The trend toward retail analytics isn’t new, but maturing technologies and techniques—and the many new opportunities they offer—are exponentially magnifying. In today’s data explosion, companies are bringing together point-of-sale data, website traffic, marketing numbers, and transactional data to find actionable insights from the big picture. But analyzing all of this information is just one small element in the evolving world of shopping. As mobility and analytics collide, both the consumer and the retailer are moving toward a real-time, mobilized experience. The wave of innovation is far from over. This paper highlights the top trends in retail and consumer goods analytics for 2016, including: * Advanced analytics is no longer just for analysts * Mobile reporting is fully realized * The Internet of Things changes the shopping game * Omni-Channel data integration gets exciting * The retail marketing mix modernizes * Real-time inventory becomes a critical need GET THE WHITEPAPER : http://www.edgematics.com/download-document?n=236&f=562

1. TOP 6TRENDS FOR 2016
RETAIL
ANALYTICS

2. Because data is always trending, leading retailers are prioritizing
analytics initiatives in 2016. What’s more, business intelligence
norms are evolving across the industry. More retail and consumer-
goods companies are opening up their data to executives and front-
line employees. As a result, the call for faster, simpler, and
mobile-friendly tools is growing.
Each year at Tableau, we start a conversation about the
interesting things happening in each industry. Here are our
predictions for retail- and consumer-goods analytics for 2016.

3. Advanced Analytics
Is No Longer Just
For Analysts
With the self-service boom, non-analysts throughout
retail organizations are becoming increasingly data-
savvy. Store managers and bookkeepers alike are digging
deeper into data thanks to interactive visualizations that
allow them to ask and answer their own questions at the
speed of thought.
Most big-box vendors are also leveraging advanced
predictive analysis to allocate labor during peak times
and provide quality customer care.
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6 Trends In
Retail Analytics
for 2016

4. 1
6 Trends In
Retail Analytics
for 2016
Macy’s makes many predictions, including what to stock
in which stores, when it’s a good idea to give a buyer a
loan, and which items to feature on its website’s home
page. To help drive these decisions, Macy’s relies on self-
service dashboards that run
on top of Hadoop.
Further Reading:
Advanced Analytics with Tableau

5. It’s easier to understand a phenomenon visually.
- KAREM TOMAK, MACY’S

6. Mobile Analytics
Is Fully Realized
For retailers, finding actionable insights in the field with
a mobile device is no longer just a pipe dream. Instead of
interfacing via legacy business intelligence systems, modern
mobile analytics lives at the core of decision making for major
brick and mortar stores and their distribution centers.
More than ever, retailers are leveraging their in-store wifi
investments to empower their associates with analytics in hand.
For example, if a customer wants a product that isn’t in stock,
an employee with a mobile analytics report will have far more
actionable insight and be able to provide the customer with a
product or service much faster.
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6 Trends In
Retail Analytics
for 2016

7. 6 Trends In
Retail Analytics
for 2016
2
Also, retail and consumer goods employees working
in back offices and distribution centers no longer
must rely on desktop computers and reams of paper
reports in binders to make on-the-fly decisions
about inventory, omni-channel supply chain and
operational efficiency.
Working with live mobile data on tablets on a
daily—or even hourly—basis is the new normal.
Merchants, regional managers, loss-prevention
associates, and even vendors have all ditched
their old-school stacks of spreadsheets to instead
collaborate using interactive visualizations on their
mobile devices.
Further Reading:
Case Study: Driving Efficiency with Mobile Analytics at SuperValu

8. You’ve got the power of now. It’s that proximity
and in-the-moment thinking that retail is all about.
- WESLEY STORY, GROUP VICE PRESIDENT OF CONSUMER INSIGHTS & LOYALTY SUPERVALU

9. IoT Data Changes
the Shopping Game
It seems that almost everything from products to
foot traffic, to merchandising displays now have
sophisticated sensors that collect and relay
information for analysis.
With connectivity everywhere, and data from
in-store mobile devices growing in volume,
so, too, will the potential for actionable insights.
The Internet of Things is poised to grow in
prevalence for retailers in 2016.
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6 Trends In
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for 2016

10. 3
Major brick-and-mortar stores are utilizing IoT data
to understand shopper behavior. Mobile data helps
retailers see which in-store marketing techniques
work best, and which walking pathways shoppers use
the most. Marketing teams then use this information
to determine which visual breadcrumbs and shopping
routes result in increased sales.
Smart retailers are also using this type of information
to engage in proximity marketing, a new way to
trigger instant communications with shoppers via
an app, SMS text, or an email, which may include a
coupon to incentivize a purchase during that visit.
6 Trends In
Retail Analytics
for 2016

11. 6 Trends In
Retail Analytics
for 2016
3
And consumers themselves are providing a wealth
of useful data to retailers by using, wearing, and
connecting to branded apps with smart products like
watches, shoes, performance clothing, and baseball
caps.
With sensors woven directly into the fabric of a favorite
cycling shirt, for example, retailers can collect and
leverage new information to analyze the tendencies and
desires of customers in highly specific categories.
Further Reading:
Four Ways the Internet of Things Will Innovate the Retail Industry

12. Omni-Channel
Data Integration
Gets Exciting
Retailers want and need agile analytics. Because timing
is everything, it’s essential to get the right data sets to
the right people, and quickly. This is no small challenge
since data now lives in many different places including
legacy systems and different database platforms that
include both on-premise and cloud data.
Successful retailers must be able to see and understand,
in one holistic view, commerce-channel data,
supply-chain data, and customer data. This is the
promise of Omni-channel.
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Retail Analytics
for 2016

13. 6 Trends In
Retail Analytics
for 2016
4
Working across different channels and data sources
can seem tedious, impossible, or both. In 2016, we’ll
see many new players in the data integration space.
With the rise of sophisticated tools and the addition
of new data sources, companies will stop trying to
gather every byte of data in the same place. Retailers
will connect to data sets where they live and combine,
blend, or join other data sets with more agile tools
and methods.

14. 6 Trends In
Retail Analytics
for 2016
4
Metro, a progressive retail business valued
at more than $194 million in FY2014, operates
a chain of department stores in Singapore.
The Metro team constantly collects a variety of data
at their stores to gain valuable insights into peak and
lull shopping periods, inventory flow, and customer
purchase behaviors.

15. We had sales data in data source A, transactions
data from source B, and customer data from
source C. To put all these together, we need to
extract data from multiple sources. What used to
take us weeks has now been reduced to seconds.
- ERWIN OEI, LEAD BUSINESS ANALYST, CRM AND MERCHANDISE CONTROLLER, METRO

16. 6 Trends In
Retail Analytics
for 2016
4
By analyzing the trends with data from multiple
sources, the team can set operational and
promotional strategies, and continue to improve
efficiency and performance.
Further Reading:
The Keys to Unlocking the Retail Omni-Channel Advantage

17. The Retail Marketing
Mix Modernizes
When it comes to planning the marketing budget, retailers
have sometimes found themselves prioritizing the old-
school print-media cycle simply because that’s the way it’s
always been done. But visualizing marketing channel data
is starting to squash this thirty-year practice.
According to a 2014 study by the National Retail Federation
(NRF), smartphones and tablets used before and during
shopping influenced 28 percent of in-store sales ($970
billion) in the United States alone. This massive shift in the
way shoppers consider purchases simply must change the
way retailers go to market; it has to be mobile first.
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18. 6 Trends In
Retail Analytics
for 2016
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Not only is mobile marketing good for e-commerce,
it also opens up a variety of new sales pipelines
and customer experiences.
While the fight for marketing dollars across radio,
TV, print, online ads, search, and mobility is on,
companies must also maximize the effectiveness
of dollars spent across all geographic regions or
designated market areas (DMAs).

19. 6 Trends In
Retail Analytics
for 2016
5
For example, while Arby’s uses data visualization and
geographic mapping to better understand restaurant
performance in specific regions, the company also
uses mapping to optimize its marketing mix.
Further Reading:
How to Use Geocoding in your Data Visualizations

20. Mapping is a good way to visually show [this],
especially when you talk about a restaurant company.
We’ve got restaurants all over the country.
We use mapping specifically around the DMA,
the Nielson-designated market area. And so we are
able to pull the DMA boundaries of latitude and
longitude data to actually have dashboards that have
the DMA shapes. Our marketing team especially has
loved using those.
- KARL RIDDETT, MANAGER OF BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE AND ANALYTICS AT ARBY’S RESTAURANT GROUP

21. Real-Time Inventory
Becomes a Must-Have
With the omni-channel boom, customers have grown
accustomed to knowing exactly which items are
available regionally and when a product may be ready
to be picked up at the nearest store. To further entice
purchases, companies are exposing product counts on
websites, mobile apps, in-paid advertisements,
and even the exact location of the product down to
the isle and bin at a specific store.
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6 Trends In
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for 2016

22. 6 Trends In
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for 2016
6
While this practice can improve the customer
experience, it can also create problems if that data
is inaccurate. Because inventory data lives in many
different places within the omni-channel, it is critical
for retailers to be able to blend and understand that
data minute by minute.
Merchandisers can also leverage real-time inventory
data to power automatic replenishments, adjust orders
according to sales spikes, and understand the flow of
inventory within the company’s pipeline.
Further Reading:
5 Ways To Improve Customer Service with Real-Time Data and
Real-Time Responses

23. Real-time data is very important for us.
In logistics, we can’t wait until the next day.
We need to analyze the data now.
- DR. LUCIE SALWICZEK, URBAN BRAND GMBH

24. About Tableau
Integrating data visualization into your retail programs and processes is easier
than you think.
Tableau Software helps people see and understand data no matter how big it is,
or how many systems it is stored in. Quickly connect, blend, visualize and share data
dashboards with a seamless experience from the PC to the iPad. Create and publish
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TABLEAU.COM/RETAIL-ANALYTICS

25. Tableau offers a revolutionary new approach
to business intelligence that allows you to quickly
connect, visualize and share your data with
a seamless experience from the PC to the iPad.
Go to www.edgematics.com to learn more.