Why the Retail Industry Needs Data Warehousing and Analytics?

Digital transformation is disrupting every industry and creating massive new opportunities, with the retail industry being no exception. New-age technologies such as AI, robotics, blockchain and data analytics are changing the way the retail industry interacts and serves its customers.

Retailers are harnessing data warehousing and analytics in innovative and unusual ways, with a defined objective to serve its customers better and enhance their shopping experience. Data warehousing and analytics provide numerous benefits such as operation efficiency, favorable customer experience, loyalty and retention of customers. But most importantly, it can be used to anticipate demand for efficient inventory management, cash management and overall profitability.

 Here are the four ways in which data warehousing and analytics are changing the face of the retail industry:

1. A Data Warehouse Saves Time- Data Warehousing enables you to create a consolidated system for operation, business data capture and analysis. This eradicates the need for manual exporting of data across business functions to excel sheets for reporting. Business users can quickly access critical data from a number of sources — all in one place. This can help rapidly make informed decisions on key initiatives. They wouldn’t waste time in retrieving data from multiple so
2. Enhanced Business Intelligence - Data warehousing and analytics extract data from different departments and present it in the form of reports and dashboards. Further, the self-service capabilities of the dashboard enable users to slice and dice data, perform drill-down and drill-up functions to view the data at a holistic as well as granular level. This enables business users to derive critical business insights and take swift and well-informed decisions to enhance operational efficiency and business growth.
3. Demand Forecasting and scaling of operations - Demand forecasting is essential for retailers as their scale of operation does not remain constant throughout the year. It fluctuates heavily depending upon the season. For instance, a major chunk of annual sales happens during festive seasons for retail players. Hence, it is extremely critical for them to scale up to meet the increased demand during such peak seasons and then scale down to avoid excess inventory when the sales return to normal.
4. Better understanding of customers - Data warehousing and analytics assist retailers in getting a deeper look at the behavior of the customer, their preferences, buying behavior etc. and use the insights for customized offers, contextual marketing and even to plan the design and aesthetics of the stores.

As the retail industry is expanding and becoming more competitive, data warehousing and analytics have become critical to the success of any retailer. It has become essential for retailers to know how to tie the right, relevant data together to meet business needs and derive valuable consumer insights.

Attributed to: Preethi Menon – VP & Head Practices, Clover Infotech