Retail Growth Through Data: Email & SMS Marketing Secrets with Intuit Mailchimp

If you're sending the same email to everyone on your list and wondering why it's not driving the sales you expected, this episode is for you. I'm Catherine Erdly, and this is Resilient Retail Game Plan — practical product business advice with a healthy dose of reality. In this episode I'm sitting down with Ali Wood from Intuit Mailchimp to get practical about how independent retailers and e-commerce brands can get dramatically more from their email and SMS marketing — using data they already have. We talk about why fragmented data is costing retailers real money, how segmentation can transform your customer relationships, and why the retailers who win over the next few years won't be the ones with the biggest budgets — they'll be the ones who are smartest with their data. In this episode you'll hear about: Why sending the same message to your whole list is leaving money on the table How to use customer lifetime value and buying propensity to automate smarter campaigns The power of combining email and SMS — including a 22x ROI stat from SMS alone, and 41x when Shopify data is in the mix Creative ways to collect richer customer data through quizzes, pop-ups and behavioural signals What clean data + AI + human creativity actually looks like for a lean retail team Whether you're just starting to think about segmentation or already running email campaigns and want to level up, this conversation will leave you with a genuinely different way of thinking about your marketing. CHAPTERS 00:00:40 The Gold Mine Independent Retailers Are Sitting On 00:02:10 Meet Ali Wood from Intuit Mailchimp 00:04:40 How Intuit Mailchimp Evolved from Email Tool to Full Automation Platform 00:08:22 The Segmentation Shift: Stop Sending the Same Email to Everyone 00:11:29 Creative Ways to Collect Better Customer Data 00:14:45 Using SMS to Drive Email Open Rates 00:15:11 How We're Working With Intuit Mailchimp 00:16:33 Measuring What's Actually Working Across All Your Channels 00:18:30 Think Strategy, Not Just Open Rates 00:21:17 SMS Best Practices: What's Working for E-Commerce Brands 00:23:24 The Trust Factor: Why Phone Numbers Are Different from Email Addresses 00:23:44 The Numbers: 22x ROI on SMS, 41x with Shopify 00:25:58 AI + Human Creativity: The Future of Small Business Marketing 00:27:45 Clean Data, Automation & Analytics: The Loop That Wins 00:29:07 Catherine's Key Takeaways & Call to Action Mentioned in this episode: resilientretailclub.com/mailchimp Note: This episode was produced in partnership with Intuit Mailchimp. All views expressed are Catherine's own.