This is a two-part series on vertical business intelligence (BI) trends
A majority of multichannel retail environments are structured as separate profit-and-loss centers – online store; physical retail store; catalog sales; and not-for-profit, business or government-only sales. In fact, each typically has a separate revenue target, IT infrastructure and business unit leader. Moreover, those business leaders usually have incentive plans based on the revenue targets set for their individual units.
Compounding this conundrum, other departments within a retail environment – such as merchandising, marketing, corporate planning and supply chain operations – are typically shared services.
What's more, compared to other industries, retail is highly focused on inventory replenishment. Multiple sales channels require that retailers fastidiously avoid "stock-outs" – or as commonly viewed in online shopping carts, "out-of-stock" (OOS) situations – in order to maintain brand primacy and customer loyalty and steer clear of lost sales. For example, if a customer prefers Band-Aid brand adhesive bandages but a drugstore has in stock only NexCare, a 3M brand, the probability of the customer driving to another store is slim – especially when gasoline costs nearly $3 per gallon, or more.
Finding success with business intelligence in retail
The diversity of stock-keeping units (SKUs) makes retail merchandising a rich lode for business intelligence (BI) utilization. Retailers routinely parse sales data in an effort to better determine what will sell in the future. For instance, does a particular color or size sell more than anothe...
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