What is Retail Data? Examples, Datasets and Providers

Retail Data Explained

Retail Data Collection

Technological advancement has brought along a new wave of possibilities including a collection of retail information. Modern retail stores go the extra mile to develop customized apps for mobile phones and PCs. While these apps are important in enhancing customer experience, retailers also use them to monitor customer shopping habits and interests. This method of in-store customer data collection helps retailers to tailor services to each customer. Retailers can also collect retail data by the use of guest satisfaction surveys, as a result of helping the business point out the key trends in buying behavior and formulating initiatives to drive more sales. By tracking website activities, retailers can also gather retail data about the number of potential buyers that have shown interest in the business.

Key Attributes

The attributes of retail data are grounded on two factors: customer insights, and business insights. Retail data’s attribute of customer insight involves a information on customer behavior. Understanding customer behavior is crucial for retailers to improve customer satisfaction and as result bolster sales. On the other hand, business insight is data that pertains to the business’ supply chain and inventory tracking that can help retailers make procurement decisions to ensure a steady supply of goods. Taking command of the supply chain through retail analytics helps the business to be highly reliable because customers are sure to get what they need at the right time and place.

Use Cases

The benefits of retail data are twofold, helping retailers to optimize their supply chain and identify customer trends and preferences. As far as optimizing the supply chain is concerned, retailers can use retail data to revamp their inventory and procurement systems. This undertaking can be achieved by the use of predictive tools in which the business makes use of historical data and trend evaluation to define the order in which to bring in new products and the precise quantities of products needed. This inventory optimization is ensuring that customers get the products they need while reducing space usage in stores. Identifying customer trends and preferences is another important use of retail data analytics. Retailers can easily match up sales data to predict consumer behavior hence creating cross-functional marketing strategies that target just the right consumers.

How is Big Data changing retail marketing analytics?

Companies such as Amazon, Wal-Mart, eBay and Costco are prime examples of how modern retailers have successfully harnessed the real power of big data analytics across processes in the businesses. The companies, which are largely retail stores that are based online, have amplified the power of big data analytics by making retail data useable throughout company departments, hence leading to wide-spread optimization of core business goals and smaller routine daily tasks. Here’s some examples of how using big data in retail adds value to business operations:

• Pipeline development for store location
• Pricing optimization
• Personal data protection
• Customer service
• Inventory management
• Promotion intelligence
• Fraud protection and prevention.

How can a user assess the quality of Retail Data?

Users can assess the quality of retail data by its ability to accurately depict the current trends in market behavior both, for the customers and the business. Quality data is tailored to a specific business in terms of needs and trends. It is up-to-date and it accurately provides trends as far as the retailers’ line of business is concerned. Quality retail data also takes into account the aspect of consumer private data protection. When collecting retail data, the data provider must abide by data privacy regulations to ensure consumers’ PII isn’t compromised.