Harness the Power of Retail Analytics
to Boost Customer Engagement

The pandemic has drastically transformed the retail industry. But thanks to retail analytics, businesses can now adapt to the new context of tracking their performance in real-time, and make an informed decision anytime, anywhere and continue to thrive.

Let us explore what is retail analytics and how to harness its power to enhance customer engagement :

What is retail analytics?

The retail industry is among the most widespread and dynamic industries across the world. A recent study by Modor Intelligence, a market intelligence and advisory firm, reveals that the retail industry was valued at US$23,460 billion in 2017 and is expected to reach US$ 31,880.8 billion by 2023.

So, not only is the retail industry enormous in size, it is also highly competitive and customer-centric. Hence, it is imperative for retailers to stay abreast of the latest trends and technology. They also need to stay ahead in the race, especially in omnichannel business space. Another vital aspect that the retailers have to pay attention to is to retain their customers by meeting their expectations and giving an unmatched shopping experience. This is where retail analytics come into play.

Retail analytics is defined as the process of studying and understanding retail business information and then deriving useful insights in all aspects of retail like supply chain, inventories, customer experience, etc. It leverages data-driven insights to enhance your business and improve customer experience.

Retail analytics has become much more relevant during this pandemic, as the new data will help retailers to overcome obstacles and pave the way for a delightful in-store shopping experience, when the retail industry returns to a new normal.

Advantages of retail analytics :

In retail, where the competition is fierce across channels and borders, data analytics can deliver customer-targeted promotions, operational and supply chain improvement, as well as immense growth opportunities :

• Understanding customer behaviour : Analytics enables retailers to study consumer behaviour and understand their buying patterns. This helps in optimising their marketing efforts by making personalised offers for customers and come up with exciting ways to retain customers, as well as increase sales.
• Tracing customer journey : What makes certain stores more popular among customers than the others? Is it their online reviews or the fact that they offer free delivery? Do customers have asatisfactory in-store experience? Understanding these facts can empower retailers to minimise cart abandonment, close a sale and help customers to complete the buying process. Hence, customer journey analytics can help you understand the customer’s activities at every step of their purchasing.
• In-store experience tracking : For brick and mortar retailers, as well as omnichannel ones, the whole in-store experience plays a vital role in wooing customers. Are they able to find the products easily? Do they struggle in finding store assistants? Such small things can make a big difference. Hence, it is essential to track customer movement throughout the store to understand the areas to focus on, to give shoppers a delightful shopping experience.
• Offer better promotions : Who does not like “buy one, get one free” offer?? However, it is necessary to give offers and promotions that will entice the customers. Hence, retail analytics help in studying which products and brands are popular and at which season or time.
• Operational improvements : Many stores are using retail analytics for product tracking, inventory management and predicting successful business decisions. It also helps in speedy delivery of goods and cuts operational costs.

Hence, retail analytics software has completely changed the game by aiding retailers in improving promotions, product placements, marketing strategies, as well as boosting customer retention. Now that we have understood the benefits of retail analytics, let us explore the ways to harness its power for business gains.

Driving retail growth by leveraging analytics :

• Personalised approach : Customers love attention and are likely to shop from stores that offer them personalised deals as per their tastes. A study conducted by Accenture says that 75% of consumers are more likely to buy from retailers that recognise them by their names, know their purchase history and recommends options based on their past purchases. Retail analytics tracks down consumer preference and purchase history, enabling retailers to offer similar choices at an affordable price. Hence, it empowers retail outlets in providing the right deal to the right customer at the right time.
  Retail market analytics also helps in understanding customer characteristics, their brand preference, buying pattern, preferred mode of communication, as well as his lifestyle choices. With so much data available, retailers can now derive maximum customer satisfaction.
• Predict busiest transaction times : A restaurant will see more consumers during lunch or dinner hours. Hence, knowing your busiest hours can help you improve your workflow at that time. Also, you can encourage customers to come back to your store at a different time by giving discounts or exclusive deals.
• Understanding product popularity : Beneficial for fashion brands, crunching data can help you understand what the highest selling products are and then make sure that you have ample stock to meet the demands. Thus, streamlining data to present your best-selling product in the most personalised manner to shoppers is bound to drive higher engagement and sales.
• Best and worst-performing stores : Have you noticed that some stores of retail chains are full of customers, while others struggle to find customers? By taking cues from data, retail chains can see how each store is performing. It also helps in identifying the weak areas so that they can address it in the right way.

To understand how retail analytics works, let us examine some real-time examples :

How iRetail helped Future Group : In the context of enhancing customer experience, as well as inventory visibility, the retail giant collaborated with Intellect Commerce to adopt intuitive and innovative solutions for their retail business to give positive results like :

• 100% stock visibility with its efficient inventory management
• Rationalisation of workflows with a single implementation of solution across the brands
• Automation of promotional schemes across product categories
• 100% accuracy of data in a centralised information repository

Result : iRetail suite helped the Future Group in providing enriched customer experience, efficient and hassle-free campaigns and promotions, enabling business innovation and optimising operational efficiency.

How iRetail propelled supermarket giant Choppies’ business transformation :

As Choppies embarked on an expansion drive, iRetail enabled the African retail giant to streamline their operations, as well as created a CXO level dashboard with real-time analysis. iRetail helped Choppies drive an enhanced contextual experience:

• Tracking offline business performance smoothly and efficiently.
• Delivered automatic stock replenishment engine to streamline purchases.
• A dashboard that customised reporting framework to track daily performances.

Result : iRetail suite helped the retail giant with a single software solution for retail analytics that streamlined their business operations, further enabling innovation and optimising operational efficiency.

How retailers can derive the most from their data :

While the consumer sentiment and POS data can help retailers to understand customer behaviour and adapt the shopping experience accordingly, it is also important to evaluate data strategies properly. Sometimes, retailers misinterpret the data and make mistakes in incorporating retails analytics into their business processes. Here are a few tips to approach analytics efficiently :

• Don’t get boggled by the magnitude of data. Focus on the key metrics that matter the most to your business.
• Create data models that get automatically updated with a change in performance metrics.
• Not all data you get is accurate. Hence, retailers should carefully examine the credibility of their data sources to make informed decisions.
• Make sure that the results of retail analytics are communicated to all the teams involved.

Conclusion :

Retailers who leverage the power of data analytics, will not only boost their sales and business but will also win the hearts of their customers by forming a personal bond with them. This connection will help them understand their consumers, their choice and help them u cater to their customers anytime and every time.

So, are you ready to redefine your retail game? If yes, then ask for a free demo of iRetail suite to track your business performance anytime, anywhere on the go: https://www.intellectcommerce.com/contactus/request-demo.html