Retailers can unlock tremendous value through leveraging data & analytics
Transforming towards a data-driven organization requires breaking away from old habits and innovating with digital solutions
Through a deep multi-year partnership IG&H helped this client to increase revenue while avoiding overstock
A pure-play sports e-commerce company needed guidance on how to become a more data-driven retailer. Fast-growing and international, the company achieved a special position in the high-performance sports market by becoming a launch platform for exclusive and limited-edition products from premium brands.
With an ecosystem of memberships, apps and integrations, the company has built a core of loyal customers that visit their sales platform for the latest and greatest. However, the company’s data analytics capabilities to optimize margins, revenue and marketing were still lacking. This left a huge amount of new (hidden) value untapped.
Machine learning and regression modeling take the lead
The client enlisted the help of IG&H to identify where they should start their journey towards becoming a more data-driven retailer. Using workshops, interviews and quantitative analysis of improvement potential, we began plotting. First, a data analytics agenda was shaped and translated into a multi-year development roadmap. Several novel digital solutions were then developed and launched by IG&H, including modules for demand and returns forecasting, pricing optimization and customer lifetime value for more effective marketing.
What is unique within this suite of solutions? All modules apply machine learning and regression modeling in areas where most standard retail data analytics solutions fall short. By connecting retail sector insidership, data analytics and a passion for high-quality sports products we provided our client with a competitive edge.
The IG&H solutions are designed in a fully integrated and automated way, combining inputs from the market, historical data, as well as the client’s own unique product knowledge. This means the solutions can understand:
highly product-specific lifecycles
long- and short-term seasonality
sales trends
customer growth
Results are presented via intelligent dashboards that prioritize issues and enable an exception-based workflow. Even users without technical knowledge can understand the results. This allows teams to focus on areas with the highest impact and achieve superior performance in areas such as net sales, margin levels, as well as over- and under-stock risks. The results The results of our collaboration are that our client successfully applies smart pricing and saw a return on investment within four months. On top of that, the IG&H demand forecasting solution resulted in 0.5% additional turnover due to lost sales prevention, while freeing up over 5% of working capital by avoiding overstock so far. In addition, returns can now be predicted with significantly higher accuracy.
At the same time, the client is experiencing a significant increase in data-driven conversations and interdepartmental decision-making, resulting in smoother buying and marketing processes. Additional initiatives to further develop the digital toolkit are being brought in regularly based on user feedback.
Curious about how data and analytics can take your business to the next level?
Contact
Evelien Kip
Jasper van Rijn