A poll on personal data in retail by Retail Week and ICM suggests that consumers are more likely to be in favour of the use of their data by retailers if they see a form of personal gain from it.

The intrusive method of retailing has got many consumers backs up with the majority being against personal information, derived from bank statements and mobile phone data, being used to target their custom.

However, if the retailers can offer the consumers a form of reward by way of discounts/ vouchers in return, they may see a more favourable response.

When asked to what extent are you happy in general to share personal data with retailers in return for rewards such as money off vouchers and special offers? Four in ten consumers said they were happy with this agreement, which was also the most well received of all four methods of using personal data. Young consumers, men and Londoners were most in favour of the concept of swapping data for rewards; figures show that 51% of young consumers aged 18-34, 45% of men and 52% of people asked who lived in London were more likely to be happy about sharing personal data for rewards.

Over half of consumers (56%) were found to be unhappy with the prospect of retailers using mobile phone data to target them, when asked to what extent would you be happy for retailers to use your mobile phone data, such as location information, to try and encourage you to shop with them? Most in favour were the younger consumers again with 28% of under thirty-five year olds stating they would be happy with retailers using their phone data, along with 31% of Londoners. In contrast the over forty-five year olds were against the move with only 9% being in favour of this happening.

The most opposed of all suggested uses of personal data, was the suggestion of retailers using bank data. The poll asked, to what extent would you be happy for retailers to use data from your bank statement, such as information on where you shop, to try and encourage you to shop with them? Four in five consumers said they would be unhappy with retailers using information from their bank statements about where they shop to target them and even the more open of consumers had their doubts. Across younger consumers, those in London and men, less than a quarter were found happy for retailers to use personal data from bank statements.

Slightly less invasive on a personal level was the method of in store scanning, which is yet to be fully explained and therefore found mixed results. When asked to what extent are you happy for retailers to use scanning equipment in store to target shoppers with personalised adverts? One in two consumers claimed that they would be unhappy with the idea of retailers using scanning equipment to provide personalised adverts. However, at the same time a third didn’t feel strongly either way while another third were very unhappy with the idea.

The poll follows the news of Tesco installing scanning equipment in petrol stations to deliver personalised adverts.

Source: Retail Week and ICM