Competitive Advantage Through Analytics
3. The information analyzed should be available.
In both managed and informal reports, and be exportable in formats useful to your business.
Ideally, the data will be “modular,” allowing the client to choose the segments and sections needed at any given time. It should be easy to parse for reports and to query and analyze, as well as readily usable for budgeting, planning, forecasting and visualizing new possibilities.
4. Finally, the data gleaned should be user-friendly, reducing the learning curve for the client.
This will facilitate rapid adoption and absorption, enabling the client to make the best possible use of the data. This is not data for data’s sake; never lose sight that the ultimate goal of business analytics is growth, increased profits and sustainable success for your company.
In addition to monitoring trade and market news, a company selling products geared toward a specific market could monitor spikes or dips in sales around certain events, holidays or in the wake of media events. This data would then be analyzed and be used to guide future business decisions and improve sales.
Takeaway
Retailers can use business analytics to optimize sales in individual stores as well as at the regional or national levels.
The data can help identify trends in sales in particular geographic locations, perhaps even correlating these trends with specific seasons or times of year. This sort of analysis is only possible if data is collected from sales at all of the stores over a period of time. When used to manage inventories, specific metrics can help determine where certain product lines could be moved to sell at optimal times throughout the year.
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