Becoming an Intelligent Retail Business

Data is unanimously considered the biggest asset of today’s business, even the retail business. When global research firm Incisiv asked business leaders how important data is in its Retail C-Suite Survey, over two-thirds of CEOs surveyed said that the key differentiating factor will be how their firm manages data. And yet, the same report found that less than 30% of business leaders are able to convert data into actionable insights to impact future performance.

Are you storing huge amounts of data? Can you access it and make sense of it? Data is useless if can’t access it and gain insights from it. So how can you extract value from all the data you collect, and use it to understand your customers and enhance the experiences you deliver? We understand that you may be reluctant to take on a complex Business Intelligence (BI) project. In the past, tapping into retail business intelligence would usually require the hiring of external consultants, big investments, long timeframes, and it often had a high risk of failure.

But now there is now another way.

Retail Business Intelligence in the Cloud

BI tools available in the cloud give you access to the meaningful business insights you need. You just need to upload your data to the cloud, and then you can see all the information you need via intuitive dashboards and reports. These reports will shed light on your business performance, covering everything from shopping basket analysis to promotions, churn, price elasticity and customer retention.

The best part is how fast you can get up and running. By uploading your business information into a data warehouse in the cloud, you will cut implementation times from 6-12 months for a traditional warehouse to just 1-2 days. And then, you can customize the data warehouse if you need to. You can use the built-in reports or easily create your own based on your specific reporting and analysis needs.

In only a couple of days, you can finally use your data to get the 360-degree insights you have always needed, but couldn’t put together yourself.

Take better business decisions using the power of the cloud.

Intelligence transforms disconnected data into actionable information

When your data is stored across multiple channels in a variety of formats, data analytics is an extremely cumbersome and time consuming task. In the McKinsey report, merchants working with CIO organizations and analytics leaders inside the company said they are hampered by data gaps as well as a lack of real-time analytics solutions. In most instances, insights are not timely, and by the time they are converted to pricing decisions and communicated to the stores, the opportunity is lost.

This is where cloud data platforms come into their own. They are capable of dealing with multiple sources of data at any one time and preparing them for analysis. They also open up opportunities to draw data from external sources and deliver sophisticated insights based on machine learning and advanced analytics.

Intelligence drives a targeted marketing strategy

Help your marketing teams develop winning strategies by giving them the tools that tell them who they should be targeting at any given moment and how best to engage with each customer.

Since cloud-based intelligence draws from multiple data sources—structured and unstructured—you will be able to gain a truly unified view of consumers across transactions, channels, social media and more. Your marketing teams will be able to use cloud-based capabilities to engage customers in more meaningful ways and design personalized digital promotions based on real-time big-data analytics. This could be anything from targeted promotions based on geospatial analysis capabilities through to natural-language processing for sentiment analysis.

Retail Business Intelligence supports your logistics and operations

Generate realistic, reliable forecasts of what to keep in stock, where and when.

Using a cloud data platform, it’s possible to construct a real-time single source of truth for inventory levels across all channels, covering e-commerce through to local store data. Sophisticated tools will then help you to factor seasonality, trends, promotions and more into your forecasts, allowing you to improve the accuracy of your planning and buy just the right amount of inventory without the risk of going out of stock.

Intelligence helps your customers have the best experience with your brand

Help your customers make informed purchasing decisions online and in-store and give them the attention they deserve—attention that is timely, relevant and genuine—and you will always make the best impression.

Use cloud-based intelligence to identify your high-value customers and predict what makes them feel special. Today, you no longer have to settle with broad brushstroke customer engagement strategies. Instead, you can develop highly targeted ones using A/B testing scenarios and personalization algorithms that proactively deliver unmet customer needs and allow you to act on events in real time. So you can deliver truly personalized experiences that engage customers every time.

Are you ready to move to the cloud? Contact one of our experts today!

Original source: Deliver unified commerce experiences thanks to cloud solutions infused with intelligence (eBook)