Analytics
News, events, thought leadership and more.
NRF 2015, like any other year, was exhilarating, complete with flashing displays, huge multi-story booths and thought-provoking discussions. With global retail contingent, hundreds of vendors and 30,000+ attendees in one location, it is difficult for any one message or vendor to stand out. But despite the size of the show and the flurry of activity, certain things made impression. Some were momentary attention grabbers like a 3D pen that extruded plastic allowing you to draw/create products, or camera in a necklace; others more substantive.
Here are 3 key messages/ trends that stuck with me:
1. In the race to analytics, the winners will be ones that master data blending.
Retailers, in all our conversations, whether during in-booth discussions or Alteryx-led panel discussion "From Data to Dollars"(which in fact was popular to the point that even the Editor in Chief of InformationWeek, Doug Henschen attended and wrote about), repeatedly brought up accessing and blending data sitting across various systems to be one of the biggest inhibitor in their ability to make fact-based decisions.
The problem is not limited to combining non-traditional data such as data from social media sites, mobile devices, in-store traffic monitoring technologies like GPS trackers, sensors, and beacons etc., with traditional customer and transactional data. The problem persists even with traditional data. Brand manufacturers such as Cole Haan that sell through retail partners, big-box retailers, or companies that have grown through M&A activity, all struggle to combine their POS data in a timely manner as different POS systems in different stores send data in different formats, different standards.
One data aggregator we spoke to mentioned writing custom JAVA codes to combine each of these hundreds of files – a huge time commit. Streamlining the data access and blending process is critical to getting insights and time it takes to insight. Retailers can collect all the data but if they can't blend it and get insights in a timely manner without a lot of expensive human intervention (i.e., specialized programmers writing custom code), then the cost of getting insights may exceed the actual return from the insights itself – plus limit the exploration of data and use of analytics.
Alteryx can help. Read VF Corporation case study to see how this brand manufacturer that sells through 10,000+ retail partners accesses & blends all its POS data in minutes vs. days. Also download our Data Blending Guide to learn more about our capabilities.
2. Location analytics are extending reach beyond just site selection.
The well-attended Alteryx Big !deas session on "Taking Location Analytics Beyond Site Selection" by Deanna Sanchez, GIS and Market Planning Manager for Rent-A-Center, and ensuing conversations were a testament that location analytics are extending reach beyond site location despite increasingly virtual retail environment. Retailers' interest in in-store technologies like GPS trackers, geo-location beacons and mobility apps further validated that retailers are getting increasingly savvier in use of geo-spatial data for marketing and merchandising purposes, using applications like drive-time analysis, custom trade area creation, competitive proximity and cannibalization analysis for digital marketing, precision targeting, promotion planning, merchandise mix optimization and more.
Download our presentations to see how retailers like Rent-A-Center and Belk are using location analytics from Alteryx to support decisions such as which store formats (higher-end, mid-range or discount) to position where, which customers to promote to in which locations, and how to locally optimize assortments.
3. Substance matters ABOVE all.
30,000+ attendees, 100s of vendors, huge multi-store booths, fantastic giveaways! In midst of all this noise, how do you stand out? This was the question weighing on my mind as I started for NRF. What could we as a company do to outshine the huge displays of our larger competitors?
Well, the response from the retailers made it crystal clear. It is the substance that matters. When our customer speakers from GameStop, The Fresh Market, and Rent-A-Center talked about how their use of Alteryx has helped them dial back on volume of emails to customers without impacting sales, incorporate geographic component in supplier network selection process at a speed which they could only imagine before, and provide self-sufficiency to frontline personnel, retailers in audience paid attention.
When Deanna Sanchez, GIS & Market Planning Manager for Rent-A-Center shared how she was able to reduce GIS mapping process time for 3000+ stores from 3 months to 3 weeks and then batch process it to the point where it took only 3 hours, retailers' interest perked up. The result: several on-the-spot meetings with prospects, showing that when you offer something of substance, retailers will not only take notice, but also act on it! They know how to separate substance from hype despite all the flash and glitter of larger vendors and their multi-story booths.
What were your takeaways at NRF? Share your comments and thoughts with us.
Read more about Alteryx in Retail.
