Summary

1. The adoption of data-backed decisions not only eliminates the guesswork, but can save time for teams as well as improve the quality of analysis.
2. Teams can no longer rely on historical data alone. Analytics tools can process high amounts of data that deliver clear direction and decisions backed up by both internal and external sources, so there is less risk of error. 
3. A customer-centric strategy is necessary, but for a smaller headcount, considering social media data or consumer habits can sometimes fall low on the priority list. Analytics takes the research stage out for teams and delivers fast, accurate, actionable insights that contribute to long-term business goals.

Installing a Data-Centric Approach to Decisions

As retail navigates tough economic times and a looming recession, while battling headwinds from Russia and China and the strength of the US dollar,data-backed decisions are essential for a businesses’ success, now more than ever.

For small teams, data-led decisions eliminate the guesswork. This, in turn, will directly impact better-informed, business-critical decision-making and save time for team members. McKinsey highlights investment into analytics as a key strategic priority for businesses by improving the speed and quality of decisions as well as boosting profitability. 

For businesses operating with a much smaller headcount, the expectation to deliver this level of analysis still equals that of a much larger team or organization. This is where retail analytics comes in by cutting out the need for a large specialist group to run this volume of analysis and, instead, providing a one-stop-shop that can deliver results in a few clicks of a button.

Better Understand Your Market and Competitors

While, traditionally, decisions based solely on history were considered the bread and butter of seasonal planning, these no longer work in the current climate. Teams must be more agile, adapting to the ever-changing market. As a result, companies need to take into consideration areas outside of historical data, such as market trends and competitor analysis, before making big decisions for a business.

Analytics tools have the power to provide actionable insights. By processing vast amounts of data available to companies, including in-house and wider market trends, teams have better visibility of the complete merchandising experience. Besides the obvious time saving elementfor team members, who would otherwise spend long periods collecting, digesting and presenting information, analytics provides clear direction and decisions backed up by both internal and external sources, so there is less risk of error. 

At EDITED, our Market Analytics tool uses competitive market data to analyze what your competitors are doing right now, and how they’ve behaved historically. This delivers instant results to our customers on spotting trends early, benchmarking pricing and more.

Creating a Customer-Centric Strategy

Customer-centric decision-making has become a focus for businesses, where old notions of a ‘product-first’ way of thinking have taken a back seat. Now, teams can access a wide range of customer data thats is vital to their company. Take a retail business. Customers interact with a brand across its physical stores, ecommerce platforms and social media channels. Analytics tools have the power to convert this information into customer profiles, gaining insights into behaviors that can provide personalized experiences.

With a smaller workforce, research is time. While some of these metrics could contribute to vital retail merchandise planning decisions, they can easily be considered a low priority among other pressing deadlines. Taking the research stage out for teams can deliver fast, accurate, actionable insights that contribute to long-term business goals.

How the EDITED Platform Could Help Your Business

EDITED is the world’s leading AI-driven merchandising experience platform that empowers brands and retailers with real-time decision-making power that drives profits and inspires customers.

We help retailers increase margins, generate more sales and drive better outcomes through AI-driven Market and Enterprise Intelligence to fuel Automation. By connecting business analytics and external market data, retail’s most successful brands and retailers use EDITED’s Platform to get closer to their best customers and future-proof their business.

Ready to take the next step in your journey of retail data and analytics? Get in touch with us today.