Friday, April 30, 2010

World Retailing: It's all in the Data!

In the Financial Times World Retailing this month, "Good analysis and use of data can make all the difference" highlights the role of information technology from product manufacturing to in-market to consumption.

"“But what has changed since is that there is now a renewed focus on looking at where retailers make money, and that is in the store,” [Andy Park, industry leader for retail and consumer products for northern Europe at IBM] says."

What is interesting to note is "Retailers are still investing to improve the way they handle the last 50 metres of the logistics chain, from the stock room to the shelf."

The article does not fully touch on one of the most important piece, shopper data... data that has been collected for close on a decade, loyalty cards, credit cards, POS, etc.  Coarse grain segmentation with 10% to 90% hit or miss margins and marketing budget wastage may finally begin to be managed through not only statistical analysis, but making "sense" of the shopper decisions, i.e. the semantics of the shoppers actions or not.

"“There is a shift in focus to insight and not just measurement analytics, but to insights into the shoppers themselves,” says Renee Sang, who runs Accenture’s Customer Innovation Network.

“Price transparency is now a given, so retailers want to identify which customers are most likely to convert [to buyers]. Not all customers convert in the same way. For some it’s price, for others assortment, others service.”"

If you would like to read this and other articles in the World Retailing, download the complete file here.

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