Three Benefits Of BI For The Masses

By Matt Pillar, chief editor

Sophisticated data analysis tools used to be reserved for retail superpowers. The computing horsepower required to store and process big data made BI cost prohibitive for the general retail population. BI software itself was (and in some cases still is) a monumental expense.

Today, a groundswell of upstart cloud-based BI software vendors have changed the economics of analytics, giving even small retailers the opportunity to gain better visibility into the recesses of every facet of the business.

For many retailers dipping a first toe into analytics, the customer experience is the starting point. Let’s look at three key areas retailers can leverage analytics to immediately improve customer experience decisions.

Business Performance: The initial value in BI usually begins with a long, deep, inward look. Modern cloud BI subscription services help retailers identify and monitor key internal metrics beyond those already measured by enterprise systems; seasonality, vendor business trends, customer preferences and shopping behaviors, location-based performance relative to climates, geographies, and competitive sets. This is stuff you can’t pull from a T-log, and it can help drive strategic decisions that create differentiation.

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