In today’s increasingly competitive retail landscape, implementing an effective omni-channel strategy can prove particularly challenging. Retailers have access to more data than ever before and can consume it anytime, anywhere, and through any device. Business intelligence solutions allow retailers to analyze these massive amounts of data that come from a company’s internal and external systems, as well as other data sources. What’s more, retailers now have the ability to turn customer data into powerful actionable insights. By employing a data-centric approach to understand consumers’ purchasing behavior, retailers can deliver the tailored, consistent experience today’s shoppers expect and achieve maximum return on investment (ROI). Modern retail analytics also give retailers enterprise-wide visibility, enabling actions that improve product, placement, pricing, and promotion performance.
Wiser Decision-Making
Sitting logically at the center of a retailer’s enterprise, retail analytics become a source from which AI models can learn. An AI pipeline enables retailers to use the knowledge gleaned from these models and feed them to any transactional application including e-commerce, POS, CRM, buying and planning, workforce management, and loss prevention. Modern BI solutions enable retailers to dive deeper into their data, so they can make more informed decisions. By using the best of breed retail analytics solutions, retailers can make smarter pricing decisions through price monitoring and alerting, enabling them to sell the right product at the right price. Having access to easy-to-understand retail business insights at the most granular level possible enables all retail professionals to have a meaningful impact on their business.
More Efficient Workforce
Actionable, visual data discovery means that a retailer may combine data from various sources in ways that were not previously possible to gain rapid insights into opportunity and risk which can, in turn, be instantaneously capitalized upon or mitigated. A cycle of continuous improvement is created whereby these insights and subsequent decisions are fed back to the model, scored, and improved. With instant visibility on the most up-to-date data, retailers can significantly increase their levels of efficiency, thereby increasing sales and profits. Retail analytics provide retailers with the knowledge they need to sharpen their strategies and react to trends in a blink of an eye. By tracking associates’ behavior and identifying the top and worst performers, retailers can reward the top performers and offer further training to the others. Retailers can also ensure loss prevention by looking at exception reports that cast a light on dishonest customers and associates.
Clearer Understanding of Customers’ Needs
By using big data, retailers can better understand customers’ shopping patterns and deliver a more tailored brand experience. For instance, identifying the best and worst performing items can help retailers adjust their strategy, so they can stock the products that customers really want in the right stores, and at the best price points. Modern BI solutions can also be set up to alert retailers to emerging trends and patterns. Looking at the best and worst performing items enables retailers to offer the products today’s customers demand.
Better Overall Customer Experience
According to an Econsultancy and Adobe survey, 65% of marketers said that improving their data analysis is a very important factor in delivering a better customer experience. Data-driven analytics can be used to improve the shopping experience by solving real problems for customers. By avoiding out-of-stock situations, for example, retailers can ensure that enough merchandise is available to meet customers’ expectations. What’s more, analyzing the purchasing behavior of their clients, retailers can truly delight them by offering the products they want at the most appropriate time.
