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Retailers to Increase Staff for Holiday Shopping Season

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Although consumer spending appears to be down and retailers have had to adjust their projections for the remainder of the year, many still anticipate a significant bump during the holiday shopping season. As such, a number of major businesses have announced this week that they plan to increase hiring over the next few months to meet the heightened demands according to the Associated Press, UPS is going to hire up to 95,000 workers, Kohl’s will create 67,000 positions, FedEx will bring on 50,000 new employees and Wal-Mart will add 60,000 new jobs.

This is a positive sign for the retail industry, and one that organizations must ensure they benefit from. Increased revenue opportunities will not help retailers if they can’t accommodate growing demand. Short-staffed retailers may drive away customers due to long lines and slow service. Additionally, a lack of resources can significantly amplify the risk of fraud or other criminal activity going undetected. Retailers need adequate resources to make it through the holiday season unscathed.

Kayla Whaling, a Wal-Mark spokeswoman, spoke to the AP about her company’s strategy.

“We monitor traffic patterns, and we want to make sure we have adequate staffing,” Whaling said.

Fortunately for the retail industry, the holiday shopping season is not an unexpected incident that requires immediate reaction. Most organizations have an annual plan in place to bring on additional help to cover the holiday season and they spend much of the year preparing for the upcoming rush. However, it’s important for them to be mindful of any trends that might impact this year’s strategy. As previously noted, projections are lower than previously anticipated, and retailers will have to be cognizant of this. The holiday rush will always be there, but if projections are truly down this year, retailers may have to adjust their hiring strategies. Simply bringing on as many people as possible will not be the most cost-effective action.

Retailers can use a variety of different data sets to help power their decision-making. For example, historical data will play a crucial role in the process. Retailers should evaluate the number of extra workers they brought on in previous years, the number of hours each seasonal employee ended up working and what the correlation was between increased revenue and extra help. Doing so may help businesses identify opportunities to adjust their seasonal hiring practices to make sure they are not overstaffed or understaffed when the holiday shopping rush begins.

Retailers should also examine economic trends and projections that pertain to this holiday season. Chances are, seasonal needs change, albeit slightly, every year. For example, given the security fiasco at Target during the last holiday season, it may make sense to hire those with an IT security background to help monitor company systems, in addition to bringing on people to work the floor and cash registers. Either way, data management solutions will play a big role. Companies must be able to pull necessary information and load it into a readable and actionable format. Doing so will give organizations the best insight into how they should manage this upcoming holiday season.

How Data Analytics Can Change Marketing Strategies

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As this blog has reported, an increasing number of companies are relying on data analytics to drive their business strategies. A recent Adweek column points out a few ways that businesses can now employ data specifically in their marketing departments:

  • Gauge a campaign’s performance in real time and adjust accordingly: With social media, consumer response to ad campaigns has become more objectively quantifiable. Companies can track the public’s reaction to see which aspects of their campaigns are generating positive or negative reactions. This way, they can make changes on the fly rather than wait for the campaign’s end and hope for results.
  • Narrow down market sectors: By tracking mentions on social media, marketers can break down traditional broad demographic groups into narrower ones. This will allow them to target a much more specific audience, maximizing a campaign’s effectiveness.
  • Predict brand performance: The New York Times reported recently that holding company Credit Suisse has compiled data on how consumers feel about different brands within an industry, in order to predict the brands’ future market performance and make wiser investments. Companies can also use this information to their advantage by working to make their public image more appealing.
  • Track the competition: Aside from all the information that companies can gather on consumers’ responses to their own products, they can do the same for their competitors. Knowing what the public thinks about the competition, whether good or bad, is just as useful as knowing their opinion of one’s own brand.

While all of this data is out there, transforming it into something quantifiable that can be used to make strategic decisions is easier said than done. Extract, transform, load (ETL) tools provide data mining for business intelligence, giving decision-makers the information they need to lay out their future marketing plans.

Gartner: Big Data Implementation Continues to Grow

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The results of a June survey by IT research firm Gartner show that a growing number of companies are investing in big data, and more intend to do so in the future. Of the 302 businesses worldwide that were questioned about their big data practices and plans, 73 percent said they have already invested in big data or will begin within the next two years. That number is up from 64 percent in last year’s survey. Only 24 percent say they have no big data plans, down from 31 percent in 2013.

Forty-seven percent of North American companies have already invested in big data in some form, the highest rate of any region. Gartner’s press release points out that most of that investment is going to experimental plans, and that only 13 percent of businesses have fully developed big data strategies, up from 8 percent last year. Gartner research director Lisa Kart highlighted health care and retail as two of the sectors that are using big data to improve their customer services.

Gartner also notes the biggest challenge that businesses are likely to face with big data. As connectivity grows, there will be a greater volume of data available, but that can easily be handled by increasing storage space. Rather, it is the variety of data sources that is likely to pose problems.

Database management systems that employ an extract, transform, load (ETL) process can help with just this issue. ETL tools can parse an abundance of sources and convert information to a format that is easy to analyze and draw conclusions from. This way companies can make the most of big data without being overwhelmed by information.

Survey: Businesses Satisfied with Big Data Usage

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An Accenture survey of more than one thousand business executives and IT managers shows an overwhelmingly positive reaction among those that have implemented big data solutions. According to the published report, titled “Big Success with Big Data,” 92 percent of respondents are satisfied with the results of their projects. Eighty-nine percent said big data is important to their businesses’ digital operations and, for 82 percent, big data provides a significant source of value.

As for what areas of business have been specifically affected by big data projects, 94 percent said they have used it to identify new sources of revenue, 90 percent to acquire and retain existing customers and 89 percent to develop new products and services. Narendra Mulani, senior management director of Accenture Analytics, says the results prove that big data has definitively reached the point where companies are beginning to see tangible results, both financial and operational, from its implementation.

“[Companies are] recognizing that big data is one of the cornerstones of digital transformation,” he says. “Today, even the most basic items like water pipes can generate and provide data. While the Internet of Things is giving rise to massive sources and quantities of data, new big data technologies are emerging that help uncover crucial business insights from the data. Companies not implementing big data solutions are missing an opportunity to turn data into an asset that drives business and a competitive advantage.”

Indeed, the benefits of business intelligence analytics are no longer just theoretical. ETL tools can help businesses convert all that available information into something that can be analyzed and studied to gain valuable insights. With proper data analysis, companies can make the most of increased connectivity and give a boost to their bottom line.

Survey Shows Increased Weight of Data Analytics in Decision-Making

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PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) has published a survey, titled “Guts & Gigabytes,” on business managers’ decision-making processes. The Economist Intelligence Unit interviewed more than 1,100 executives worldwide about the factors they take into account to make business decisions. Forty-one percent said they rely primarily on their own intuition and experience, 31 percent on the experiences of others and 23 percent on data and analytics.

Despite the reliance on business instincts, 40 percent admit that data analytics have changed the way they make decisions more than any other factor. The survey’s organizers stressed that this trend is certain to continue in the future as business intelligence analytics become increasingly important.

“Business leaders have long used their own tried and trusted intuition alongside more scientific and financial factors to make decisions and this has served them well in the past,” said PwC consulting data analytics partner Yann Bonduelle. “As data become more pervasive, algorithms become more accurate and visualization more intuitive, business leaders are realizing they can make better decisions through using data and analytics more systematically.”

Additionally, 81 percent of respondents recognize that a good grasp of data-driven decision-making is already a prerequisite for junior executives to achieve promotion to larger management roles. “In the digital age, as business becomes ever more complex and data becomes ever more available, business leaders need to ensure they know how to quickly make decisions based on their analysis of data,” said PwC’s head of data analytics, Tom Lewis.

Data analysis tools can help businesses get a head start on this growing trend. It is essential for companies to draw the right conclusions from the information they have available, in order to make savvy business decisions and ensure their continued growth.

Study: Retail Analytics Will be Worth $4.4 Billion by 2019

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A study by market research firm Markets and Markets predicts that the retail analytics sector will more than double in worth to $4.4 billion within the next five years. The report “Retail Analytics Market by Business Function and by Solutions — Worldwide Forecasts and Analysis (2014 – 2019)” details some of the benefits of data analytics for retail, explaining why more businesses are adopting data management solutions.

According to the report, retailers worldwide lost a staggering $112 billion in 2012 to fraud and theft, from organized retail crime to shoplifting. “Thus,” reads the report, “a number of small and medium businesses (SMBs) and large enterprises are rapidly deploying data analytics tools that can provide effective prediction, analysis and reporting for alleviating shrink.”

In addition to reducing losses, data gathering helps retailers observe existing market trends. With proper analysis of said data, they can then identify emerging trends and even predict future ones. This can give a retail company of any size a very significant advantage over its competitors.

Markets and Markets believes that the recent financial crisis was the main factor that prevented retail analytics from growing earlier, as companies saw their profits reduced due to consumers’ decreased spending and did not have the resources to invest. But with the post-crisis recovery now well underway, the researchers say that the analytics sector will begin, and indeed has already begun, to grow exponentially. According to the report, retail analytics are currently worth about $1.88 billion.

Extract, transform, load (ETL) processes are an essential part of retail data solutions. Information needs to be gathered from an ever-increasing variety of different sources and converted to a unified database. Only then can it be adequately analyzed to draw the conclusions that will help a business better understand its market.

Planning Analytics can Help Retailers Improve Sales

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The retail industry is facing a sea change in the way customer interactions are handled. Customer data management is becoming more important than ever as a result of current trends. Technological advancements are driving a larger percentage of retail sales to e-commerce. The internet also makes competition between retailers more intense as a result of customers’ increased access to price comparisons.

This is important for retailers to understand given the state of the retail industry. During the first 3 weeks of July, national retail sales fell by 0.6 percent nationwide. The drop in domestic retail sales follows the trend in the global retail industry, which also saw sales growth slow. Given this trend in the retail sector of the economy, it’s more important than ever for retailers to make the best use of their resources – in this case their data – to comply with changing industry standards and best connect with their customers.

Knowing how the population breaks down across age, economic standing and other demographic factors can enable retailers to gauge the prospective success of their project during the planning stage. Planning analytics provides retailers with a way to understand population demographics and ensure that new retail shops will have an adequate customer base.

Management Information Analysis provides retailers with a trusted resource for all of their planning analytics needs. By analyzing population data and using it in business decisions, enterprises can target the right locations and optimize their chances for success.

Data Management Helps Retailers Identify Successful Markets for New Locations

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Location Location LocationMoving into a new location or opening a new facility requires a lot of work. The physical aspect of the job is only one component. A significant amount of research must be completed as well. A truly successful initiative comes after careful planning, which requires an evaluation of relevant data.

An article in Forbes recently addressed the need for data evaluation prior to opening a new location. Ultimately, a retail store, restaurant, bar or any other organization in the customer service sector won’t succeed in a market with limited interest or opportunities. Although we live in a virtual era, the phrase “location, location, location” is still crucial to brick-and-mortars. Businesses can’t just expand anywhere. They must strategically select their new locations and position themselves to be successful.

Mark Cohen, professor of marketing in the retailing studies department of Columbia University’s business school, and former CEO of Bradlees and Sears Canada, understands this all too well. He spoke with Forbes about this:

“You can’t do business in a brick and mortar store without the presence of customers, and proximity to customers is as elemental to a brick-and-mortar store as air, food and water are to each of us as human beings,” he said. “Back in the day, Jack Kilmartin, CEO of [now defunct] Mervyns, drove the neighborhoods that surrounded the site of a potential store looking for validation that the Mervyns customer was as present as the researchers said they were. I doubt anyone does that today, but the need to accurately assess the market is as vital as it always was.”

Today, accuracy can be attained by effective data processing. A business intelligence system that can collect and report on relevant data will help organizations determine the potential of a new location. This understanding will go a long way toward ensuring the success of such an initiative.

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