4 Things Every Retail CMO Should Consider in The Second Half of 2024

2024 is shaping up to be a very different kind of year.? While all quantitative economic signs point to a strong Q4 approaching, all the qualitative signs point to chaos and uncertainty.? This is the problem in a standard election year, and this year is forecasted to be even more unpredictable than usual.? This uncertainty is complicated by the issues endemic to retail marketing, and every retail CMO should be looking at a number of key considerations if they expect growth and success in their Q4.? To help with the ability to forecast success, our team at Button laid out some of the considerations you should be looking at to ensure success.

1. Fragmentation of Retail Media Networks

The retail media landscape is becoming increasingly fragmented, with numerous networks, platforms, and tools emerging.? In many cases, fragmentation paralyzes marketing teams trying to determine who to work with.. According to a survey by Statista, 93% of marketers identified market fragmentation as a major or minor challenge in retail media advertising. Additionally, there are now over 200 retail media networks worldwide, highlighting the? complications in the landscape.??

Simplification is a marketer’s friend and that fragmentation can be overcome by a focus on the best partners for your business.? You should evaluate partners based on the complexity of implementation with them, as well as past performance and general comfort level.? We recommend considering Button’s no-code or low-code retail media implementation that can be done in a matter of weeks as a simple, extension of your retail media efforts - not a new platform or network! Just ask us, that’s how we operate.

2. Outdated Technology

Many retail organizations still rely on outdated technology that struggles to keep up with modern marketing demands.? This is extremely common because the time it takes to implement these tools is in direct conflict with the rate of change in how consumers use the Internet. In 2024, 57% of retailers plan to spend more on software, prioritizing marketing and IT investments (source: Gartner). However, 49% of retailers regret one or more software purchases made in the past year and a half, often due to difficulty in training and onboarding users.? Those regrets are commonly resulting in broken links and data leakage.??

You need to ensure that you have a simple solution in place that can adapt to changing customer needs and can properly measure and attribute the value created.? Investing in advanced analytics, AI-driven insights, and automation tools is essential to stay competitive and respond quickly to market changes.? Ensuring that investment is updated seamlessly?? There’s a Button for that too.

3. Data Privacy and Compliance

As data privacy regulations become stricter, ensuring compliance is crucial.? 94% of organizations say their customers would not buy from them if they did not protect data properly (source; SecureFrame). With the constant notification of data breaches that seem to inundate consumers every month, this is now a frontline topic of conversation in a way it never was before.? 86% of the US general population now views data privacy as a growing concern.?

CMOs need to implement robust data governance frameworks and stay updated on regulatory changes to maintain customer trust and ensure compliance.? Buried within the data governance is a third-party solution to ensure that attribution and to fix broken data leakage.? Don’t overlook these because they lead to lost revenue.

4. Measuring ROI and Impact

Accurately measuring the return on investment (ROI) of retail media spend is a significant challenge because of what is mentioned above, as well as the consumer themselves.? They are not following a linear path, and that breaks your measurement. A recent study found that 51% of respondents ranked “proof of sales lift and ROI from campaigns” as their top measurement priority (source: NielsenIQ). However, only 38% of global marketers measure their traditional and digital marketing efforts together.??

How can that be the case? Developing holistic measurement frameworks that encompass all marketing channels is crucial for gaining a comprehensive understanding of campaign performance and making data-driven decisions.? It is also important to understand the flow of that traffic and those customers, because too many of them are ending up in non-optimized journeys, which can result in a loss of revenue.? That is the death knell for a retail marketer.??

By addressing these challenges with data-driven strategies, retail CMOs can navigate the complexities of the evolving digital landscape and drive successful marketing initiatives in the second half of 2024.? If you are interested in hearing more about low-code and no-code solutions to solve these and other challenges, drop us a line and we can share our insights with you.? We help customers generate as much as a 250% increase from their in-app revenue with a set up period of 1-4 weeks and an ROI flight of 4-8 weeks.? That is the sort of thing that can have a massive impact this year.