Analytics

Digital Technologies and Implications for Retailers
November 8, 2016 at 12:47 pm

Whether it’s fraud prevention or facial recognition, retailers have never before faced such a proliferation of technology. Today, retailers must be experts around geo-location, mobile apps, mobile wallets, authentication and a slew of other technology-related tools, not to mention have strategies in place to utilize them correctly. To sort out all of the technology options…

Increase Margins With Predictive Localized Analytics
October 28, 2016 at 12:43 pm

As I go through the discovery process with prospective SPI customers, there's a moment in almost every engagement when one of the planners or allocators shows their current multitab, multidimension, multipivot table, holographic (OK, I exaggerated on the last point) homegrown Excel spreadsheet. It always impresses. I'm genuinely in awe of the complex usage of…

Making Big Data Actionable for Multichannel Retailers
October 6, 2016 at 9:47 am

Go to any retail marketing conference and you’ll probably hear some variation of the following two statements: "We don’t have enough data to make good marketing decisions." "We’re drowning in a sea of too much data and don’t have a way to make it actionable." Every retailer recognizes that profitable customer acquisition, retention and activation require data-driven methodologies. Yet, a recent…

Tips for Shifting From Back-to-School to the Holiday Season
October 4, 2016 at 11:40 am

In a previous article, I reviewed inventory management strategies that retailers can implement after the back-to-school (BTS) season to help make room for the holiday product line. Now I'll focus on the opportunities retailers have to incorporate learnings from the BTS shopping cycle into the critical holiday season. BTS activity serves as an excellent testing ground…

Retail Reacceleration: Leading Industry Indicators Suggest Turnaround
September 27, 2016 at 10:27 am

Retail industry forecasts that include external economic factors (i.e., leading indicators) are more accurate in signaling future growth, contraction and major shifts in consumer momentum than traditional forecasts that only take historical performance into account. By monitoring these factors and noting changes, retail executives will have better insight with which to make planning decisions. While…

On-Demand Webinar: Be a Data Disruptor — Leverage What You Already Collect
August 25, 2016 at 8:30 am

Technology allows retailers to collect data — and lots of it. Brands like Warby Parker and Uber have turned industries on their heads by collecting and using data to make better, smarter decisions. “Best practices go out the window when you prove, with data, that they aren't the right practices for you,” explains Avery Cavanah,…