The customer is the flywheel that propels the motion of any business – which means that competition for customer bandwidth is increasingly fierce.

Merchants must be savvier than ever about how they reach and communicate with their customers. Marketing matters. Personalisation matters. Pricing and products matter.

But it’s the quality of data that’s truly pivotal as it can transform your business and this will be a key trend for 2019 and the years ahead.

An exponential growth in business means an exponential growth in data. It’s no surprise to learn that 90% of the world’s data has been created in the last two years. But data is only important if you know how to use it.

Ultimately, it’s about identifying the right data from the myriad information available to you and interrogating it to find the key insights.

Many merchants are taking their data and using it to woo the customer with a distinct strategy point: merging data and brand offerings to create a highly customised, personal experience – for example, linking a customer with their loyalty scheme even if they don’t have that given loyalty card on-hand when they make the purchase.

Coffee company Starbucks has been particularly efficient with its personalisation programme. It has adopted a real-time personalisation engine that produces individual offers for customers based on their previous behaviour and preferences. The data comes from the brand’s loyalty app, which was rolled out in 2011.

To fully capitalise on the data, Starbucks sends personalised emails to customers with relevant deals and updates. It’s a smart play and it’s one that’s helped them thrive in the era of “peak coffee”.

Ultimately, inherently knowing and understanding your customer base is key to optimising your business, tailoring your offerings and customer experience, and to surviving as a business in an increasingly-busy marketplace.