Me2B = Personalization

By Erin Harris, Editor-In-Chief, Cell & Gene
Follow Me On Twitter @ErinHarris_1

Forget B2B, B2C, and B2B2C. As the customer — specifically the Millennial and Gen Z segments — helps shape the future of retailing, we’re in the throes of the “Me2B” economy.

You may be familiar with Me2B and, as a result, may be adapting your business to personalize at scale. Indeed, this is certain — digital disruption has driven us to the Me2B world. As such, how can retailers compete in the Me2B economy?

The answer, in part, is data science and digital marketing. But before we identify how data science and digital marketing foster Me2B success, let’s look at how we got here. The Me2B concept is putting a name to what retailers have known and lived for years — consumer demand for personalization is obvious, and smart retailers are adapting to deliver a hyper-personalized experience. Yet retailers can’t personalize what they don’t understand. To better understand their customers and the experiences they want, retailers are analyzing various technologies and experiences on a regular, recurring basis in innovation labs — actual physical spaces devoted to testing and learning. By the way, if a stand-alone innovation lab isn’t in the cards just yet, treat the store as an innovation lab. Birchbox’s co-founders and co-CEOs, Hayley Barna and Katia Beauchamp, are loud about the fact that they treat their physical stores as testing labs, and they use cameras and heat maps to garner the data they need to switch up everything from assortment to layout. 

There’s more. Maybe by now you’re up to your ears in talk about virtual reality (VR), location-based technologies, mobile, social engagement, and clienteling. But the fact of the matter is that each of these things drive digital marketing and helps retailers compete in the Me2B world via the holy grail of retailing — personalization. Ultimately, VR and location-based technologies, for example, are personalization tools. The same goes for social engagement. Via clienteling, retailers are able to better connect digital, brick-and-mortar, and e-commerce in a way that helps store associates grasp the shopper’s journey — and personalize it — in real time.

Automated methods of analyzing data (i.e. artificial intelligence) and data science are also critical in the Me2B world, because data science helps AIs figure out solutions to problems by linking similar data for future use.

Me2B is about personalization. But whether it’s Me2B or another term that is sure to come along doesn’t really matter. Digital disruption got us here, and it’s on the retailer to leverage digital marketing strategies and data science to keep on going.