Retail

Retail analytics for profit maximizing decision making

About the industry

The retail industry is a broad industry, with a myriad of different types of companies falling under this industry category. Hoovers summarizes the industry in its Retail Sector Report excerpt, writing, “Companies in this sector sell a wide range of products to consumers and businesses, from food and apparel to hardware, household goods, and office supplies. Major companies include Wal-Mart, Home Depot, Kroger, Costco, and Target (all based in the US), as well as Carrefour (France), Schwarz Group (Germany), Tesco (UK), Metro (Germany), and Aldi Einkauf (Germany).” And although Competitive Analytics’ analysis uncovers much more detailed demand drivers and KPIs, Hoovers also explains, “Personal income, consumer confidence, and interest rates drive demand. The profitability of individual companies depends on efficient supply chain management and effective merchandising and marketing. Large companies have advantages in purchasing, distribution, and marketing. Small companies can compete effectively by selling unique merchandise, providing superior customer service, offering a distinctive shopping experience, or serving a local market.”

Trends in the industry

Moodys writes of its expectations for the retail industry for July 2015 and beyond, explaining, “The outlook for the US retail industry has been raised from stable to positive, driven by expectations for stronger operating income growth in 2015, says Moody’s Investors Service in a new report. The rating agency expects operating income to grow 5%-6% over the next 12 to 18 months, up from its initial forecast of 4%-5%.

Key growth drivers for the industry will be the continued strong performance of companies in the home improvement, auto retail, drug store and dollar store sectors, along with improvement in companies in supermarket, specialty retail and department store sectors.

Nevertheless, despite improved household wealth in the US, consumers remain cautious. Middle- and lower-income consumers remain pressured, while labor participation and wage growth remain weak. Pent-up demand, however, should limit these risks.”

How do we serve your industry?

Competitive Analytics advises and develops analytical workflows for successful retail companies empowering them to understand their competitive environment, enhance their predictive modeling capabilities, and target customers with the highest lifetime value. By deploying advanced retail analytics, organizations are able to improve sales performance, analyze the most profitable customer segments, increase customer loyalty, create efficient manufacturing strategies, monitor and make decisions based on store traffic trends, and much more. Retailers who utilize marketing analytics are able to gain more powerful customer insight and develop strategies for targeted interactions with current and potential customers . . . and also improve customer service, multi-channel sales performance, increase the effectiveness of marketing campaigns, effectively segment customers, improve brand perceptions, and increase customer sentiments. For deeper customer insight, Competitive Analytics helps retailers blend and analyze all of the available internal KPIs and transactional data overlaid with myriad macro economic, microeconomic, demographic, and psychometric data so that you have a detailed and comprehensive understanding by answering these 9 vital questions:

1. “WHO” is your customer?

2. “WHY” will they buy?

3. “WHAT” will they want or need to buy?

4. “WHERE” will they buy?

5. “WHEN” will they buy?

6. “HOW” will they buy?

7. “WHICH” features and add-ons will they buy?

8. “HOW MUCH” can they afford to buy?

9. “WHAT IF” your customer changes? Competitors change? The economy changes? Your supply chain changes?