Optimizing customer relations: strategic levers for businesses in 2025

By 2025, customer relations have emerged as a pivotal aspect for retail businesses. As competition intensifies and consumer expectations rise, it’s the customer experience that sets companies apart.

Leveraging digitalization, omnichannel strategies, and data analysis can help retain customers more effectively and convert stores into true hubs of customer engagement. This article explores key strategies to optimize customer relations in the coming years.

The importance of customer relations

Price and product quality alone no longer guarantee customer loyalty. Today, customer experience and service quality are decisive factors in consumer choices. This shift is driven by several key factors:

• The growth of digital and omnichannel platforms: customers frequently switch between e-commerce websites and physical stores. Thus, ensuring a seamless retail journey is crucial, as any inconsistency can drive customers to competitors.
• Increasingly fickle customers: consumer expectations are shaped by the high standards of e-commerce giants, leading to lower tolerance for errors and faster shifts away from disappointing experiences.
• The strategic advantage of customer loyalty: retaining existing customers is more cost-effective than acquiring new ones, while also generating higher long-term value. Loyal customers often become the best brand ambassadors.
• The pivotal role of data: understanding customer behavior enables businesses to anticipate needs. Moreover, online reviews significantly impact brand reputation, either strengthening or undermining it.

Four strategic levers to optimize customer relations

Utilize unified data

Unified customer data is crucial for enhancing customer relations. Achieving a comprehensive 360° view involves centralizing information through various systems:

• Customer Relationship Management (CRM): A CRM system centralizes essential customer details, including history, profiles, preferences, loyalty points, and past interactions, enabling teams to understand individual customers better and tailor commercial and relational actions appropriately. Learn how to select the right CRM for your retail store!
  
  
• Point of Sale (POS) systems: POS systems collect vital data from store transactions, including receipts, purchased items, visit frequency, and payment methods. This data offers companies concrete insights into customer consumption habits, enabling identification of popular products, peak times, and real-time behavioral patterns.
  
  
• Cloud SaaS solutions: These solutions aggregate data from e-commerce websites, loyalty programs, and mobile applications, offering the advantage of being accessible globally, in real-time, and seamlessly connecting all channels (physical and digital).

A unified data base equips sales teams with reliable tools to launch targeted marketing campaigns and ensure a smooth customer journey by removing friction points.

Adopt an omnichannel approach

Today’s customers expect a seamless and consistent experience across multiple channels. Brands face the challenge of ensuring a continuous purchase journey without interruptions across touchpoints. 

Essential methods include:

• Click & Collect: integrates online purchases with in-store collection, boosting foot traffic to physical stores;
  
  
• Ship from store: utilizes stores as mini logistics hubs, capable of directly shipping customer orders;
  
  
• Omnichannel returns: provides flexibility, allowing customers to buy online and return in-store, or vice versa.

These services are now standard in the omnichannel journey. They enhance inventory management, optimize product availability, and significantly improve customer satisfaction.

Implement clienteling

In unified commerce, clienteling involves providing personalized in-store assistance based on comprehensive customer knowledge. It goes beyond basic sales advice, aiming to foster a close relationship where customers feel recognized and valued.

Unified data allows sales associates to access crucial real-time information, including:

• History;
• Preferences and consumption styles;
• Available vouchers;
• Personal events, such as birthdays.

These insights make each interaction unique, enabling associates to greet customers by name, suggest complementary products, and anticipate future needs.

Enhance loyalty with personalization and innovative programs

Today’s customers desire personalized experiences and high-value rewards. Tailoring offers based on individual profiles and behaviors boosts engagement and satisfaction.

Innovative programs, such as exclusive early access benefits or ReCommerce offers, elevate the customer relationship to a genuine brand experience.

Examples of brands leading the way

Decathlon

Decathlon (France, 2024) stands out in digital innovation by deploying RFID technology to streamline checkout and stock management. This, coupled with their mobile POS systems, simplifies the shopping experience, reduces checkout wait times, and enhances the overall omnichannel experience for customers.

Intersport

Intersport (Europe, 2025) strengthens its omnichannel experience through a centralized Order Management System (OMS). This system unifies order management across all channels and stores, allowing for:

• Optimized Click & Collect;
  
  
• Improved real-time product availability;
  
  
• Streamlined order preparation and delivery;
  
  
• Reduced perception of stock-outs.

By enhancing service reliability and speed, Intersport boosts satisfaction and loyalty, positioning stores as key logistics hubs.

Nike

Nike exemplifies how customer relationship management can transcend transactions to create community experiences. The brand has implemented digital clienteling through apps like Nike Run Club and Nike Training Club, offering daily support for consumers’ sports activities.

Customers become integral members of the Nike ecosystem, maintaining engagement and loyalty far beyond the point of sale.

Sport 2000

Sport 2000 differentiates itself by focusing heavily on local engagement in customer relationship management. Its digital Sport booklet assists customers with personalized advice, tailored offers, and regular activity tracking.

This approach emphasizes the local expertise of franchised stores, promoting their unique events, partnerships, and community initiatives, fostering a more human customer relationship.

Seek Customer Feedback

Don’t shy away from measuring customer satisfaction: it enables you to continually refine your offerings and meet your customers’ long-term expectations. Reviews and comments from your customers provide valuable insights for correcting mistakes, optimizing services, and enhancing product offerings.

Furthermore, customers value being asked about their experiences: it makes them feel involved in your journey and part of an exclusive community. Actively seek feedback to optimize your operations and gain fresh ideas.

Enhancing customer relations in retail involves a holistic strategy combining digitalization, personalization, omnichannel practices, and intelligent data usage. Brands that succeed in 2025 will transform every interaction into a seamless, coherent, and impactful experience, turning stores into true customer engagement centers.