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Analytics

News, events, thought leadership and more.
RituJ
Alteryx Alumni (Retired)

Introduction & Methodology

The practice of capturing and using shopper data to drive marketing and merchandising decisions is as old as the retail trade itself.   The difference today is in the types and volume of data, and the availability of data blending and advanced analytics technology to derive insights from that data, so retailers can make evidence-based decisions.

 

Retailers that have successfully adapted to harnessing the value from the shopper data they collect have seen great returns -- per McKinsey & Co., a renowned management consulting firm, as much as a 60 percent improvement in operating margin. Even outside of research, industry annals are full of real life success stories from retailers, big and small, like Walmart, VF Corporation. and Southern States Cooperative that are seeing huge returns in terms of reduced markdowns, increased throughput, reduced inventory costs and improved marketing ROI from their shopper insights initiatives.  But not all have been successful, and not all are leveraging shopper insights as much as they can to drive retail decisions.

 

That is why in February and March 2014, Alteryx commissioned a survey-based research report with RetailWire, an industry think group, to understand the real state of usage of shopper insights, where the majority stands, the areas of opportunity verses misses, and its impact on companies’ profitability.  And since we wanted to focus specifically on retailers, we limited the survey to just employees of retailers, brand manufacturers and wholesalers.

 

Nearly 350 people responded. Respondents showed a good representation from companies all sizes, came from a number of different industry segments, and through all levels of management and functional areas. Some details on survey demographics as follows:

One of the interesting findings of the survey was that there was definitely a lag between recognition of importance of shopper insights verses actual usage of those for driving retail decisions.  Nearly three-quarters (73 percent) of respondents regarded shopper insights very important or fully essential to the performance of the departments in which they work, but only 16 percent of the respondents considered themselves to be an expert in the use of shopper insights. A majority, i.e., 60 percent considered themselves to be just getting started.

 

The survey revealed many such interesting facts around types of shopper data being collected, segment-specific nuances, and types of use cases retailers are primarily using shopper insights for, including missed opportunities. I’ll share these findings, as well as our perspective on how to make shopper insights integral to your retail decisions in my subsequent blogs in coming weeks.

 

Below is a list of upcoming blog titles as a part of the series to give you a sneak preview of what is coming:

 

Retail Shopper Insights Blog Series: An Insider’s Perspective

  1. The State of Use of Shopper Insights: Retail Analytics Blog Series Introduction
  2. Shopper Data Matters – But All is Not Equal!
  3. Top Uses of Shopper Insights – And Missed Opportunities!
  4. Roadblocks to Usage of Shopper Insights
  5. Shopper Insights to ROI – Factors that connect!
  6. Recommendations: Making Your Shopper Insights Initiatives Count!