Evan Schuman's StorefrontBacktalk

Somewhere between the retailer’s deep hunger for customer data and the consumer’s reluctance to reveal more than is absolutely necessary is a compromise. But where to draw that line in the SAN? (Our apologies.)

Office Depot CIO Tim Toews isn’t sure exactly where that line must be drawn, but he’s confident it’s moving more toward the data-sharing side, provided the consumer sees immediate, real and actionable incentives.

Towes sat down for a StorefrontBacktalk audio discussion on the topic this month, along with Tina Henson, the CEO of PlasticJungle, a gift card site that is trying to push the envelope of what kind of CRM data can be found within gift card usage.

For business users, those benefits can be as straight-forward as seeing the same negotiated volume discounts that exist on the Web site automatically given at POS, Toews said.

To hear the full conversation in an easily scanned format, please visit our WebcastBuffet of the discussion.