RETAIL INTELLIGENCE
The new weapon for retailers and brands
The competition between physical stores and e-stores intensifies year after year. Online sales have increased again in 2018 (14%). More than 85% of online shoppers buy online, attracted by appealing prices and a wide range of products and services.
Does this mean retail is over? Far from it! Today’s shopper is omnichannel and it is important to equip stores with solutions and tools adapted to new consumption habits to precisely analyze and understand shopping behaviors.
“Offline” retail is not dead. 72% of shoppers today still prefer to shop in physical stores and 9 out of 10 purchases are still made in store. Furthermore, according to a worldwide study by Nielsen Connected Commerce, although 87% of consumers make purchases online, the number of visits in store remains high, up to 35%. We witness a new trend: the “Phygital”, a mix of online and in-store shopping journey. Based on these developments, some e-commerce giants have recently launched their own physical stores or corners. In order to adapt to the new consumption trends and habits and carry on their growth in retail stores, brands and retailers need to know their customers to multiply touchpoints in all channels. To do so, the Retail Intelligence needs to make its way in stores.
What is the Retail Intelligence?
Retail Intelligence is the set of tools and applications focused on the creation and management of knowledge through the recollection, processing, interaction and analysis of information generated in all operations performed by any retailer.
Retail Intelligence applications can relate in real time and interactively the internal variables (range, space, pricing, promotions, staff, sales) and the external variables with different parameters of shopper behavior such as flows, length of stay, loyalty, hot spots, etc.
Why using such tools? Because they provide users with a better understanding of the store layout and shopper behaviors to anticipate future events and make stores more competitive, profitable, efficient. It will be easier to address consumer needs and identify new business opportunities.
Solutions and tools
Among Retail Intelligence tools, the Geo-Targeted Ad Analysis allows brands and retailers to precisely identify the location of local campaigns and correlate the gathered data with traffic variation and revenue in store. It is a way for retailers to reinvest their media budget according to the best performing areas and enrich the shopper experience with Ads showcased at the right place and time.
Other tools: the in-store analytics. This solution will aggregate customer knowledge to enrich the shopper experience by collecting and analyzing data such as customer flow and typical path in store, heat map, time spent, loyalty, acquisition… to optimize merchandising, staff management and marketing campaigns. Retailers can then enrich the customer experience, optimize conversion and more effectively engage their shoppers via dynamic portals.
The Retail Intelligence calls for data privacy
With the Retail Intelligence comes the question of consumer privacy: tracking and collecting tools are raising transparency concerns about the use of data and respect for consumer privacy. The GDPR echoes these questions and gives it a legal framework, giving peace of mind to both retailers and shoppers. It is important for brands and retailers to choose in-store technologies that integrate privacy by design.
