Retailers suffer analytics inferiority complex

Improving shopper insights in omnichannel retailing is the top ranked priority for retailers who fear other operators may be doing a better job than they are. That is one of the key findings in a new research report from industry leader EKN that shows retailers still have a long way to go when it comes to leveraging the power of analytics.



The report, “The Future of Retail Analytics: From Intelligence to Outcome,” involved surveys with 65 retailers to unearth best practices, deficiencies and what’s next when it comes to retail analytics. In a data driven industry such a retail, it is rare to find a company that doesn’t grasp the power of data and analytics to fuel business growth. However, the industry has morphed from an age of data visibility and control, to transparency, to efficiency, to a new age of customer engagement.



“It is cheaper, faster and easier today to store and process more data than ever before. Retailers have gotten better at data management,” according to the EKN report. “Question is, how well are they able to leverage insights from this analysis to drive strategic decisions?



The question is somewhat rhetorical since retailers who participated in the survey expressed concern that they weren’t doing a good job leveraging analytics with many fearing competitors were more advanced. Some of the reasons why include organizational structures that hinder collaboration, failure to deliver insights to the right people and the right time and the lack of a clearly articulated analytics strategy.



Click here to download the complete report.