KPMG UK’s digital ‘Dash’ to help retail businesses gain the competitive edge

Retail businesses can now convert their data into real insights about their performance to improve commercial decision making about their customers, products and investments, by calling on ‘Dash’ – a new digital tool from KPMG UK.

Dash is an online platform, accessible 24/7, that combines business data with three billion external data points using AI algorithms, generating predictions and recommendations. This provides strategic insights across their store portfolio, allowing retailers to analyse their customers, catchments, forecasting, and competition.

KPMG has leveraged automation to ensure that Dash is accessible to businesses big and small as it can get to work with minimal lead times, no development or implementation, and no upfront fees.                                                                                                                                       

KPMG is launching Dash initially to the retail sector, where data insights are critical to understanding customer behaviour, and while today’s challenging trading conditions put extra pressure on every business decision.

According to the latest KPMG/Ipsos Retail Think Tank*1, retailers are battling with increased expenses and the impact on profitability, and are focussed on how to optimise costs and become more efficient operationally. Dash can use data insights to help retailers make those decisions. For example, it can look at real estate costs and help identify where a retailer could open, close or refurbish a store.

Nine in 10 retailers claim analysing their business data is important, but less than half (45%) of decisions made in the sector are based on data, according to additional KPMG research*2. The unpredictability of customer behaviour is a critical issue for retailers, with nearly eight in 10 (77%) placing greater importance on their data’s ability to interpret their customers’ behaviour since the pandemic.

Jonathan Attia, Head of Products at KPMG UK, said:

“In the retail sector the current extent of challenge and uncertainty means businesses are without a playbook. They need to understand the drivers of their business performance and have the right information to make critical decisions, like where to open new or consolidate an existing store portfolio, or which products are predicted to sell well. Dash gives retailers access to predictive analytics and powerful insights that help them better understand their business and gain a competitive edge by turning internal and external data into commercial insights, without requiring significant investment of money or time.”

Paul Martin, UK Head of Retail at KPMG, commented:

“Retailers have been faced with rising prices and economic headwinds, so they are looking at how to address these challenges through cost optimisation and operational efficiency. Understanding areas of improvement is important for retailers and to make a proper assessment, data is crucial.

“In addition, understanding their customers is mission critical for retailers, and it’s a job that keeps getting harder. The cost of living crisis is driving different shopping behaviours, with some customers trading down from premium to budget brands while others are buying more premium goods in place of more costly experiences such as eating out. Data insights should be an intelligence source that is tapped into to interpret how buying patterns are changing and to guide decisions that respond, for example on the products to stock in each location and on the effectiveness of promotions.

“Let’s not forget, these challenges overlay longer term customer behaviour unpredictability. Retailers are still working out what the new normal is on the High Street and online in terms of shopping post the pandemic. This is an issue with huge long term investment implications and data must have a role in strategy development.”

-Ends-

Notes to Editors:

For media enquiries, please contact:

Heather Gilchrist – Media Relations Manager
T: +44 (0) 161 246 4060
E: heather.gilchrist@kpmg.co.uk

KPMG UK Media Relations Team:
T: +44 (0) 207 694 8773

Follow us on Twitter: @kpmguk

Sources

*1 The latest KPMG / Ipsos Retail Think Tank.

*2 Senior management in 150 UK retail businesses were interviewed in Autumn 2022 by OnePoll, for KPMG UK.

Dash

Dash is part of KPMG’s new Products business, launched to develop a portfolio of problem-solving digital tools and applications. www.kpmgdash.co.uk

About KPMG UK

KPMG LLP, a UK limited liability partnership, operates from 20 offices across the UK with approximately 17,000 partners and staff. The UK firm recorded a revenue of £2.72 billion in the year ended 30 September 2022.  

KPMG is a global organization of independent professional services firms providing Audit, Legal, Tax and Advisory services. It operates in 143 countries and territories with more than 265,000 partners and employees working in member firms around the world. Each KPMG firm is a legally distinct and separate entity and describes itself as such. KPMG International Limited is a private English company limited by guarantee. KPMG International Limited and its related entities do not provide services to clients.