Changing the liquor store industry with Data Analytics
If you don’t believe in the capacity of data to give you superior operational insights to take better informed decision, then this article might not be for you.
If you are operating a private club, a bar or a liquor store, you already know what we are talking about. An average liquor store not only holds between 1,000 to 2,000 different items (SKUs) on the shelves (around 10% of all +15,000 SKUS offered for distribution in Arkansas), but also manages over 12,000 units purchased at a store every month. They also need to track thousands of in-store traffic behaviors and online clicks of customers/prospects in order to grasp one store’s comprehensive consumer behavior.
The level of precision required to operate and excel in this industry is becoming more and more refined. Those who are not placing data at the center of their operational management structure will become side tracked and will slowly experience a decrease of market share.
Exhibit 1.0: Four pillars impacted by data analytics
Data driven retailers are organizations that exhibit a high-level of expertise in their data management activities, helping them convert multi-channel customer data into actionable insights. It’s these insights that allow them to ensure delivering seamless (consistent and personalized) messages across multiple channels, such as in-store, web, live chat, email and mobile applications.
Large data analytics is now being applied at every stage of the retail process:
Determining what the popular products will be by predicting trends
Forecasting where the demand will be for those products
Optimizing pricing for a competitive edge
Identifying the customers likely to be interested in them
Working out the best way to approach these customers
Deciding what to sell them next
Retailers that excel in converting data into insights reap the rewards of their efforts across four main categories (see exhibit 1)
Track – Analyze – Act on knowledge
