What is retail data analytics and why is it so important?

What is retail data analytics? 

Simply put, retail data analytics is the process of using accumulated data to optimise areas of a retail operation. Companies that utilise retail data analytics to improve their business tend to outperform their competitors as they gain a single customer view of the entire shopping journey.

Why is retail data analytics so important?

There are 4 key ways in which retail data analytics can significantly improve retail operations and increase sales.

Provides customer behaviour insights

Collecting data and analysing the results is a great opportunity to understand how your customers are shopping. This gives you the opportunity to take action to improve your customer experience by providing a better service in relation to how customers are shopping. For example, retailers might find that their shoppers visit in store to browse their products but leave before purchasing to buy online. Discovering this may encourage the retailer to take action to unify their online and offline shopping channels, focus on providing great in-store customer service and consider ways to reward the in-store associates who helped close the sale before they bought online.

Promotes long-term loyalty

As an add-on to customer behaviour insights, retail data analytics can also be used on a one-to-one level. Retailers can filter their data to a personal level so that store associates can provide a clienteling experience unlike any other. Accumulated data gathered from a single customer means that store associates can view a selected customer’s purchase history, wish list, returns and even notes created about them including what they are interested in and vertical-specific information such as allergies or a specific shade of skin colour for cosmetics. This helps provide a personalised experience with the customer feeling like the store associate is their personal shopping assistant. With so much information about the shopper, helping them choose the right product that they will love is much easier. Additionally, with data recommendations, store colleagues can focus on upselling while also ensuring every product is suited to the shopper. This results in customers being keen to shop again with the specific retailer and also discourages them from trying new retailers for fear of losing that personal experience and having to explain their specific requirements to a new business.

Improves return on investment

Retail data analytics can also help retailers determine and provide the best promotions for their customers. Understanding the most popular products, customer demographics and recommendations means retailers can utilise their past campaign performances as well as current insights to create promotional offers that are personal to their customers and are more likely to encourage a sale.

Managing in-store operations

Retail data analytics can also improve everyday in-store operations. They can make predictions to help with inventory management and streamline back-room processes. Furthermore, retail data analytics can help pinpoint product popularity, stock levels, voucher redemption, speed of service, average purchase value and more, allowing you to efficiently manage in-store activity, make real-time changes and improve overall retail performance.

Retail data analytics provided by Red Ant

At Red Ant, we view our clients as partners. We are invested in helping their stores flourish rather than just selling them the software to do so. As an employee-owned company, we do better if our clients do better, guaranteeing our commitment to helping your stores succeed. We make sure RetailOS supports and empowers your retail operations for the long term. By ensuring our retail platform is updated and improved to meet the needs of our clients, retailers can be reassured that the solutions we provide are up to date, forward-thinking and future proof. Our award-winning tech is proven to maximise sales, deliver exceptional customer service and drive operational performance.

Our omnichannel retail platform brings essential retail apps together with your existing systems, content, and data into a single colleague hub and is informed by retail data analytics. With everything in one place, RetailOS permits your store associates more time to do what they're best at – delivering brilliant customer service.

Take the first step and contact us for a demo today.