Analytics has become an indispensable component of online retail, but why is it that only a few offline retailers employ advanced analytics that tracks customer behavior in their physical spaces? As a result of this, most companies are flying blind when it comes to understanding their customers in the analog world. But this scenario in the retail industry is all set to change with modern retailers setting examples of success by using analytics solutions in their business. In today’s highly customer-centric retail sector, understanding your customer is the foundation stone to building a successful business. Location analytics is one such analytics trend that has caught the attention of many players in the retail industry.
Get in touch with an expert to learn how location analytics can help you improve end-to-end business processes.
What is Location Analytics?
In a nutshell, location analytics can be defined as the ability to gain insights from location data. From the user data collected, the data on the geographical location of customers often remain unused. The location data of users could include a city, country, or as specific as the GPS location. When companies in the retail industry place this data within the context of big data dashboards and data science models, it allows retail companies to discover new trends and insights. This is what is termed as location analytics. In retail, location sensing technologies generally require customers to use the retailer’s app and grant permission to track their location in return for a reward. In this case, the customer’s location is determined by the phone’s GPS or, more accurately, via Wi-Fi or beacons.
How Will Location Analytics Benefit Retailers?
Location analytics can offer benefits to customers that they wouldn’t have thought of before. Some of the use cases of location analytics in retail include:
Assess individual performance
Being connected with the customers, allows players in the retail industry to know where, when, and how they go through your store. Retailers can assess the productivity of a particular sales area by eliminating or changing the location of the inefficient areas. For example, if the location analytics show that most of the customers coming to your stores are students between the age group of 18-25, it becomes irrelevant to display kids related stuff on the front shelves. Even the items displayed on the top shelf or bottom shelf have different attractiveness index. If planned well, companies in the retail industry can increase their conversion rates with the help of location analytics.
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Personalize shopping experience
Increasing the level of customization is the key to stand out from competition and maximize profits. With the help of location analytics, companies can determine the traits of customers in a particular location. This information would help them to personalize the customer experience in line to meet the demand. Furthermore, product availability and the ease to locate it inside the stores are two factors that could build customer delight. If customers are using the mobile app to locate a particular product, this could also be used as a means to promote different items using personalized marketing campaigns. The feedback from repeat customers might help retailers to customize their products and services accurately building brand awareness and credibility among others.
Combine location with enterprise data
By connecting shoppers’ behaviors with merchandising, store operations, marketing, and space planning data sources, a fresh mound of data about a retailer’s in-store environment can be analyzed. This new data can help to attain improved retail execution by aligning headquarters, distribution centers, and the stores around a single source. Innovative visualizations then assist retailers in optimizing their footprints and assortments.