IDG Contributor Network: Whole Foods illustrates the challenge of late-stage CRM integration

At best, a properly integrated CRM program is complex, given the huge number of systems it touches, or at least should touch. But what happens when a $16 billion, 37-year-old chain wants to tackle CRM for the first time? Whole Foods is about to find out.

Whole Foods is hardly the only Fortune 500 retailer to have resisted CRM and loyalty programs. The biggest example would be Walmart. But Walmart and Whole Foods have resisted CRM for radically different reasons.

With Walmart, the reasons are price perception and price reality. The price reality is the incremental additional cost that CRM would add to operations, ultimately making it ever-so-slightly more difficult for Walmart to offer the lowest possible prices. But price perception is the bigger issue. If shoppers are told that loyalty cards bring lower prices, doesn't that signal that customers aren't already getting the lowest prices?

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