The Data Dilemma: How Retail and Consumer Goods Brands Can Overcome Fragmented Insights to Deliver Personalized Experiences

In today’s fast-paced, hypercompetitive business environment, brands face a mounting challenge: Deliver a highly personalized and relevant customer experience, or potentially risk falling behind the competition. With consumer expectations skyrocketing — demanding the right product, at the right time and in the right place — it’s no longer enough to simply offer what people want. Companies should anticipate these desires and respond quickly. One way to make this possible? Data.

Data has the potential to unlock deep insights into what consumers truly want from their shopping experiences. But with so much data scattered across different platforms, both online and offline, retailers are left grappling with a massive challenge: How do you pull all this fragmented information together and use it effectively? For example, customers often use multiple email addresses or forms of payment when shopping — but those profiles may never be linked together to tell a holistic story about that person and what they want from a brand, let alone how they are engaging with other brands. And as more data is generated each day, the task becomes even more complex. Many companies are also struggling to leverage data in a way that effectively segments their audiences and delivers tailored experiences that drive meaningful results.

“Leading retail and consumer goods companies see the ongoing evolution of consumer behavior — blending in-store and online shopping with social influence — not as a challenge but as an opportunity,” says Paul Winsor, Industry Principal for Retail and Consumer Goods at Snowflake. “Every interaction generates valuable data, enabling them to better understand and serve their customers.”

To help companies address these data challenges head-on, Snowflake and Deloitte have joined forces to help organizations harmonize their data to provide their customers with enhanced experiences. 

Harnessing the power of data to understand customers and unlock success

It’s simple: The more companies know about their customers, the more effectively they can serve them. To create seamless, personalized experiences, it’s crucial to understand who customers are on a deeper level. This is where advanced analytics and a deep understanding of both business and audience come into play. 

For many retailers, this begins with unlocking the full potential of their customer data. Deloitte’s identity solutions offer a differentiated approach to identifying customers at retail points of sale by using a proprietary process and technology, allowing companies to unify customer profiles and capture more identifiable records based on transaction data, ultimately providing a robust, holistic view of the customer. Building on this now clean and robust data, Deloitte’s segmentation solution utilizes generative AI to bring customer-led growth strategies to the next level. This helps segment customers based on first- and third-party data and uses gen AI to create marketer-friendly segment names and summaries of customers’ defining traits, behaviors and motivators. 

Utilizing Deloitte’s solutions in the Snowflake Data Clean Room environment, retailers and consumer organizations can unlock actionable insights by resolving disparate customer data and creating true 360-degree-view customer profiles.

“Today’s organizations are facing the challenge of managing vast amounts of data and leveraging it to enhance customer experiences and outcomes. However, integrating this data across multiple online and offline channels can be complex,” says Clark Passino, Data & Insights Leader for Converge by Deloitte and Managing Director at Deloitte Consulting LLP. “Through our collaboration with Snowflake, we are helping businesses streamline and create a 360-degree view of their customers, as well as predicting their future behavior, to drive more purposeful, targeted and profitable engagements.”

These collaborative solutions give businesses a more complete picture of their customers — while helping them ensure privacy and security of data. One example of how this collaboration is making a difference: A recent project helped a client identify more than a million new customer profiles. By using Snowflake’s secure platform and combining it with the powerful tools offered by Deloitte, the client was able to significantly expand their outbound touchpoints in direct-to-consumer campaigns, driving better results and greater engagement.

Snowflake Data Clean Rooms further enhance this by allowing businesses to safely share information with partners, providing even more opportunities to leverage customer data effectively.

A data-driven approach for meaningful customer engagement

The new Deloitte and Snowflake collaboration enables retailers to move beyond simple data collection and transform their customer engagement strategies. By creating segments that are not only practical but also actionable, businesses can engage customers with relevant and timely messages, enhancing their experience at every touchpoint.

“Through this collaboration, retailers and consumer organizations can expedite the process to drive actionable insights quickly so data science isn’t left sitting on the shelf,” says Natalie Groff, Segmentation and Engagement Leader for Converge by Deloitte and Managing Director at Deloitte Consulting LLP. “Companies can automate the integration between segmentation modeling outputs with downstream martech-adtech platforms for faster execution, more precise customer engagement and reduced media waste by focusing on the right audiences.”

This approach doesn’t just boost customer acquisition or retention — it can drive long-term value. By better understanding and predicting customer behavior, businesses can build more profitable, lasting relationships with both current and future customers.

The solutions that Deloitte and Snowflake offer together are more than just technical — they are game-changers for businesses looking to enhance their customer experience through data-driven insights. By resolving fragmented customer information and leveraging it for personalized, targeted experiences, retailers can position themselves for long-term growth and success. It’s not just about keeping up with the competition — it’s about staying ahead.

Deloitte and Snowflake are delivering comprehensive data management solutions to help with greater analytic proficiency, combat common challenges and accelerate transformation with minimal business disruption. As a Snowflake Elite Services Partner and three-time Global Systems Integrator Partner of the Year, Deloitte is proud to combine its leadership in strategy, analytics and technology services with the advanced capabilities of Snowflake’s AI Data Cloud to help businesses successfully migrate to the cloud while reducing costs and increasing agility. 

Learn more about Deloitte and Snowflake here.