Data from Kin + Carta, the global digital transformation consultancy, and Google Cloud has revealed that almost a quarter (24%) of retailers don’t know how to effectively communicate with their customers.

50 senior retail leaders from some of the biggest brands in the UK, including Dunelm, Marks & Spencers and Natwest, were asked “what are your main challenges in creating an intelligent customer-first digital experience?” at a recent event held by Kin + Carta and Google Cloud.

Additionally, 19% of attendees, who also represented the likes of Aviva, Ted Baker and Unilever, see the biggest challenge in creating an “intelligent customer-first digital experience” is getting the most of first-party data, while 14% say it’s agreeing who owns the customer in their organisation.

Mark Collin, MD of product and experience at Kin + Carta Europe, said: “We’ve known about the importance of communication from retailers to their customers for some time, but the fact remains is that many are still struggling to know what is best practice. No matter what size of your business.

“To approach this challenge head-on, brands are going to need to get more out of their data. And that means across the business, not just the data team. By working cross functionally with these insights, in the cloud, starting with small experiments but moving fast, retailers will be able to evolve their approach – creating the most intelligent customer experiences for their customers.”

Other results from the survey showed that 19%  of retailers are looking to improve their optimisation for customer value across marketing-sales-digital operations, while 8% saw the reduction of churn to increase customer lifetime value as the biggest challenge.

Results were taken from research carried out at The Executive Network (TEN) event: “Taking the Friction Out: How to Create Intelligent Data-driven Experiences” in partnership with Kin + Carta and Google Cloud. Participants included Chief Digital Officers; Chief Data Officers, CIOs; CTOs; VPs; Product Directors, Ecommerce Directors, Data Director, Heads of Data from retail, CPG, retail banking & travel, tourism & broader consumer-facing businesses.