How can Advanced Analytics Help the Retailers in Data Utilization?

By: Retail CIO Outlook | Tuesday, July 14, 2020

Retailers should consider tapping into the massively available data to answer the crunchy questions that can be the key to improving performance in these difficult times.

FREMONT, CA: It is no brainer that many retailers are struggling to organize and make use of the high volume of available data. To have a complete understanding of the various types of both first, and third-party data is vital for establishing a solid business strategy and producing a return on investment, and therefore, a retailer’s success.

Evaluating the Systems

Many brands are on a stride to make the use of their data because the legacy systems and siloed databases burden them. Without the perfect system or proper integration, it is hard to see the gaps and capture the insights needed for fundamental business decisions, let alone evaluating new technology. As a result, retailers should start their analytics journey by taking a closer look at their existing systems and asking questions like: What data am I missing? How are my systems capturing data?

Create a Foundation for Success

Once the existing systems are evaluated, steps can be taken to integrate or eliminate them to develop a more useful, evolved system. It is crucial to building a strong foundation, as it will allow retailers to transform and activate data, thereby extracting valuable insights and uncovering stories across channels. Once the foundation is in place, retailers can take steps to formulate a testing strategy to know how various channels work together and whether marketing campaigns are effective. Lastly, the brands can utilize artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning for predictive analytics to create even stronger future campaigns.

Improve Your ROI

Better analytics provides a simple, excellent benefit that is a better ROI. But this is easier said than done. By accumulating data, properly organizing it, and utilizing it to evaluate campaigns, retailers are now able to better the return of individual campaigns, as well as their overall marketing approach. A simple example is changing the target, or the modifiers in a campaign for an immediate improvement in return on ad spend.

Make the Most of Your Data

When detailed data is available in real-time to retailers, the possibilities to connect are endless. To ensure that competitive advantage is maintained, retailers must develop a strategy for evaluating their systems, create a foundation for success, and better the ROI. The retailers that can identify and target similar shoppers will increase loyalty and develop high-value customers.