Why more data won’t save you: The CMO’s guide to smarter innovation

The biggest lie retail CMOs believe: more data equals better decisions.

Yes, you have plenty of loyalty points, point-of-sale records and app analytics. But more data doesn’t guarantee insight or ROI.  

Instead of more data, what you need today is data connected to insights. 

TL;DR  

• 73% of retail shoppers are omnichannel, interacting across 6+ touchpoints before purchase. 

• 36% of CPG brand marketers say they struggle to prove incrementality. 44% doubt the accuracy of current measurement methods. 

• Retailers with unified commerce see 27% lower fulfillment costs and 18% lower cart abandonment rates. 

• Zappi = forward-looking decisions, early concept testing, de-risking launches and fueling pivots.

Consumer behavior has never moved so fast. Flash sales, TikTok trends and economic shifts push shoppers to act within hours instead of quarters. 

Today’s shoppers browse on their phone, reserve items for click-and-collect at lunch and sometimes stop in-store to try something on. They expect a seamless experience across every touchpoint, whether online, in-store or via app.

That TikTok promotion needs to match the app’s price. The item they put in a digital cart should be ready for curbside pickup within the hour. Personalization and immediacy are expectations.

How things move today: One hair care brand generated $15,000 in sales in 24 hours from an organic TikTok post. Beauty brand Charlotte Bio captured 17% of its monthly sales in just six hours with a flash sale. 

The takeaway: Seamless experiences trigger action. Friction leaks millions. With Zappi, CMOs can validate these actionable moments before they turn into margin losses. 

You’re not lacking data. You lack cohesive data.

Loyalty programs, e-commerce platforms, POS systems and third-party providers all capture valuable data. But when a customer browses shoes online, redeems an in-store coupon and engages with a loyalty email, they’re treated as three different people instead of one. 

Teams are just as fragmented. Product, store ops and marketing teams each work from their own dashboards and KPIs. Feedback loops stretch for weeks, so by the time results land, the consumers have already moved on. 

75% of customers want a smooth omnichannel experience and use at least three channels while shopping. Yet, only 25% are satisfied with their retail experience. 

The takeaway: Yesterday’s insights can’t predict today’s demand. Without unified insights, you’re flying blind. Zappi turns scattered feedback into clarity so you can act on today’s insights. 

In retail, every day you delay, inventory, supply chain and ad dollars turn into sunk costs. The brands that win test early, adjust quickly and scale only what works.

For example, UK beauty brand P. Louise, made $1.5 million in just 12 hours during a live TikTok session. They didn’t need months of forecasts because the test itself showed instant demand.

Trends move fast in today’s climate. Sustainability claims, fashion styles and even breaking news can swing shopper choices overnight. Agile retailers build space to pivot and can swap messages or offers in hours, not weeks.

L’Era Jewellery leaned into live-streaming three times a week for just 2-3 hours. During those sessions, average order value hovered around £85, and revenue per stream reached several hundred to a few thousand pounds. At peak, live-streaming + TikTok Shop accounted for over 50% of the brand’s revenue.

That’s where Zappi comes in, because speed without precision is chaos. With rapid A/B and multivariate testing, you can know which price, package or message will hit best before you scale. 

The takeaway: Speed alone is risky. But speed paired with Zappi’s precision turns risk into advantage.

You don’t want to make multimillion-dollar bets on a guess. Yet, that’s inevitable when consumer feedback is scattered across ad hoc tests, reports and silos. 

The solution is a connected insights platform with predictive analytics, AI optimization and consumer feedback loops that make every idea smarter before you scale. 

Brands like PepsiCo have already built ecosystems with Zappi, lifting creative effectiveness by 30% and adding hundreds of millions in brand value. 

In Forrester’s 2024 Total Economic Impact, global consumer brands using Zappi achieved a 243% ROI over three years with 4%-7% more revenue from new products. Insights teams gained back 10-15% of their time, too. This allowed them the time to reinvest in faster iteration and better launches. 

With Zappi, every test compounds, so it gets smarter the more you use it. You build an insight bank, so each decision is sharper than the last. 

The takeaway: Zappi acts like insurance against wasted spend. You can predict, prove and scale only what works.

The best innovation is produced from a cycle and not a one-off. Smart CMOs embed feedback at every stage, turn experiments into learning loops and build innovation into the culture. 

When you treat innovation as a learning loop, you ideate, test, optimize, scale and roll your insights into your next innovation — allowing each cycle to get smarter than the last. 

And retailers embedding test-and-learn see measurable gains. Forrester’s TEI shows Zappi users cut research costs by 40%.Ultimately, Zappi makes continuous learning practical. 

The takeaway: Innovation is cultural rather than episodic. Zappi makes every launch smarter than your last.

You don’t need to gamble on innovation. With Zappi, CMOs get predictive clarity at every stage — from concept to packaging to price. And having unified insights across channels and AI-driven speed mean you can pivot in hours, not quarters.

Protect margin, scale only what works, and turn retail complexity into predictable, profitable growth.