The holidays are always the busiest time of the year for retailers. A strong season can salvage a lackluster sales year, but the period is not without its challenges. Temporary staff must be hired, the shelves stocked and everybody has to be on top of their game to make sure that stores are ready for the increased demand, otherwise a retailer’s reputation could suffer due to subpar service. In recent times, a new factor has entered the scene: analytics.
This year more than ever, social media played a major role in this trend. Enterprise software company SAP SE says it recorded more than 28 million mentions of shopping practices on social networks, an 8 percent increase over last year. More importantly, the data obtained can provide valuable insights into consumer practices, which in turn retailers can use to adjust their services in the future.
For instance, SAP found that the shopping season itself is getting longer. In a survey it conducted together with Ipsos, 21 percent of respondents reported buying Christmas presents for their significant others before Thanksgiving, and Black Friday sales fell by 5 percent from 2013. It appears that convenience and time are now rivaling price as buyers’ top priorities, and this is just one of the factors that is driving the growth of online retail, which also showed on social media.
Retail data solutions help companies build customer loyalty by allowing them to adapt their own practices to those of the public. Going forward, sellers that truly understand what motivates consumers will be able to separate themselves from their competitors and earn their customers’ loyalty.