If you’re wondering whether your customers would trade some of their personal data for a more personalized shopping experience, it’s likely that the answer is yes.

This isn’t a slam-dunk win for retailers, however. Yes, you want a better understanding of your customer base in order to shape a personalized shopping experience. But consumers’ willingness to give you their data – beyond basic contact information – comes with the expectation that you’ll do everything in your power to safeguard it.

When high-profile security breaches are common in the headlines and consumers’ skepticism about data security is growing, how do you strike a balance between collecting, analyzing and storing the data while securely handling it? Is it best to store it within your company rather than in the cloud? Who do you share the data with, if anyone? What about your customers’ perceptions of how you’re using their information?

In this article for Point of Sale Magazine, Tom Schoen discusses how answering each of these questions can help shape how your organization thinks about and balances the needs of data collection and security.

Read the full article at Point of Sale Magazine.