Have you ever wondered what happens behind the scene when purchasing ice-cream from a store? Perhaps it would surprise you to know that data is a key ingredient in the creation of that scoop of creamy confectionery.
Our client, one of the world’s largest ice cream retail chains, understood the potential data can bring to the company’s decision-making table. As a retailer with over 100 stores nationwide, the organization grappled not only with the voluminous data on sales and promotional activities collected but also with ways to decipher its value.
A pain point the client faced was difficulty in implementing a consistent view of sophisticated business logic into their existing reporting structure. They were seeking for an intuitive and cost-effective Business Intelligence (BI) solution to analyze their business and financial performance.
Coming in with an objective third party perspective, we identified the areas of inefficiencies and created a link between the data from their Point-of-Sales (POS) system with a BI solution – all without the need to overhaul the company’s IT infrastructure.
What followed was a period of enlightenment that was inspiring to observe – the client was able to analyze their customers’ purchasing behaviors, product mix, promotions effectiveness, and payment methods within simplified dashboards. They were also able to conduct effective market basket analysis – this is extremely useful to examine combinations of products bought frequently by their customers, giving visibility to possible trends and relationships between the products and their customers’ spending behavior.
The digital platform also factored in effortless usage that enabled deeper analysis into the company’s business performance with just a few clicks on the dashboards. Data from these dashboards enabled the senior management team to make data-driven decisions on their marketing and promotion strategy across various outlets, a crucial insight to have during the pandemic when customer behaviors were radically changed by necessity. A side benefit from this transformation exercise was that we were able to enhance data quality for the client, thereby enabling deeper trust in the information available to them.
This case study serves to demonstrate how access to timely information about your customers can be a key enabler for business sustainability. Gone are the days when data and analytics are considered a luxury – it is now crucial for businesses to deliver better value to their customers faster, while containing operating costs and mitigating business risks.
Implementing data and analytics solutions and tools need not be a complex exercise. The key before you begin is to have a clear understanding of the business’ pain points. This process may be time-consuming, but it is crucial as it allows comprehensive reviews of the existing situation before the right data solution can be developed, especially one that leverages on an existing or desired IT infrastructure and technology platform to achieve seamless transformation.
In this current climate of economic uncertainties and changing consumer behaviors, companies must be able to harness the right set of data to enable smarter business decisions, so as to secure an unbeatable edge and rise above their competitors.
