Now, more than ever, a comprehensive retail analytics platform (and the right data) is essential to any retail business. Are you collecting the data you need to make informed decisions? And are you making the most of that data?
In this article, we delve into the three most important sources of retail data that you should be collecting and tracking today, and look at how each one can add a piece of the puzzle to build up the complete picture of your customers that you need to drive your strategy for success, improve your service, and boost your sales.
1. Point of Sale Data
It goes without saying that the data you can get from your point of sale system (POS) will give you an invaluable snapshot of your overall performance. Your POS data can tell you what products are selling well and give you details like the average transaction or basket size, as well as showing seasonal trends and much more.
Many POS systems provide reporting features and may even include basic dashboard capabilities.
But it's important to remember that your POS data can only ever tell part of the story. While sales data gives you a good headline view of your performance, on its own it is unlikely to give you enough detail to understand the stories within that data. Sales data can answer the questions of what you have sold, and when, but not why.
For the next level down in the story, you need to look at other data sources available to you, and you need access to an integrated reporting or dashboard solution that combines all your business data into a single source of truth.
2. Customer and Loyalty Data
Customer data is another valuable input into your retail analytics platform. For example, data from your rewards program if you have one, your online customer database, customer surveys, as well as your mailing database.
Your online store data will give you information and analytics capability that can inform your in-store activity, and your email marketing platform will give you a wealth of valuable data on customer engagement. Tools such as Mailchimp and Campaign Monitor will show you which campaigns are the most successful, through details such as which links have been clicked and which messages have been opened. You can use this to understand customer engagement as well as optimising your marketing messaging.
3. Foot Traffic
Foot traffic or people counting systems are an essential part of your data-driven view of store activity.
There are many different approaches to solving the challenge of tracking customers in bricks and mortar retail locations, from basic beam-style sensors delivering a simple count of people entering and exiting the store, to more sophisticated solutions, such as WingArc Retail Analytics, which give you a comprehensive view of what's happening in the store. The WingArc Retail Analytics platform uses video analytics from the store's security camera feed to automatically detect customer movement. It provides a breakdown of the store's capture rate (by tracking passers-by and entrants into the store), the conversion rate (by integrating with the POS data) and generates heat maps to show high and low traffic areas of the store.
Want To Know More?
Explore WingArc Retail Analytics to understand how our analytics platform and advanced heat mapping technology can help you understand your customers, reduce costs, and measure your marketing.
