Retail companies worldwide confront many common difficulties, including poor operational performance and effectiveness, unreliable and non-actionable information, wasteful resource allocation, and unhappy consumers.

It’s critical to recognize the difficulties and identify workable solutions in these cutthroat times. Business intelligence can help in this situation!

With the global business intelligence and business analytics software market estimated to reach 17.6 billion dollars by 2024, it goes without saying that BI may especially assist the retail industry.  

Business intelligence in retail enables modern retailers to access their consumer data, allowing them to identify buying patterns, track customer journeys, evaluate product performance, and capitalize on new market opportunities. 

If you are a retail business owner trying to streamline operations, save costs, and boost revenues, we bet you don’t want to miss out on these benefits and use cases. 

The Role of Business Intelligence in the Retail Industry! 

In the retail sector platform, business intelligence does far more than just gathering massive amounts of data. Rather, it discovers methods for gathering information that is especially relevant to your retail enterprise.

It gives you insightful knowledge of market trends, consumer behavior, and operational performance that you can put to use. It includes gathering, analyzing, and visualizing data in order to discover patterns, identify possibilities, and make data-driven decisions that propel corporate growth.

An efficient retail business intelligence platform puts the appropriate information in front of the appropriate decision-makers at the right time. It is as simple as that.

For retail operations, the benefits of having a suitable business intelligence platform are tremendous. 

They are essential for back-of-house operations optimization, including field compliance, price structure, product mix, and inventory management. They also have an effect on important consumer-facing initiatives including marketing, staff performance, retailing, shop layout, and the customer journey as a whole. 

The Benefits of Business Intelligence for Retail Businesses! 

With the changing times, market, customer preferences, growing data and Business Intelligence – it is surely important for retail businesses to leverage the power of data and make informed decisions with Buisness Intelligence. Moving forward, we will be covering the 10 best benefits of BI in the retail industry. 

Let’s get in! 

Delivers Personalized Customer Experiences 

Your customer is an individual. They are not a mere statistic. It is not a market category. And it is not a group as well. In today’s market, they expect to be treated accordingly. Brands that can leverage personalization and exceptional customer service can generate 5.7 times more income than competitors.

But how can you know who your customers are and what they want? Here’s where business analysis comes into play. It enables retail firms to absorb massive volumes of data about their business and customers – from sales to market trends, consumer behavior and wants, and so on – and use business intelligence to translate it into meaningful stories.

These stories help you engage effectively with your customers. After all, it isn’t about how good you believe your product or service is. It is the level of satisfaction your client has with your product or service.

Saves the Costs! 

Retail businesses do not have that good profit margins. So, if you can save the costs through effective management – it’ll be quite good for your bottom line. That’s when BI tools comes in. It helps retail businesses to decrease costs through data-driven insights and optimization strategies. 

Let’s dig in to find out how it works to reduce costs: 

• By analyzing data on sales, inventory, and customer behavior, BI tools enable retailers to optimize inventory management, ensuring that stock levels match demand and minimizing overstock situations. This prevents unnecessary holding costs and markdowns on excess inventory.
• BI helps identify operational inefficiencies, such as long checkout lines or underperforming store locations, allowing businesses to streamline processes and allocate resources more effectively. 
• Moreover, BI assists in negotiating better terms with suppliers by providing insights into product performance and market trends, ultimately lowering procurement costs.
• BI helps retail businesses track which marketing efforts work best. By seeing which ads and promotions bring in the most customers, businesses can spend money on what works and avoid wasting it on what doesn’t to save costs. 
• BI tools can spot unusual patterns in sales and inventory that might indicate fraud or theft. By catching these issues early, businesses can take action to prevent losses and save money. 

All in all, when optimized properly – the best BI tool can help you save costs and improve your bottom line. 

Optimized Supply Chain Operations! 

As retailers work with merchants to increase sales of their items, supply chains have grown increasingly complex in the modern day. With little to no visibility into various distribution channels, this could result in inefficiencies and a rise in underperforming departments.

Nonetheless, the business intelligence system may provide retail businesses with crucial information on every aspect of the buying process, from product organization and packaging to the last delivery. This enables companies to develop a reasonable prediction model while also identifying and eliminating logistical obstacles that the supply team can address. 

This increased visibility facilitates the process of discovering inefficiencies, streamlining logistics, and guaranteeing timely product availability. All in all, it fosters a more resilient supply chain that is capable of swiftly adapting to disruptions.

Better Predict Future Trends 

Customer preferences and needs are constantly evolving. In the retail sector in general, as well as the fashion business specifically, trends are subject to change. Consider how many “superfoods” have recently gained popularity or how, following the COVID-19 outbreak, more people began to pay attention to environmental or sanitary credentials. 

Walmart has effectively implemented Business Intelligence (BI) and by leveraging BI tools such as data warehousing, data mining, and predictive analytics, Walmart analyzes vast amounts of data from over 11,000 stores worldwide. 

For instance, Walmart’s predictive analytics can anticipate customer demand and optimize inventory management, leading to a 10-15% reduction in stock levels while maintaining product availability. Additionally, through real-time data analysis, Walmart can adjust pricing strategies dynamically, resulting in a 5-10% increase in sales. This data-driven approach helps Walmart increase its operational efficiency and also offers better shopping experience to its customers. 

You can spot trends in your customers’ behavior as they appear by observing what is happening in the market, what your competitors are doing, what your customers are searching for, etc. 

With the help of BI, you can gather all the crucial insights to customize both your online and physical store to sell the things that customers are interested in and that you do not already carry. You can also investigate how clients react to changes such as changes in pricing or packaging to make informed decisions and get the most out of your data in your favor. 

BI helps businesses with omni-channel Integrations 

Business Intelligence (BI) helps retail businesses integrate their various sales channels, such as online, in-store, and mobile at one place. By bringing together data from all these channels, BI provides a clear picture of customer behavior and preferences across different platforms. This helps retailers understand how customers shop, whether they start browsing on a mobile app and finish their purchase in-store or switch between other channels.

With BI, retailers can ensure that inventory is managed efficiently across all channels, avoiding problems like running out of stock or having too much stock. It also allows for consistent and personalized customer experiences, as retailers can use the insights from BI to tailor marketing campaigns and promotions to individual preferences.

For example, if BI shows that many customers who view products online end up buying them in-store, retailers can create strategies like online discounts to encourage these purchases. Overall, BI helps make the shopping experience smoother and more cohesive, improving customer satisfaction and boosting sales.

Increased Customer Retention 

Business intelligence enables retailers to improve client retention and increase repeat business. Analyzing customer data allows retailers to uncover patterns and trends that contribute to the customer churn rate.

Retailers can use business intelligence analytics to develop client retention methods such as personalized loyalty programs, focused marketing campaigns, and superior customer service. 

According to HubSpot, even just a 5% improvement in client retention can yield a minimum 25% boost in profits.

An exemplary case of BI in action is seen with Amazon. Utilizing BI, Amazon analyzes vast amounts of customer data to recommend products, predict customer needs, and optimize inventory management. This approach not only enhances the shopping experience but also increases customer retention rates. A report by McKinsey & Company highlights that companies effectively using customer analytics report above-average profit growth compared to their peers.

BI’s data-driven approach ensures that businesses can foster long-term relationships with their customers, leading to sustained growth and profitability.

Improves Customer Experience 

The secret to any business’s success is providing exceptional customer service. It boosts brand loyalty, lowers employee turnover, helps businesses keep customers, and adds value to the company.

Nevertheless, providing outstanding customer service in the retail industry can be difficult, particularly for companies with a big clientele and few staff members. It can be tough for a retailer to engage employees and keep consumers satisfied while maintaining a lucrative business.

Businesses that use BI technologies to automate customer service in the proper way can both reduce these issues and maintain satisfied consumers. Automation provides businesses with vital data to help them make informed decisions.

For example, retailers can use customer analytics from a business intelligence platform to better understand their customers’ needs, satisfy their expectations, and discover areas for development. These analytics can also help marketers develop a data-driven customer journey map by providing information about how customers engage with products, websites, or organizations.

Takes marketing to a new level

The marketing industry is becoming more and more data-driven due to the abundance of social media tools and marketing platforms available. But, in order to achieve the greatest outcome for your retail business, businesses must have a system in place that can analyze data and offer helpful insights into the purchasing habits of their customers.

And here is where business intelligence technologies come into play. They improve the efficacy of a business’s marketing initiatives.

Companies that use BI analytics for marketing obtain valuable insights into their customers’ choices, interests, and attitudes. This information enables them to develop marketing programs and advertise on the appropriate platforms.

For instance, a business intelligence system can offer pertinent data like page views, likes, on-page actions, and so on, to a merchant looking to make the most of Facebook ads. Furthermore, BI tools can spot data patterns and trends that can boost Facebook likes and click-through rates (CTR) to boost conversions and sales. 

Successfully Manage Multiple Stores 

There’s no doubt a reason to celebrate when you open new stores: your business is thriving. Although having more storefronts is a great way to reach a wider audience, it also presents a tremendous problem because every one of these places needs to keep your brand promise at every point of contact with customers. 

Furthermore, because the industry moves quickly, you’ll need to identify the issue and find a quick solution if something isn’t functioning effectively.

A retail BI solution can help in this situation. With it, you can wave goodbye to endless spreadsheets and static reports and hello to a new era of dynamic data analytics.

As a result, you’ll be able to determine why certain of your stores aren’t doing well, or why people aren’t purchasing items from a specific store despite promotions, and take the necessary steps.

Improves Staff Productivity 

For every business, employees and customers are at the center. And, proper staff management and their productivity contributes to improved customer satisfaction. So, it is a win-win for businesses.  With real-time insights, reports and all the data at one place, Business Intelligence (BI) in a retail business can effectively boost staff productivity and sales.

For example, let’s look at how a coffee shop like Starbucks uses BI. They use data from their cash registers and employee schedules to figure out when they’ll be busiest. This helps them make sure they have enough staff working during busy times without having too many people when it’s slow. 

BI also helps Starbucks keep track of how well each employee is doing by looking at things like how many drinks they sell and how customers rate their service. This helps managers see who’s doing a great job and who might need some extra training. Plus, by using BI to understand what makes employees happy and engaged, Starbucks can make changes to keep them around longer. 

So, BI isn’t just about numbers—it’s about making work better for everyone.

How to Implement BI for your Retail Business? 

Now, while you are aware of the benefits of BI for your retail business, it is now the time to incorporate it into your day-to-day operations. But, to reap the benefits of BI platform, it is critical to select the best platform that adapts to your business operations and workflows seamlessly.

1. Define Clear Objectives: Start by identifying the specific goals you want to achieve with BI, such as improving customer retention, optimizing inventory, enhancing sales forecasting, or personalizing marketing efforts. Clear objectives help guide the entire BI implementation process. 
2. Assess and Prepare Your Data: Evaluate the quality and sources of your data. Ensure that your data is accurate, consistent, and comprehensive. This may involve cleaning and integrating data from various sources such as POS systems, e-commerce platforms, social media, and CRM systems.
3. Choose the Right BI Tools: Select BI tools that align with your business needs and technical capabilities. Also, don’t forget to consider factors such as ease of use, scalability, integration capabilities, and cost. 

Before getting started with the data platform like Livelytics, you can even book a demo to better know about the capabilities of the BI platform. Livelytics is a leading AI powered data platform that is curated for retail business to leverage the business data in the best possible manner. 

To Conclude 

In the digital age, the ability to adapt, be future-focused, and personal is critical to corporate success. And business intelligence is the tool for accomplishing it. BI is transforming the retail industry, making it more forward-facing and customer-focused than ever before.

Retailers who want to stay ahead of the curve must embrace business intelligence and leverage cutting-edge technology to make better decisions. These solutions will not only help retailers enhance their performance, but will also allow them to shape the future of retail.

As technology advances, embracing business intelligence is no longer a choice; it is a requirement for retailers who want to confidently navigate the future of retail. Whether you’re a seasoned retail giant or a budding e-commerce venture, you can leverage the power of BI. 
If you are affordable, customized yet highly functional BI tool for your retail business, check out Livelytics. It is a AI powered data tool that helps you make the most out of your data in favor of your retail business. To know more, book your free demo with us!