Costcutter partners with predictive analytics firm

The symbol group began a trial of a predictive analytics portal across 100 independent stores in the South of England late last year working with Data Revolution. Following the success with trial stores, the partnership will seek to support more retailers across the symbol group’s estate.

David Morris, Costcutter IT director, said: “Our trials, initially in stores who operate our CPOS system, took place before the Covid crisis and the results were outstanding, with retailers reporting increased sales, improved margins and achieving higher rebates, as a direct result of the data they could access.

“We’ve used the lockdown period to focus on analysing those results and refining the offer, to give our retailers the best possible insights and advice. Predicting what will be their best-selling lines, what ranges they can look to rationalise, what promotions deliver the best results and what ordering and pricing decisions will maximise their sales and help manage costs. A dedicated portal will be introduced to retailers through their BDM in future, who will provide detailed guidance and recommendations to optimise the benefits.

“It will add projected performance data on shopper behaviour to the rich insights we already provide retailers on their customers, through our Shopper First programme. Retailers will be able to access segmented data, tailored to their store type, location, and demographics.”

Plans for Costcutter’s predictive analytics portal will see each retailer provided with all their relevant data, actionable insights and recommendations in one place. Data will be refreshed and updated weekly and will enable the group’s BDM and field-based teams to provide additional guidance to each store owner based on the data.

Morris added: “We’re taking our data and insights focus to the next level using predictive analytics to further support our retailers in delivering the right offer and range for their shoppers.

“Reaping the rewards of the expertise and agility of the Data Revolution team in AI-enabled analysis and their extensive experience in retail, we will be generating tangible insights which our trading and marketing teams can use to help retailers continue to grow footfall and sales, delivering on our mission to be the best-loved and most shopped symbol group.”