In episode 456 of Total Retail Talks, Editor-in-Chief Joe Keenan interviews Alok Jain, senior director of CRM, loyalty and marketing analytics at West Marine, the nation's leading omnichannel provider in the marine aftermarket. Listen in as Jain discusses his career background in the loyalty space (1:00), an underutilized aspect of CRM (customer relationship management) data that retail marketers should focus on (2:30), and balancing personalization and data privacy (4:00). He touches on the role that he sees artificial intelligence (AI) playing in the future of CRM marketing (6:15) as well as in measuring return on investment (8:10).

Additionally, Jain shares how West Marine integrates CRM data across channels to create seamless customer experiences (11:20), the value in using CRM data across the business (13:30), and advice for companies just beginning to build CRM capabilities (16:15). He offers details on personalizing the customer journey (18:30), testing and optimization (22:40), CRM performance metrics (24:40) and the role of direct mail in today's omnichannel marketing landscape (26:21). Lastly, Jain discusses optimizing direct mail through data (28:40), including integrating direct mail into a business' CRM strategy (30:45).

This episode was recorded at CRMC 2024 in Chicago.