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As convenience store operator Wawa expanded, it faced a logistics challenge: The company was adding more new stores, and its manually operated chilled warehouse had run out of room. Its production had outpaced its storage capacity, and the chain’s products were now being produced, staged on the warehouse floor and quickly shipped to make room for milk, teas and juices that were newly coming off the line. The distribution center’s storage space had surpassed maximum capacity.

Making better business decisions requires retailers to break down silos between company divisions, and deliver scalable predictive tools that allow managers enterprise-wide to sift through mission-critical information.

Chain Store Age talked with Andrea Morgan-Vandome, VP retail strategy and solution marketing, Oracle Retail, about the importance of business intelligence (BI).

What is the biggest change today related to retail analytics and BI? 

Retailers spend months developing smart, effective strategies across their in-store, Web and mobile channels each holiday season. But social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter can be just as powerful in getting the message out to shoppers in the days leading up to Christmas.

With approximately 95% of retail purchases still occurring in physical stores (according to the National Retail Federation), it has never been more important to find new ways to engage, and connect with, in-store shoppers. For The Finish Line, mobile point-of-sale was a critical component in its drive to enhance the customer’s shopping experience.

One of the biggest problems for retailers is ensuring they have the right sizes and styles available in the correct stores. Retailers that have trouble planning localized assortments are at an additional disadvantage.

Town Shoes knows this challenge firsthand. The 60-year-old company relied on spreadsheets to create assortments, making targeted or clustered store assortments nearly impossible.

Eager to make more effective business decisions, many retailers are reevaluating their business intelligence strategies. With a renewed focus on breaking down enterprise-wide silos, retailers are making a move to the next generation of BI, which includes giving line and store managers access to predictive analytics tools and multifunctional views of data.

By Michael Dart, Todd Hooper and Jay Agarwal

Although it isn’t as sexy as luxury or as dramatic as discount, the space somewhere in between is heating up.

In fact, recent deal activity suggests that retailers that cater to both low- and high-income segments — those serving “the middle” — have tremendous potential.

Regional retailers are typically defined by geography, but Charlotte, N.C.-based Belk is a bit different than most. Distinguished by its signature Southern hospitality, the nation’s largest privately held department store chain has a dominant presence throughout the South and a footprint as far west as Oklahoma and north through Maryland. But its reach extends even farther, as Canadians and Californians alike shop its e-commerce site.

Uniqlo has made its first move in an ambitious plan to become a major presence in shopping malls throughout the nation. The company, Japan’s largest retailer and a division of Fast Retailing Co., has jump-started its U.S. expansion with the opening of a 43,000-sq.-ft. store in Westfield Garden State Plaza, Paramus, N.J.

As we head into November, I find myself inundated with holiday surveys, with experts weighing in on everything from the busiest shopping days of the season to the impact of smartphones. To be honest, all of the data seem to blend together after a while, leaving me dizzy with projections and predictions.