The Customer Activity Report helps you analyse customer purchasing behaviour using sales history, product activity, loyalty information and customer details. You can use the report to identify specific groups of customers based on how much they spend, what they purchase, when they last visited and whether they participate in your loyalty or marketing programs.
In this video we should you how to use the powerful Retail Express Customer Activity Report to target specific clients. With this report, you can filter your customers based on a number of factors, and bulk apply a range of different actions.
Chapters
Timestamp | Chapter |
|---|
00:07 | Overview |
00:38 | Before You Begin |
01:10 | Accessing the Customer Activity Report |
01:45 | Understanding the Report Workflow |
02:14 | Searching by Customer, Product or Birthday |
03:36 | Searching by Sales Activity |
04:03 | Finding Customers Who Have Stopped Purchasing |
05:11 | Filtering by Spend and Loyalty Points |
06:15 | Using Additional Customer and Product Filters |
07:26 | Reviewing and Exporting Results |
08:17 | Applying Customer Actions |
08:59 | Creating Gift Vouchers |
09:28 | Adjusting Loyalty Points |
10:37 | Communicating Offers Using Newsletters |
13:06 | Customer Loyalty and Marketing Workflow |
Transcript
The Customer Activity Report allows you to analyse customer buying activity and use the results to support loyalty and marketing campaigns. After identifying a group of customers, you can export their details or apply incentives and offers to all matching customer records at once.
Before You Begin
Before using the Customer Activity Report, ensure you understand how the Retail Express loyalty system is configured.
It is recommended that you first review the videos covering loyalty configuration, customer discounts and customer price groups. These settings determine how loyalty points, discount levels and other customer incentives operate.
Accessing the Customer Activity Report
In Back Office, navigate to:CRM > Customer Activity Report
The report helps you identify customers based on their purchasing behaviour, including:
- The products they purchase
- How they transact with the business
- How much they spend
- When they last made a purchase
- Their loyalty participation and points balance
You can then use this information to create targeted offers that encourage customers to return to the store.
Understanding the Report Workflow
The Customer Activity Report generally involves three stages.
First, use the available filters to define the customers you want to find.
Next, run the report and review the matching customers on the Results tab.
You can then export the customer information or use the Actions tab to apply offers and account changes to the matching customers.
Available actions may include:
- Changing customer discount levels
- Creating gift vouchers
- Awarding loyalty points
- Subtracting loyalty points
- Changing loyalty settings
- Adding customers to a newsletter
Actions applied from the report affect every customer included in the current results.
Searching for a Particular Customer
You can use an order number to locate the customer associated with a particular transaction.
Enter the order number into the relevant filter and run the search to display the matching customer.
You can also search by customer name when you need to locate an individual customer record.
Searching by Product
Use the product filter to identify customers who purchased a particular product during a selected date range.
Enter the required product code and specify the relevant dates. Retail Express returns customers who purchased that product during the period.
This can be useful when you want to:
- Promote a related product
- Offer an upgrade
- Provide an incentive for a repeat purchase
- Contact customers affected by information about a particular product
For example, you could find customers who purchased a particular pair of shoes or bicycle and offer them a related product.
Searching by Customer Birthday
When dates of birth are recorded against customer profiles, you can search for customers with birthdays within a selected date range.
This allows you to identify customers with an upcoming birthday and provide an incentive, such as a gift voucher or bonus loyalty points.
The offer can then be communicated to those customers through a marketing email or newsletter.
Searching by Sales Activity
Use the sales date filters to find customers who completed a transaction during a particular period.
Enter the required start and end dates, then select Search.
The Results tab displays customers who made a purchase during the selected date range.
This can be used to identify customers who shopped during a particular month, season, promotion or other business period.
Finding Customers Who Have Stopped Purchasing
The report also allows you to combine a period in which the customer made a purchase with a later period in which they made no purchases.
For example, you could search for customers who purchased during January and February but did not return during March.
This helps identify customers who were previously active but have recently stopped purchasing.
You can then offer these customers a discount, gift voucher or loyalty incentive to encourage them to return.
Filtering by Customer Spend
Use the spend filters to find customers whose total purchases are above or below a specified amount.
For example, you could locate:
- Customers who spent more than $500
- High-value customers who spent more than $1,000
- Customers who spent less than $50 or $100
The criteria you use will depend on the purpose of your campaign.
High-value customers might receive bonus loyalty points or a higher discount level. Customers with lower spending activity might receive an offer designed to encourage another purchase.
Filtering by Loyalty Points
Customers can also be filtered according to their current loyalty points balance.
For example, you could locate customers who have accumulated more than 10,000 loyalty points and provide them with a gift voucher.
You can also search for customers who have reached a particular points threshold when loyalty balances need to be adjusted or an additional reward needs to be applied.
Using Loyalty and Marketing Filters
Additional filters can be used to identify customers according to their loyalty and marketing settings.
These may include customers who:
- Have loyalty enabled or disabled
- Have subscribed to email marketing
- Have agreed to receive physical mail
- Purchased from a particular salesperson
These filters help ensure that the results match the intended audience and communication method.
Using Customer and Transaction Filters
Further filters are available for finding customers based on their current transactions and recorded interests.
For example, you can search for customers who:
- Currently have a layby awaiting payment
- Purchased from a particular supplier
- Used a particular sale type
- Expressed interest in a special event or VIP night
- Purchased from a particular Outlet
You can combine multiple filters to create a more specific customer group.
Using Product Attribute Filters
The report can identify customers according to the attributes of products they purchased.
Available criteria may include:
- Product group
- Size
- Colour
- Season
- Brand
For example, you could find all customers who purchased products from a particular brand and use the results for a targeted brand promotion.
These options allow you to analyse your customer database and create specific audiences based on purchasing behaviour.
Reviewing the Results
After configuring the required filters, select Search.
The Results tab displays the customers who match the selected criteria.
Any export or action performed from the report will use the customers shown in these results. Review the list before continuing to ensure the filters have returned the intended audience.
Exporting Customer Details
Customer results can be exported when you need to use the information outside Retail Express.
Select the required export format from the drop-down menu, then select Export.
The customer information is exported to a spreadsheet, which can be used for activities such as:
- Creating a physical mail merge
- Preparing a customer contact list
- Importing email addresses into an external newsletter platform
- Performing further customer analysis
Handle exported customer information according to your organisation’s privacy and marketing procedures.
Opening the Actions Tab
To apply an incentive or account change to the customers in the report, open the Actions tab.
Actions are applied in bulk to the customers currently displayed in the results. Confirm that the results are correct before applying an action.
Changing Customer Discount Levels
You can move all matching customers to another discount level.
For example, customers who spent more than $1,000 could be assigned to a Platinum discount level.
Select the required discount level and apply the action.
Retail Express updates every customer in the report results. The selected discount level will then apply according to its configuration when those customers make future purchases.
Creating Gift Vouchers
You can create a gift voucher for every customer included in the results.
For example, after finding customers with birthdays during the current month, you could create a $50 gift voucher for each customer.
Enter the required voucher amount and create the vouchers.
Retail Express applies the voucher as a credit note or gift voucher against each matching customer account. The customer can then use the available value during a future purchase.
Awarding Loyalty Points
The Actions tab can be used to award the same number of bonus loyalty points to all matching customers.
For example, you could find customers who spent more than $2,000 and award each customer an additional 2,000 loyalty points.
Enter the number of points and apply the action.
Retail Express processes the points adjustment across every customer included in the results, removing the need to update each account individually.
Subtracting or Resetting Loyalty Points
You can also subtract loyalty points from the matching customer accounts.
This may be used for administrative adjustments or when points need to be reduced according to your loyalty program rules.
The available actions may also allow you to reset customer point balances.
Because these changes can affect many customer accounts at once, review the search results and points adjustment carefully before applying the action.
Changing Loyalty Settings
Additional actions allow you to enable or disable loyalty functions for the matching customers.
For example, you may be able to change whether the selected customers can accrue loyalty points.
The exact outcome depends on the loyalty options selected and your existing Retail Express loyalty configuration.
Communicating an Offer
After applying a discount, gift voucher or points incentive, you can use a newsletter to tell the selected customers about the offer.
The newsletter drop-down displays newsletters that have already been created in Retail Express.
Select the required newsletter and apply the action. Retail Express opens the selected newsletter with the customers from the report included as its audience.
The newsletter should be created before it is selected from the Customer Activity Report. Review the newsletter creation and management guidance before using this feature.
Personalising a Newsletter
A newsletter can be configured to include personalised customer and loyalty information.
Depending on the newsletter design and available fields, it may include:
- The customer’s first name
- Promotional content
- Current loyalty points
- Available gift voucher balances
- Details of a birthday or customer reward
For example, customers with an upcoming birthday could receive a personalised email explaining that a gift voucher has been added to their account.
Customer Loyalty and Marketing Workflow
The Customer Activity Report connects customer analysis with loyalty and marketing activities.
You can use Retail Express to:
- Configure your loyalty program.
- Identify customers based on their purchasing behaviour.
- Apply a targeted discount, voucher or loyalty-points incentive.
- Communicate the offer through a newsletter.
- Encourage customers to return and make another purchase.
This provides a way to manage targeted customer campaigns without updating customer accounts individually.