Harris Scarfe invests in customer data platform

Retailer Harris Scarfe has implemented a data platform to create a single view of customers and bring personalisation to its marketing.

The Melbourne-headquartered retailer sells bed linen, kitchenware, homewares, electrical appliances and apparel, and will soon open more stores under an expansion drive by its latest owners.

Harris Scarfe’s general manager of marketing Simon Burrett said before implementing the customer data platform (CDP) made by Melbourne startup Lexer, the retailer thought “nothing [of sending] a dozen emails a week going to everyone in the database.”

"Before we signed up with Lexer, our [email marketing] strategy was not so much ‘batch and blast’ but ‘blast, blast, blast'," Burrett told a webinar.

"There wasn’t a lot of science early on, and there wasn't a lot of respect for that customer base.”

Burrett said the retailer - which is now owned by the Spotlight Group - had evolved its strategy, and that the Lexer platform was an important enabler for that to occur.

The Lexer platform enables Harris Scarfe to have “a really data rich view of the customer” and to gain better understanding of their desires in order to increase buyer conversion, he said.

With plans announced this week to open another 50 stores across Australia, stronger customer insights will play a vital role in Harris Scarfe’s expansion.

Burrett said that in the coming months Lexer and Harris Scarfe will implement a "preference centre", which will allow customers to pick and choose which marketing emails they wish to receive.

Burrett said the Spotlight Group has “very heavily invested” in Harris Scarfe since its acquisition last year, and had given its “full support” to advance its data insight capabilities.

Using artificial intelligence and marketing models, Lexer said its CDP assists Harris Scarfe in creating stronger customer segments, resulting in a cleaner and more personalised approach to how the retailer reaches its audience.

This covered both one-off tactical and "always-on" marketing campaigns.