Retailers are facing a more complex and competitive environment than ever before, and the key to staying relevant is recognizing the value of customers they already have rather than focusing solely on acquiring new ones, says a recent report from EY Canada.

EY and Shopify’s latest report reveals that the real growth opportunity isn’t attracting new customers — it’s recognizing the ones they already have.

Key insights from the report:

• Scattered customer data across channels (in-store, online, offline) is making it harder for retailers to understand shoppers and build loyalty.
• Known customers — those whose identity, preferences, and behaviours are organized across channels, allowing for continuous personalized engagement — drive 76% of in-store sales growth and spend 3x as much as anonymous shoppers.
• Known customers are 61% more likely to make repeat purchases
• Privacy meets personalization: 57% of consumers will share data for personalized offers, but 65% worry about misuse. Responsible data activation is now a brand differentiator.
• Despite more touchpoints, retailers are drowning in data but starved for insights. EY’s unified commerce model and Shopify POS help unify fragmented data into actionable customer profiles.

The full report can be found here: https://www.ey.com/en_ca/alliances/shopify/unlocking-retail-growth-the-power-of-known-customers

Fragmented Data Is Holding Retailers Back

“The retail landscape has become increasingly complicated for retailers to sort of connect and provide relevant offers and relevant products to customers,” said Brian Peterson, Partner with EY Canada. “There’s a lot of data available. There’s a lot of touchpoints that you might have with a prospective buyer of a product. But oftentimes, those data sources are fragmented, if you will.”

Peterson co-leads the EY-Shopify global alliance and EY’s data analytics and monetization efforts for the Technology, Media and Telecommunications practice.

He pointed to the importance of truly understanding customer behaviour, and how platforms like Shopify are helping retailers do that more effectively.

“What’s interesting is the power of being able to really understand and know your customer and to provide relevant offers for them,” he said. “Shopify has some really interesting, inherent capabilities that allow retailers to truly understand who their customers are and then to leverage that understanding to provide relevant offers and products to them.”

Peterson added that this ability is not only a competitive differentiator for Shopify but also a critical advantage for retailers in general. “It allows a retailer to truly know who their customers are and to become increasingly relevant to them in a world where there’s a ton of fragmentation.”

A Growth Story That Benefits Everyone — Not Just the Business

Samantha Rizzi, Manager in EY’s Business Consulting team, emphasized that data-driven customer insights don’t just benefit the bottom line—they create value across the entire retail experience.

“It’s not just something that benefits a business. The story really affects all pieces,” said Rizzi. “There’s the business benefit because you get the insights and the learnings. There’s the customer benefit because you feel that you’re more understood in a store setting or by your retailers that you enjoy shopping at.”

She added: “There’s also the store associate setting that often gets overlooked, where you’re equipping the people that you’re actually employing to feel empowered to help and service customers. It’s really just a positive growth story overall where you’re not only going to benefit all these three attributes, you’re not only going to ultimately increase your revenue, but you’re allowed to actually grow as a business with what you know about your customers, how you’re helping your store associates and growing as a business overall.”

Loyalty Must Evolve Beyond Discounts

Retailers must evolve their approach to loyalty, said Peterson, and that starts with moving beyond rudimentary discount-driven strategies.

“Traditional loyalty strategies would be: somebody comes in and we offer them a discount. It’s a very rudimentary sort of perspective around loyalty, which I think still is pervasive around a lot of retailers,” he explained. “The retail landscape now can afford retailers to be a little bit more sophisticated.”

Peterson urged retailers to “invest in technologies and programs and processes that allow them to differentiate their loyalty programs and to build their relationships with customers.”

He highlighted two key paths forward: manually understanding customer data from various sources or leveraging platforms like Shopify to make the process easier and more effective.

“If you have good customer data that is actually actionable, then you have a higher likelihood of being able to grow as a retailer in a highly competitive retail environment,” he said.

In-Store Data Is the Overlooked Opportunity

Rizzi pointed out that retailers often focus too heavily on digital channels, overlooking the untapped potential of in-store data.

“In our area, we focus on in-store customer data, and I think that’s probably something that’s often overlooked,” she said. “A lot of people are investing in online because it’s easy to understand immediately where the technology comes into play.”

She emphasized the friction that occurs in-store, where data collection often relies on human input from store associates. “You’re relying on them to make sure they’re asking the right questions, capturing it in the right way. And so you can easily lose data.”

Rizzi noted that standardizing and activating this data is essential. “Just having all that data isn’t going to help you if you’re not finding ways in the backend to make sure that you’re capturing it, you’re organizing it, and then you’re actually activating it to re-engage that customer,” she said.

Apparel Sector Leading the Charge

When asked which segments of the retail industry are leading in leveraging customer data, Peterson pointed to apparel.

“Apparel is an area that I think lends itself very well to leveraging customer data to create unique buying experiences,” he said. “Buying experiences that tend to be consistent across different platforms.”

He added that Shopify has established a strong footprint in the apparel space, sharpening its offerings as a result. “Apparel retail is kind of at the forefront of this and they increasingly have to be because it’s an increasingly competitive environment.”

Peterson noted the unique challenges apparel retailers face from both ends of the market, digitally-native brands entering brick-and-mortar and legacy retailers trying to improve their online presence.

“It’s fundamentally where knowing your customer can really make a difference,” he said. “Customers are super fickle in that segment. If I have a really incredible experience with a retailer, I’m going to measure every other interaction with any other retailer based on that bar.”

“That leads to repeat purchases,” he added. “It’s a really important strategy for retailers to get right.”

Related Retail Insider stories:

• Retail market showing resilience despite headwinds: Morguard’s Keith Reading
• Retail trade sees increase in operating profit: Statistics Canada