What Is So Hard About Retail Analytics?
Retail Analytics can be difficult without a good retail analytics software program. But software is a tool, limited to the way it is being used. If the approach to your retail analysis is reactive instead of proactive, there will be limits to what you can do.
Avoid Reactive Overcompensation
Reactive analysis is often not analysis at all. When retailers simply deal with immediate problems, they are in “survival mode”, a frame of reference that has shrunk to dealing with the next emergency. This often leads to overcompensation in planning, where the urgent is prioritized and long-term business goals are overlooked. The pendulum swings wider and the retailer gets bogged down in overly drastic management decisions. That’s a hard way to manage a business.
The solution to reactive overcompensation is simple: recognize that it is happening and take the time to actually look at the facts with software tools that allow access to historical, current, and comparative views of your data. This allows analysis to include an integrated view of what has happened and what is currently happening. It also enables predictive brainstorming of potential scenarios and proactive decisions that prevent issues from becoming crises.
Retail Analytics Utilize Proactive Analyzation
Proactive analysis is based on business intelligence. ChainDrive was designed with business intelligence built in so that retailers could utilize our technology to collect, integrate, analyze, and present key business information to decision makers. This ensures a balanced, comprehensive view of the enterprise. When the entire business and all the factors are examined it is easier to see exactly what will be necessary for those immediate problems without losing sight of the long-term goals.
Pivot table queries, graphs, dashboards, and more allow planning sessions to be productive because data views can be visual. The ability to query, link, list, pivot, drill down, or graph enables analysts to examine proposed strategies and predict outcomes confidently. Key performance indicators can be evaluated and adapted to meet the current need. These tools along with retailer-requested features are part of ChainDrive’s integrated retail management solution and equip retailers to easily accomplish their goals.
The ChainDrive Retail Analytics component provides a clear consistent view into every aspect of your business. This understanding prevents the knee-jerk reactions that cause overcompensation and allows an accurate analysis and proactive decisions that lead to success.
Retail analytics isn’t hard at all when you have ChainDrive.