers. To be successful, they must encourage collaboration among marketing teams, category managers, analytics, and sometimes representatives of vendors.

Learn how enterprise retailers excel with their coupon marketing strategy: tips, trends and statistics for enterprise retailers.

Here are 3 popular offer personalization platforms for enterprise grocers and their unique selling points:

1. Loyal Guru

With Loyal Guru, retailers can operate personalized promotions at scale because technology has evolved, and customer touch points for data collection and communication (especially through e-grocery and loyalty apps) have increased in recent years.

To support high-quality personalized promotions, grocers need a robust data lake (containing data on offers, transactions, and products), an analytics environment, and coupon creation and delivery tools. For personalized promotions, these elements need to be combined with data from a CDP and loyalty software, including customer purchase behavior, app interactions, and profile information.

Supporting promotions also requires navigating compliance issues around the use of personally identifiable information (PII) data: depending on the geography, consumers need to be presented with an explicit opt-in feature and customer data needs to be handled following rigorous lines.

2. Voucherify

Voucherify is a coupon management software that helps grocers create and distribute coupons and promotional codes. Its USP is its flexibility, allowing grocers to create custom coupon campaigns based on their specific needs and goals.

3. Coupon Carrier

Coupon Carrier is a coupon management software that helps grocers create and distribute coupons and promotional codes via email and SMS. Its USP is its integration with various ecommerce platforms, such as Shopify and WooCommerce, allowing grocers to seamlessly integrate physical & digital coupon marketing into their existing workflows.

Marketing Automation Platform (MAP):

A MAP can help grocers automate and scale their marketing efforts across various channels, including email, social media, and mobile apps. These platforms often include features such as lead scoring, lead nurturing, and behavior-based segmentation.

Here are three popular marketing automation platforms for enterprise grocers and their unique selling points:

1. Marketo

Marketo is a marketing automation platform that helps grocers automate and scale their marketing efforts across various channels. Its USP is its robust lead management capabilities, which can help grocers streamline their lead generation and nurturing processes.

2. HubSpot

HubSpot is a marketing automation platform that helps grocers attract, engage, and delight customers across various channels. Its USP is its all-in-one platform, which includes marketing automation, sales, and customer service tools.

3. Pardot

Pardot is a marketing automation platform that helps grocers create and manage targeted campaigns across various channels. Its USP is its B2B-focused features, such as lead scoring and account-based marketing.

Social Media Management Tools

A social media management tool can help grocers manage and schedule posts across various social media platforms. These platforms include features such as social listening, analytics, and engagement tracking.

Here are three popular social media management tools for enterprise grocers and their unique selling points:

1. Hootsuite

Hootsuite is a social media management tool that helps grocers manage and schedule posts across various social media platforms. Its USP is its comprehensive social media management capabilities, including social listening, analytics, and engagement tracking.

2. Sprout Social

Sprout Social is a social media management tool that helps grocers manage their social media presence and engage with customers. Its USP is its collaborative features, which can help grocers streamline their social media workflows and manage social media responses.

3. Buffer

Buffer is a social media management tool that helps grocers schedule and publish content across various social media platforms. Its USP is its focus on content creation and curation, providing grocers with tools to create and discover content to share on social media.

Content Management System (CMS):

A CMS can help grocers manage their website and other digital content. This can include product information, recipes, and blog posts.

Here are 3 popular content management systems for enterprise grocers and their USPs:

1. WordPress

WordPress is a content management system that helps grocers create and manage their website content. Its USP is its ease of use and flexibility, as it can be customized with various plugins and themes.

2. Drupal

Drupal is a content management system that helps grocers create and manage complex websites with multiple content types. Its USP is its scalability and security, making it a good choice for larger enterprises.

3. Squarespace

Squarespace is a content management system that helps grocers create and manage their website content, with an emphasis on design and aesthetics. Its USP is its user-friendly interface and built-in design tools, which can help grocers create visually appealing websites without needing to know how to code.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Tool

An SEO tool can help grocers optimize their website and other digital content for search engines. These platforms often include features such as keyword research, on-page optimization, and link building.

Here are three popular SEO tools for enterprise grocers and their unique selling points:

1. Ahrefs

Ahrefs is an SEO tool that helps grocers improve their website’s search engine rankings. Its USP is its comprehensive SEO features, including keyword research, on-page optimization, and backlink analysis.

2. SEMrush

SEMrush is an SEO tool that helps grocers improve their website’s search engine rankings and drive traffic. Its USP is its competitive analysis features, allowing grocers to benchmark their SEO efforts against their competitors.

3. Moz

Moz is an SEO tool that helps grocers improve their website’s search engine rankings and visibility. Its USP is its focus on local SEO, providing grocers with tools to improve their visibility in local search results.

Email Service Provider (ESP):

An ESP can help grocers create and send marketing emails to customers and prospects. These platforms often include features such as email templates, list segmentation, and A/B testing.

Here are three popular email service providers for enterprise grocers and their unique selling points:

1. Mailchimp

Mailchimp is an email service provider that helps grocers create and send marketing emails to customers and prospects. Its USP is its user-friendly interface and ease of use, making it a popular choice for small and medium-sized businesses.

2. Campaign Monitor

Campaign Monitor is an email service provider that helps grocers create and send personalized emails to customers and prospects. Its USP is its advanced email marketing automation features, such as behavior-based triggers and advanced segmentation.

3. Constant Contact

Constant Contact is an email service provider that helps grocers create and send targeted emails to customers and prospects. Its USP is its all-in-one platform, which includes email marketing, social media, and ecommerce tools.

Mobile Marketing Tools

Mobile marketing is essential for enterprise retail businesses, as more and more consumers are using mobile devices to browse and shop online.

To succeed in mobile marketing, retailers need to have a mobile-optimized website, a loyalty app, and a mobile messaging strategy that engages customers at every stage of the customer journey.

In summary, mobile marketing is critical for enterprise retail businesses to engage with customers on-the-go and drive revenue.

Here are three popular mobile marketing tools for enterprise retail businesses:

1. Braze:

Braze is a customer engagement platform that helps businesses create personalized mobile messaging campaigns, such as push notifications, in-app messages, and email. It uses AI and machine learning to analyze customer data and deliver relevant messages to customers based on their behavior, preferences, and interests. Braze’s USP is its ability to deliver hyper-personalized messages that drive customer engagement and loyalty.

2. MoEngage:

MoEngage is an AI-powered customer engagement platform that helps businesses create personalized mobile messaging campaigns, such as push notifications, in-app messages, and email. It uses predictive analytics to identify customer segments and deliver targeted messages that drive conversions and revenue. MoEngage’s USP is its ability to deliver personalized messages at scale, across multiple channels, and in real-time.

3. Swrve:

Swrve is a mobile marketing automation platform that helps businesses create personalized mobile messaging campaigns, such as push notifications, in-app messages, and email. It uses real-time data and machine learning to deliver messages that are relevant, timely, and personalized to each customer. Swrve’s USP is its ability to automate the entire mobile marketing process, from segmentation to delivery, and optimize campaigns based on customer behavior and engagement.

Project Management Tools

Retail marketing teams use project management software to manage and track projects, assign tasks, set deadlines, and communicate progress.

Examples of popular project management tools include Asana, Trello, and Basecamp. Here’s a brief comparison of the three:

1. Asana

Asana is a comprehensive project management tool that allows teams to create tasks, assign them to team members, set due dates, and track progress. Asana also includes features such as calendars, timelines, and project templates. One of the strengths of Asana is its flexibility in allowing teams to customize their workflows and organize tasks according to their needs.

2. Trello

Trello is a visual-based project management tool that uses boards, lists, and cards to organize tasks and track progress. Trello’s simple and intuitive interface allows teams to easily create and move cards across lists, add comments and attachments, and set due dates. Trello’s strength lies in its simplicity, making it a great choice for small teams.

3. Basecamp

Basecamp is an all-in-one project management tool that includes features such as task lists, message boards, scheduling, file sharing, and group chat. Basecamp emphasizes communication and collaboration, with a focus on keeping all project-related discussions and files in one central location. One of Basecamp’s strengths is its simplicity and ease of use.

Overall, Asana is a good choice for teams that need more comprehensive project management features and flexibility, while Trello is a good choice for those who prefer a simple, visual-based approach. Basecamp is a good choice for teams that prioritize communication and collaboration, and who want an all-in-one tool that can handle multiple aspects of project management.

Collaboration Tools

Retail marketing teams use collaboration tools to communicate and share information, files, and feedback. Examples of popular collaboration tools include Slack, Microsoft Teams, and Google Workspace.

1. Slack

Slack is a communication and collaboration tool that allows teams to send instant messages, make voice and video calls, and share files. Slack also integrates with other tools, such as project management software and customer relationship management systems. Slack’s strengths lie in its ease of use, versatility, and the ability to customize notifications and preferences.

2. Microsoft Teams

Microsoft Teams is a communication and collaboration tool that integrates with other Microsoft Office products, such as Outlook and SharePoint. Teams allows teams to send instant messages, make voice and video calls, and collaborate on documents and files. Teams also includes features such as channels, video conferencing, and integration with Microsoft’s other productivity tools. Microsoft Teams is a good choice for teams that already use Microsoft products and want a seamless integration with their existing workflows.

3. Google Workspace

Google Workspace (formerly known as G Suite) is a suite of productivity and collaboration tools that includes Gmail, Google Drive, Google Docs, and Google Meet. Google Workspace allows teams to collaborate on documents and files in real-time, send emails, and make voice and video calls. Google Workspace’s strengths lie in its ease of use, real-time collaboration features, and the ability to work on documents from anywhere.

Overall, Slack is a good choice for teams that value communication and collaboration, Microsoft Teams is a good choice for teams that already use Microsoft products and want a seamless integration, and Google Workspace is a good choice for teams that need a suite of productivity tools with real-time collaboration features.

5 things retail CMOs should consider when upgrading their tech stack:

1. Business Goals:

Before upgrading their tech stack, CMOs should first consider their business goals and identify the technologies that can help them achieve those goals. They should prioritize the technologies that align with their business objectives and provide the most value to their organization.

2. Integration:

CMOs should consider the integration capabilities of the technologies they plan to implement. The technologies should be able to integrate with their existing tech stack and work seamlessly with each other. This can help eliminate silos and create a more holistic view of the customer journey.

3. Data Privacy and Security:

With the increasing focus on data privacy and security, CMOs should ensure that the technologies they plan to implement are compliant with data privacy regulations and provide adequate security measures. This can help protect customer data and prevent data breaches that can damage their brand reputation.

4. User Experience:

CMOs should consider the user experience of the technologies they plan to implement. The technologies should be easy to use and provide a positive experience for their customers, employees, and other stakeholders. This can help increase adoption rates and drive better results.

5. Scalability and Flexibility:

CMOs should consider the scalability and flexibility of the technologies they plan to implement. The technologies should be able to scale to meet their growing business needs and be flexible enough to adapt to changes in the market and customer behavior. This can help future-proof their tech stack and provide long-term value to their organization.

By considering these 5 factors, retail CMOs can make informed decisions when upgrading their tech stack and ensure that they are investing in the right technologies that can help them achieve their business objectives.

If you’re a retailer and you’d like to talk about upgrading your loyalty and personalization tech stack, then get in touch with our team – we’ll be happy to show you examples or talk through your brand’s unique challenges.