Consumer-facing industries are racing to keep up with changing customer demands and shopping preferences. Thanks to the widespread use of digital and mobile technologies - for activities such as product and price comparisons, location-based deals and coupons, and product and business ratings - the balance of power has shifted from brand to consumer. It's more important than ever before to anticipate and react to customer needs, requests, preferences, and sentiments.

With this power shift, consumer products manufacturers and retailers are experimenting with myriad strategies to win customer loyalty - and keep customers coming back. They're expanding their promotional strategies to include 1-to-1 social interactions and creating highly personalized online shopping experiences with sophisticated analytics techniques. Traditional supply chain models are evolving to meet customer needs for speedy, low- or no-cost delivery. New, agile competitors are changing the way established brands play the game.

For a new research report, "Leading the Customer Experience in the Consumer Products and Retail Sector," Salesforce Research surveyed 600 consumer products and retail marketers. We learned how they've responded to these industry changes and challenges. Here are three key findings:

1. High-performing consumer products and retail marketers collaborate across business units to deliver personalized, omni-channel customer experiences. They're 22x more likely than underperformers to say they are excellent at creating personalized omni-channel customer experiences across all business units.
   
   
2. Consumer products and retail marketing leaders understand the value of integrating systems and data from across the organization to create a single view of the customer. Sixty-two percent of high performers agree they've integrated systems to create a single view of the customer compared to only 1% of underperformers. <CLICK TO TWEET>
   
   
   
3. Top consumer products and retail marketers implement customer journey strategies. Compared to only 46% of underperformers, 89% of high performers agree that a customer journey strategy is critical to the success of their overall marketing strategy. <CLICK TO TWEET>

For a more in-depth look at the research, download a free copy of the report.