Today’s ever-changing retail environment constantly needs to keep up with evolving consumers’ trends to suit shoppers’ thirst for novelty. This, coupled with fierce competition between retailers, means that staying on top of trends is crucial. With data becoming all-encompassing, using an analytics solution can enable retailers to better understand their shoppers’ habits, create a safe environment for them to shop in, save on costs and streamline in-store’s operations. Data is considered to be the holy grail for today's retailers, and here are three reasons why it’s never too late to reap its benefits.
1) An analytics platform helps you understand your customers
Understanding your customers’ habits and profiles is the first step to creating an exciting and fulfilling customer journey for them. With data analytics you can access information such as what genders they are, how much they spend on average per visit, how long they stay in your store (dwell-time) and if that visit resulted in a purchase or not. Thus, that data is gold for retailers who want to understand who their customers are in order to tailor their in-store shopping experience and ultimately improve their bottom-line.
\ Imagine what understanding your shoppers’ path to purchase could help you unfold. You could enhance and adapt your in-store display by knowing exactly how long they stay in one section of the shop and if certain items don’t get a look back. This could in turn help you decide which items to restock and which ones to discontinue. It would also inform whether seasonal marketing promotions or digital/poster advertising displays were successful or not. All in all, using data analytics for your stores is also one way to stay on track with changing customer demands and, at the same time, increase the impact of your targeted marketing campaigns
\ There’s a wealth of data that could be unlocked and made sense of with an analytics platform. This untapped gold mine could not only help you predict trends but also your forecast revenue.
2) It allows you to save on costs
\ There are a slew of bad practices that result in retailers spending a lot more than they should on energy bills. Oftentimes retail shops, depending on their sizes, consume (and waste) a lot of energy. It is not uncommon to see shopping windows lit up or computer screens turned on in the dark of night. These are just a few examples of energy wastage but they are countless more. As a result, UK retailers waste a whopping £300m on energy costs every single year, which could have easily been reallocated to more pressing operations. And with sustainability becoming a hot topic among building operators, having a green strategy should be a priority, not only for cost-savings but also for reducing pollution.
\ And we hate to break it to you but energy prices are set to rise to an all-time high worldwide and retailers will certainly feel the bite. Considering that the current energy crisis will not be going away any time soon, having preventive measures in place could help you stretch your precious dollars as well as reduce the energy prices’ impact on your fixed and variable costs. Therefore, having a green strategy in place would allow retailers to kill two birds with one stone by lessening the impact of the energy crises on their bottom-lines and looking after the environment.
\ Additional benefits of using a data analytics platform are that it can help you determine how many employees you will need on certain days, based on customer flow patterns and forecast predictions. This way, you’ll be able to plan your rotas ahead of time while ensuring your staff aren’t overwhelmed and the shopping experience delivered remains first-class.
3) It helps you improve your store's indoor conditions
\ Improving stores’ indoor environments has been one of retailers’ main focuses for the past two years with COVID prompting the industry to find safer ways for customers to shop. Retailers who understand their air quality are in a better position to make adjustments that could curb the spread of viruses in their stores. Shoppers want to feel reassured that their shopping trip won’t result in them getting ill and having to miss work as a result of it. They also want a smooth shopping experience which can’t be achieved if your stores are overcrowded and lots of CO2 is emitted.
\ Measuring your Indoor air quality has numerous benefits for both your staff and shoppers. When your air is brought back to healthy levels, you’ll be saving on having to hire replacement staff for employees calling in sick. It’ll also provide a safer and more productive environment for your staff.
\ For retailers, data is a big asset but also a big challenge, partly because it needs to be deciphered. This is exactly what we do at BlockDox. We gather and analyse data to help you understand your customers, create unique experiences for them, predict sales and revenue while making safety a priority in all your stores. With our intelligence, you can easily understand your store's performance to identify ways to increase revenue and provide better customer experience, from lay-out optimisation to product offering and marketing improvements.
Retailers that embrace big data through their organisation can unlock hidden value and opportunities to improve their bottom-line.
