Its time to focus on promotion analysis
Digital disruption has revolutionized the way retailers are attracting customers online and offline. Market demographics have altered drastically and planning promotional activity is a seasonal challenge. Those who put their minds on exploring promotional analysis with big data, stand a strong chance to make better sales. We present a few front page effective strategies to ion the latest war when the shopping season begins later this year. It can also become the impetus for you to adopt a regular promotion analytics in retail & sales for business to remain above average in the slack period too.
If you have multiple products on the shelf, 4 ways can right away be applied for better business insights. Read on to understand how sales performances are alleviated with proper data support and actionable results.
Stop depending on past performances
They do not work, anymore
Sometimes even regular customers cannot be trusted with the purchases, no matter how much incentives, bargains, reward points and discount are given. Loyalty programs also cut a sorry figure and often managers wonder if bargain hunting ‘carrots’ affect their revenues and also keep customers unsatisfied. This is one reason why past performances cannot be a benchmark for the sales next season or used as a future reference. There is no need to depend solely on bargain hunting or reducing prices to get marginal revenues. Preview these 4 ways as the first step to perform better in the next shopping season.
Focusing on the right customers
Many retailers are pressurized by market trends and their competitors to make quick decisions. The market forces refer to the changing customer profiles, demographics in various locations, confined economy, and other challenges that may effect the promotion analysis in retail & sales. Retailers are aware that customers prefer the most attractive offers and not just cheap bargains. This is one reason why shopping behaviors change after a purchase, thus making the pattern of buying unpredictable. Hence, it is advisable to cherry pick customers who can be trusted. Only a few of them appreciate the ‘invite’ for promotions and sales-and, these are probably your exclusive and serious customers. It is essential to use advanced data analytics to get insight into their pattern of shopping. Think how traditional customer engagement was in your grandfather’s times! Everything was so controlled by limited choices. That was the perfect relationship between retailers and customers. They never even needed promotions. But today’s consumer requires more attention as choices have multiplied, hence strategic promotions matter.
Measure promotion success
It is now understandable that customer insights have revealed a few valuable tips for retailers to push their wares/stock/inventory to meet annual targets. Specific messages via emailers, invites and other marketing techniques and currently mobile apps are popular. In fact, mobility is a huge measure of success for customers walking into the store. For promotions to succeed, as a retailer, you ought to have clear objectives before inviting the unsuspecting customer-is it a clearance sale of old stock (not many are interested), is it anew inventory (few may be eager to know more), debut of a new product (curiosity is important) or simply the season’s first flush of shopping mania that hits the consumers. Promotional analysis is useful and a required tool. Which products become your front page runners to attract customers? Think about it-it could prove to be an important benchmark for succeeding each time.
Make quick decisions to promote
Data needs to be analyzed quickly and on time to get results. If it takes longer than 4 weeks, it is outdated. It will no longer help in the next sales season. It is also important to know for how long a promotion can be active. This includes marketing ways to use combination of strategies to achieve the results. Take care not to disappoint the loyal patrons or new walk-ins. Such decisions can be worked on with promotional analysis.
Personalization-a sure shot way to succeed
No one buys from you unless it is relevant to their needs, no matter how good the promotion maybe or how attractive the offer is. Retailers need to visualize how best to personalize without making customers feel they are being disturbed. Consumers make choices now based on their moods too. Why they bought something from your store the last time, does not matter. This is why analysis need to be done.
Hope the above points help you to transform the annual sales-after all, the smiles should not only be on the faces of the customers but also the retailers.
