{"id":24314,"date":"2020-04-25T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-04-25T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/insidebigdata.com\/?p=24314"},"modified":"2020-04-26T12:19:26","modified_gmt":"2020-04-26T19:19:26","slug":"how-the-retail-sector-is-reaping-the-rewards-of-data-analytics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/insidebigdata.com\/2020\/04\/25\/how-the-retail-sector-is-reaping-the-rewards-of-data-analytics\/","title":{"rendered":"How the Retail Sector Is Reaping the Rewards of Data Analytics"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Big data has had a huge impact on the way the\nmodern world works in nearly every area of life. If there\u2019s one area where big\ndata has been used to its maximum potential, it has to be in the retail sector.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here are some of the most powerful ways that\nthe use of analytics has transformed the markets from supply chain and\nmarketing to customer service and beyond.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Customer Retention<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the most incredible changes that big\ndata has had on retail is the way that companies handle their clientele.\nCustomers are no longer amorphous, homogeneous buying units that will unlock\ntheir safes and dole out cash when you cobble together the right sales pitch\nand broadcast it to a large enough audience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Big data has taken each previously vague \u201cconsumer\u201d and turned them into \u201cBob the fisherman,\u201d \u201cJudy the woodworking enthusiast,\u201d \u201cJoe the sports junkie,\u201d and \u201cJill the crunchy stay-at-home mom.\u201d Thanks to data mining and predictive analytics<\/a>, each customer has become a living, breathing person in the eyes of a company, with interests and preferences that they are able to track and utilize in areas like marketing collateral and customer service.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the best uses of big data in the customer retention\/customer service area is the rise in the quality of customer relationship management (CRM).<\/a> The ability for companies to track their customer\u2019s interests, complaints, purchases, and basically everything they know about them in a single CRM file enables them to improve and manage the relationship they have with each and every customer<\/em>. This is an incredibly powerful business tool that is yielding profitable rewards for businesses on a daily basis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Marketing<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

While personalization of the customer\nexperience is clearly a vital part of marketing, the effects of big data on\nretail stretch much further into the marketing realm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It comes as no surprise that search engine\noptimization (SEO), search engine marketing (SEM), email marketing, and mobile\nmarketing are the<\/em> areas showing the\ngreatest growth due to the compiling and analysis of raw data. Search engine marketing,\nin particular, requires massive amounts of data. In addition, practices like\nemail segmentation have grown through the use of personalized data.\nMobile-first marketing has also come to dominate the search engine world,\nthanks to data being collected from mobile users across the globe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whether you\u2019re talking about personalized\nemail campaigns, A and B testing for a mobile app, or optimizing marketing\ncontent for search engines, there\u2019s no doubt that the marketing world has not\nonly been touched, but thoroughly baptized, in big data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Inventory<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

While it may not be as flashy as marketing and customer relations, inventory management has been seriously revolutionized by big data as well. For instance, the use of optimized algorithms and advanced machine learning has enabled inventory managers to discover patterns, correlations, and relationships<\/a> in collected inventory management data. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This information has been put to powerful use\nin helping to make supply chain decisions including exactly what must be\nordered at what time, what is currently in stock, and where inventory is\nlocated. This has allowed for a reduction in the required amount of inventory\nmanagement space at any one given moment. In some industries, the control over\nthe inventory and manufacturing process provided by big data has even enabled\npractices like print-on-demand supply, thus eliminating the cost of\ninventorying products altogether.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Accounting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finally, we have accounting. If one area of\nretail could be considered less glorious than inventory, it has to be the\nnumber-crunching department. Fortunately, big data is significantly removing\nthe need for humans<\/em> to do the\nnumber-crunching in the mind-numbing quantity required in the past.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Numerous automated payroll solutions like\nOnPay and QuickBooks harvest data and regurgitate it onto forms and documents\nthat bear mundane yet vital information that keeps many businesses operating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even the burden of doing taxes \u2014 the bane of many a company\u2019s existence \u2014 can be largely automated. Critical information can easily be stored throughout the year in a variety of different programs designed for the purpose. Then, that information can be easily accessed when tax time rolls around and small and medium-sized business (SMB) owners need the numbers to send out W-2s or to fill out their Form 944<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Using Big Data in the Retail Sector<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you\u2019re looking for ways to incorporate more big data into your retail operations, it\u2019s essential that you always go in with a plan<\/a>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n