Retail Analytics Solutions
Retailers are hurting profitability by neglecting to build in-store retail analytics into their operations. While historically leveraging retail analytics needed costly data scientists, or data couldn’t be collected in-store – this is no longer the case. Technology has made it easier for teams across the retail business to harness insights both online and from in-store analytics and act on them to improve retail operations. Yet surprisingly, the Retail Industry Leaders Association found that only 20% of retailers use data analytics to its full potential.
Why Retail Analytics Matters
Retailer margins are under pressure. Staff costs are high, consumers are reducing spend, and retailers have to do more with less. Fortunately, in-store retail analytics provides an edge in mitigating these costs through better stock management, forecasting, and empowering workers to spot problems early.
Despite this, a Capgemini survey discovered retailers are behind the curve compared with consumer goods companies in the use of data.
This lack of retail analytics is also creating severe consequences for the industry. McKinsey notes that a common attribute shared amongst the 25 top-performing retailers is their use of digital, data and analytics. But it also found that the pandemic has created a wider gap between data leaders and laggards with those retailers using retail analytics dramatically increasing their market value. In fact, McKinsey suggests the case for technology is strong and could ‘improve retailer margins by 280 to 600 basis points.’ Retailers who aren’t using in-store retail analytics in their business are ultimately missing out on profits.
Benefits of Retail Analytics
Websites by their nature make data collection easier, but the technology exists to make in-store analytics just as impactful.
Customers expect the brand experience to be the same whether online or offline and in-store analytics makes these touchpoints seamless. Tracking past purchases and frequented stores means retailers can target customers with in-store experiences related to their favourite products or ensure their size is in store.
In-store analytics is crucial to the customer experience at L’Occitane Group as CIO Etienne de Verdelhan notes: “We can now enjoy more complex interaction with our customers, manage their loyalty points in real-time across all sales channels, customise promotions and offer services such as web-to-store.”
How Retail Analytics Can Drive Growth
Without tracking in-store analytics, retailers are also blind to the opportunities for growth and profitability. One of the most common problems facing retailers is the over-tasking of retail associates. But without analytics, there’s no way of knowing whether staff are over or underutilised.
A point made in this retail webinar by The White Company’s Debbie Kitchen: by The White Company’s Debbie Kitchen: “Cegid will help us and give us a deep dive into the data. You can have this gut feel that you think you’re doing a really brilliant job of what you’re sending out but actually, the numbers and statistics might tell you otherwise.”
Having a single point for all data also makes it more measurable. While PVH Group’s goal in using Cegid Retail Store Excellence was to simplify, consolidate and reduce tasks and technology – having access to its data in one dashboard also meant uncovering some surprising statistics. This included that two and a half thousand communications were sent in the first year of adoption and 148 thousand tasks were completed. Knowing this information, also meant they could start looking at where they could streamline tasks and reduce communications. In doing so, it saved four hours a week, which is equivalent to £300,000 in labour costs that could be redirected elsewhere.
Features of Effective Retail Analytics Solutions
While the benefits of retail analytics are obvious, finding the right solution is also critical. If the system is overly complex and requires IT teams to manage it or to extract any insights, it will become a cost to the business rather than offer cost savings.
Retailers should also ask any potential solution how it integrates with other technologies. If data can’t flow between different systems, it will hinder the ability for robust data analysis and insights are unlikely to show the full picture.
Similarly, the analytics needs in retail are wildly different to other industry sectors. That’s why a provider with a retail track record can offer greater assurance that the product has been designed with retailers in mind with specific use cases aimed at unlocking growth and profitability.
Finally, it’s also important to use a solution that can scale with retailers and meet the different compliance needs of the business, regardless of the country stores operate in. A point made by L’Occitane’s CIO Etienne de Verdelhan “Cegid is one of the few, if not the only software provider capable of supporting companies worldwide by offering a single, international and localised solution.”
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