Plan For Growth With Customer Data

Where can we find more customers?  Where should we build new locations?  Who should we target in our next ad campaign?  What products should we carry in our stores?

These are questions that retailers face everyday and finding the right answers is essential for growth.  In our changing world, the key to choosing the right direction is data: your customer sales data and relevant market data.  Building the capability to analyze your data quickly and capitalize on market opportunities will be a significant competitive advantage going forward.

Why Customer Sales Data?

Customer data that includes sales and postal codes that you collect can identify where your customers live.  From knowing where your customers live, you will not only have the capability to visualize their locations on maps with your stores, but you will also have access to a wealth of demographic and consumer information about those customers.  For example, you will have access to income levels, age ranges, household types and consumer spending patterns.  More importantly, you can calculate customer demand for the products you sell.  By combining your sales data against this demand, you can calculate your market share in every neighbourhood and in every market.  Knowing your market share in every neighbourhood is key understanding where you do well and where you can grow.

What Can We Learn Through Data Analysis?

When you analyze your data, you will learn the characteristics that drive success.  You will identify the demographics of your top customers.  You will learn which store location types achieve a higher market share.  You will learn how far customers are willing to travel to your stores and determine trade areas.  You will learn the best advertising format to reach top customers.  You will learn which product types sell well to specific demographic groups.  You will learn how much you can grow your market share in every market.  The information gained from analysis can be the foundation for your growth strategy.

How to Plan For Growth With Analytics?

Instead of waiting for opportunities to come to you, use analytics to shape your strategy and actively search for the best opportunities.  Once you have learned what drives success, seek out opportunities in markets where your market share is low and where the demand for your product is high.  Develop a growth plan for every market based on the size of the demand and the location of target customers.  Build stores in locations that best access customer demand and tap every neighbourhood without cannibalization.  Focus your advertising on consumers who are most likely to increase sales.  Introduce the right products to the right stores to customers in the right areas.  Choose the best path forward by combining your retail expertise with the insights gained from analytics.

Where to start?

Talk to us and we’ll help you collect customer sales data and provide the tools and support to build your analytics capability.