Business Intelligence for retail

Consumers have more disposable income today than ever before, making it a golden age for retailers. However, with a larger market comes increasing amounts of competitors, both local and global.

Using business intelligence can enable retailers to make more informed decisions about their business which can lead to happier and more loyal customers, increased revenue, and of course a competitive advantage.

Higher consumption = pressure to perform

The fact that consumers today have more disposable income than ever before means they in general spend more. This means that business could be booming, as consumption is increasing. However, as the market is increasing, so are the number of businesses. A company could be buying pasta from one retailer, but sauce from another, or be buying less and less parmesan cheese over time.

To facilitate business success, insights from business intelligence are vital, as they could make visible the underlying issues – such as a lack of awareness of a retailer’s other products, or even poor service from an account manager. These two issues are both solvable, and could win a retailer more business if addressed appropriately.

In a competitive marketplace, if a retailer does not live up to a customer’s expectations, they will simply take their money elsewhere, and no longer support that particular retailer. The pressure on retailers to please customers is incredibly high. By using business intelligence, retailers can more effectively predict stock flow as well as compare trends to previous periods as well as KPIs and other metrics.

Using e-Commerce data to improve performance

The prevalence of e-Commerce has led retailers to gather large amounts of data, often without using them in decision making. This is understandable. Generating reports often has to go through IT, who are already busy in the first place. Then, by the time the report lands on the relevant manager’s desk, it is already outdated. Retailers are increasingly turning to business intelligence tools for instant information that can drive fact-based decision making.

Using BI to drive decision making can be incredibly advantageous. You have real trends of what is bought and sold, how large your sales margin is, and which marketing campaigns have led to the highest number of sales. In addition, with e-Commerce, other data can often be available. You can ask: Which other products did the customer look at? What information did they look at before making a purchase? What products do customers often buy together? Drawing insights from information can give retailers a much clearer idea of customer behavior and preferences, which can in turn be used to refine processes and strategies within your business.

One view of the truth

Having retail outlets online as well as offline can sometimes create a disconnect between systems, or they can run on entirely different systems altogether. When choosing a good business intelligence tool, it is important that it can integrate with multiple data sources. This way, retailers can gain a panoramic view of their entire business, rather than having to look at one detail at a time.

It is no secret that purchasing, pricing, sales and marketing all depend on each other, however, siloed reports do not take this into account. Phocas is a business intelligence tool that can help you analyze the sales process from A all the way through to Z, while drawing on data from multiple sources. It is easy to use and can start to give return on investment as soon as it is in use. Phocas has many customers in retail that are already experiencing the benefits and gaining competitive advantage.

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