Retailers Counterbalance Instinct With Data-Driven Insight

Today's optimization solutions aim to address this imbalance by injecting innovation and true "productized" science into the array of mission-critical retail solutions. Key tools delivering proven value include the following:

• customer analytics and market basket analysis;
• price optimization;
• enterprise-level clustering;
• demand forecasting;
• category planning and assortment optimization;
• size profile and pre-pack optimization; and
• promotion management and optimization, supported by forecasting, customer segmentation, price and promotion effects.

Removing Emotional Bias From Pricing Decisions
One of the clearest illustrations of the value that applying science brings to retail is in the area of pricing. Many retailers have already made important strides in this area, deploying sophisticated markdown optimization and pricing solutions designed to maximize margins throughout a product's entire life cycle. In fact, lifecycle pricing, which takes a pre-planned, holistic approach to products with limited life cycles (e.g., fashion apparel) has proven far more valuable than a more piecemeal approach.