In the fast-paced world of retail, the difference between thriving and merely surviving often comes down to one thing: timely, accurate data. The ability to access real-time insights is the foundation for retail business operations.
| Dan Sommer Senior Director, Market Intelligence Lead, Qlik |
Michael Schulte Vice President, Product Management Retail Software, Diebold Nixdorf |
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| How are retailers using data to create new business opportunities? | The way consumers buy products and interact with brands is changing forever. Data and analytics are helping to transform retail operations to be faster, smarter, and more customer centric. This shift is driven by three forces – empowered consumers, agile supply chain, the changing role of the store. | Data is becoming more and more important for retailers – global tier-one retailers are creating their own data lakes and collecting data from every kind of source. The smart interpretation of it will be a critical success factor for them in the future. Key use cases include leveraging consumer data for a 360° view of the customer; Using an IoT device to increase staff productivity; Utilizing supplier data for better negotiations. |
| What are the challenges retail organizations face regarding data and analytics? | The data is more siloed today than it’s ever been, which poses both a challenge and an opportunity. High quality data is crucial for effective operations, decision-making, and planning, while inaccurate data can harm a retailer’s performance. To minimize data quality issues, synchronize databases for consistency, automate data warehouses to improve quality and reduce costs, and modernize data systems to better identify and correct errors. | One of the challenges is consumers’ sensitivity to share their personal data with retailers. Incentives like rewards are necessary to gather valuable information. Retailers face the challenge of integrating data from multiple sources, leading some to create data lakes. Experienced analysts are crucial to interpret this data and understand cause-and-effect relationships for accurate conclusions. |
