Retail Supply Chain Analytics

The retail omni market provides a basis and opportunity to collect vast amounts of data from a range of data points to support the types of analytics required to understand and adapt to the changing marketplace.  The omni market really provides methods to collect data points from all aspects of the customer experience that can then be used to develop customer relationship and also programs, product and services to meet the consumer demands in the marketplace. The omni market really provides a remarkable opportunity for the retailer and all of their partners in the market, including the end customer to increase collaboration opportunities and most importantly build the relationships that will help the retailer and their partners to succeed.

All of the pieces and parts have been coming together over the years now to provide the framework and infrastructure to collect and store along with the horsepower to process the vast amounts of data required to perform the analytics to understand and make decisions to drive the business.  The technology is really coming into a maturity that can provide tremendous value, if the retailer in this case is imaginative and also skilled in analytics. As the technology advances there is more and more opportunity to grow and expand expertise based on your desire and imagination.

The challenge in the retail omni market now is not the technology, it is what should be collected and how should it be analyzed.  There is now more than ever before a level of data available to the retailer that can support analytics of the shopping and purchasing process that could never have been achieved in the past.  The omni market provides the opportunity and the collection points that would allow the retailer, and their partners, to achieve a level of understanding of the consumer habits that would allow the retailer to develop the methods to truly customize the shopping and purchasing experience based on the demands of the consumer.

Retailers have focused on the operational processes and capabilities to support consumer purchasing demands based on the marketplace, in other words the offerings to consumers have been based on the offerings of competitors and focused on sales and operational efficiencies.  The analytics now available to the retailer will allow them to develop relationships with consumers and extend the relationships of their partners into the customer experience area to focus on the reasons why consumers shop and purchase from the retailer. Retailers cannot afford to follow the leaders the market because the market is changing to quickly and the analytics allows the retailers to identify trends and demands earlier than in the past.

The challenge now for retailers is to embrace the tools and capabilities that will allow them to detect the trends and direction early.  This means a framework that collects the data for analysis and even more importantly provides a feedback framework to support the change implementation.  This is another tool or practice in the continuous change framework that can easily be utilized to support and deliver the success of the consumer. Now is the time though to start because this framework requires investment in both technology and skills to support the retail market demands.