Capitalize on Big Data with Advanced Analytics in Retail Sector

What is big data with advanced analytics?

There are pertinent reasons why big data and analytics have become inherently important for corporate success. When used optimally, together they can transform the way many organizations do business, and deliver performance improvements, which are hard to visualize in their absence. No wonder, organizations have been focusing on various ways to use big data technologies for getting immediate access to consumer’s buying choices, preferences, and aiming at increased revenues and customer engagement.

Why they are important for your retail business?

Do you know several retailers have reported a significant increase in sales during holiday season due to the effective usage of big data technology? So what exactly does big data do? Big data, when used adequately, allows retailers to combine data from their browsing patterns, social media, existing records etc. to predict buying trends and develop relevant pricing and promotions for their customers. Not only this, you can also monitor real-time analytics and results with the help of big data technology. In an analysis done by McKinsey, more than 250 engagements for more than a five year period indicated that organizations that gave importance to big data for their sales and marketing decisions significantly enhanced their marketing ROI by 15 to 20 percent.

Retail is one of the biggest sectors that is already employing big data in a big way. In fact, retailers are using big data to enhance business operations all across the board. As reported by McKinsey, these operations have successfully used big data for optimization: marketing (60 percent), merchandising (62 percent), supply chain (29 percent), store management (25 percent), e-commerce and multichannel (44 percent), and operations (14 percent). Also reported by Macy’s, big data helped generate more sales in store by 10 percent, while Sterling Jewelers witnessed an increased holiday sales by 49 percent.

Benefits of big data with advanced analytics

Getting an enhanced 360-degree view of the customer

The customer relationship circles are abuzz with the evolving concept of a “360-degree view of the customer”. This means retailers can view all crucial information pertaining to a customer at one place, control and use the big data produced “due to digital footprints” of the customers and thus creating a set of services that help you exceed customer’s expectations.

Assessing brand sentiment

Conducting brand surveys while concentrating on focus groups or employing various customer survey techniques can be expensive yet inaccurate. However, if you use big data analytics, it is possible to perform a real-time brand sentiment analysis of the customers on the basis of their behavioral trends by referring to data collected from reliable social media sources such as Twitter, Pinterest, and Facebook. These results are more accurate and can yield useful insights to various advertising, product development, and similar marketing programs.

Creating customized promotions

The use of big data analytics makes it easier for retailers to come up with custom offers on the basis of browsing patterns and history. These modified promotions can be effectively used for local marketing and creating offers to users based on their location etc.

Enhancing the layout of the store as per customers’ preference

Big Data can help you monitor and analyze customer traffic flow within a specific retail store. In fact, it is possible to identify the store traffic and shopping behavior of the customers with the help of sensor data including QR codes and RFIDs.