Business Analytics and Business Intelligence Solutions in Retail

The market for business intelligence is expanding and is expected to expand as the variety of BI solutions on the market expands. Business intelligence plays major roles across a broad range of industries, to the point it is estimated that BI market is projected to be worth $30.9 billion in 2022.

In its essence business intelligence offers historic, current and future-oriented perspectives on business operations. which isn’t to be confused with analytics for business, which is the study of past business performance to gain insight and aid in business plan.

Both provide crucial insights and are able to be used at the same time, however, there are not all solutions that offer both in the same manner. As the company plans for the coming years, the retail industry will likely require a mix of Business Intelligence and Business Analytics along with Business Performance Management, to succeed and flourish in the current environment.

The end of the department store on the high street store and the shift towards bricks-and-clicks created new opportunities for concessions in stores and franchises. This is likely to create new franchise networks, with complicated hierarchy and multiple locations, which could make difficult for teams within these organizations to collect information about retail sales in a centralized place and translate the results accordingly.

However, there’s positive news. The retail sales and appetite of customers have been stable as well as research indicates that people across Europe have a hold on more than European of savings. It is a good time to expect an economic recovery driven by consumers during the second quarter of 2021 through 2022.

Business intelligence allows businesses to profit from new opportunities, and not only to forecast sales, but also to identify future trends, market possibilities and comprehend customers on a an even deeper level. Let’s examine the benefits of business intelligence in greater specific detail.

 

1.Recognize trends that are emerging

BI will become ever more crucial in identifying new and emerging trends in customer behavior in the future, allowing businesses adapt without having to confront major obstacles to do so.

As vaccine distribution continues to expand and social distancing regulations are being relaxed in many regions around the globe the confidence of consumers to interact with one-to-one services and to shopping in stores is likely to take a while to build.

Because of these situations business intelligence is used to assist retailers in identifying particular trends within their industries that should be taken into consideration, such as:

“At-home” or “at home” economy persisting as a result of the pandemic will increase the number of remote working. This can have a knock-on impact on e-commerce, as well as shopping and leisure in cities.

Shopping online consolidates: the advantages of shopping online including its convenience and quick access to reviews of products, are undisputed. However, it’s important to note that percent of US consumers prefer to shop in brick and mortar stores therefore understanding the changes in the behavior of consumers will be critical.

 

2. Meet changing consumer demands

From seeking more environmentally responsible, socially-conscious items to the need for massive purchases to be processed quickly It is essential that retailers are able to keep up with the changing preferences of consumers today to stay relevant in the marketplace.

With the aid of a reliable business intelligence system, businesses can get actionable information to identify changes in demand for their customers and alter their strategy in line with the changing demands of customers. Concerning retail in particular this could include:

The company is offering more hybrid buying models The goal is to create a multichannel experience that gives customers a seamless experience, whether online, on your mobile or in-store.

Supply and demand are met: If they have access to the right information, retailers are able to identify the demand patterns specific to every store or customer group.

Personalizing the experience for customers in stores: BI data allows sales staff to learn about the history of purchases made by customers as well as their shopping habits, and suggest certain offers.

3. Enhance customer satisfaction

The customer always has the right — that’s the first rule in retail. But how do you determine what your customers are looking for before they actually surpass their expectations?

We’ve seen that the demands of customers are changing as new trends keep appearing, making it challenging the retailers keep customer satisfaction up. The insights gathered from business intelligence enable retailers to offer the best experience to all their customers. In the retail industry, this could mean:

Making sure that the user experience online, the look and feel and interactions with the retail staff provide a consistent and satisfying satisfaction.

The identification of buying patterns can helps employees to anticipate the particular requirements of the customer and provide a more customized service.

The improvement in satisfaction of customers can also lead to a positive result for retailers increased levels of customer retention. Through improving the customer experience overall by utilizing analytics for business, businesses are able to increase customer loyalty, which will increase revenues and sales over the long run.

4. Informed decision making

By using BI businesses can combine various data sources to create more complete information about what’s happening in their entire business and with improved BI tools allowing the similar process to be applied across complicated franchise networks. This provides a overall view that is consolidated and helps improve decision-making processes.

The decision of where to put your resources can help improve the experience of shoppers by allowing retailers to cut down on wait times, offer the most affordable prices and purchase options, and also increase the overall convenience of shopping.

Retail managers have the ability to gain an understanding of where their customers spend the majority of their time on the internet and in stores and can adjust the layout of their floors and optimize their products’ placement to increase sales according to. Utilizing BI tools, they can identify products that are slow to sell and create more effective sales bundles, and also identify merchandise and displays that aren’t getting the required levels of attention from customers.

5. Campaigns for targeted marketing

BI can also help retailers focus, adjust and make better informed decisions regarding their marketing strategies. Retailers can combine and analyze information from previous online advertising campaigns, store purchase history, as well as the behaviour of customers on their websites to get an accurate image of their customers which includes who they are, and the time and reason they purchase.

The tools for business intelligence enable retailers to determine:

• Buyer demographics
• Shopping traffic location
• Top selling online products
• Trends in sales for the season for online goods
• Transactional histories of online customers

Marketing analysis based on BI can offer retailers:

• A better understanding of what marketing campaigns are a success and which ones aren’t.
• Recognizing which marketing mix strategies are effective and which ones aren’t
• Customer personas and journey insight

6. Make sure you are focusing on outcomes and KPIs

Retail is about delivering the best customer experience while optimizing internal processes to create profit. The most efficient methods of achieving these objectives is to make use of KPIs, or Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).

With the aid of a dependable business intelligence tool, businesses can pinpoint the KPIs that are most relevant to their business and set them against certain benchmarks, and measure the outcomes and provide a comprehensive overview of the health of their organization and performance over a long time.

In the retail sector specifically there’s a wide variety of KPIs that companies and franchises might have to pay attention to in order to enhance their performance, which includes:

• Customer satisfaction
• Customer retention
• Sales figures
• Online traffic
• Stock outages
• Online vs In-Store Sales

KPIs are expected to change based on the goals or challenges in the market. This is why an BI solution that can help retailers to identify, quantify and monitor KPIs continuously, using effective visualization tools that can optimize results, is essential.

Recommended reading: For more information details on KPIs as well as how they assist in delivering optimal outcomes, read our blog KPI and Analysis Best Practices. and Analysis Best Practices

Brisk make sure you have the right tools to complete the task

Finding and implementing the best BI software is crucial for retailers to gain the benefits of business intelligence as well as business analytics. Connecting data in a single, unified view, tracking and identifying KPIs and utilizing easy, customizable dashboards will assist businesses and franchises turn data-driven insights into beneficial outcomes.

This is precisely the kind of thing that Loop was created to provide that goes beyond data gathering to concentrate on the results that will impact the bottom line of your business. If you’re looking to start the process of enhancing your business’s approach to analytics and intelligence, schedule a quick meeting with us now.