A new RetailWire whitepaper, sponsored by SAP, dives into the expanding horizon of the data-driven Chief Merchant. This insightful paper suggests some new KPIs chief merchants may start focusing on and the role of today’s technology in merchandising.
In addition to the traditional revenue, margin, and growth KPIs, the paper suggests a list of new KPIs for Chief Merchants:
• Marketing response rates (by customer or campaign)
• Detailed basket analysis and/or product relationships online vs. store
• Detailed promotional sales and margin performance
• Store and digital placement analysis
• Dynamic pricing analysis across channels
• Supplier score-carding and/or product cost analysis
• Inventory turnover by channel
• Omnichannel order and fulfillment profitability
The whitepaper raises several interesting points including:
“Increasingly the merchants’ focus has expanded to include e-commerce and emerging channels, particularly around online’s inventory needs… As a result, Chief Merchants need to understand consumer behavior across all touch points through an increasingly analytical lense, with insights into all channels.”
“… delivering top-line growth now requires having the right quantities situated at the right stores, the right warehouses, the right fulfillment centers, in the right marketplaces, etc. based on where and how customers want their orders fulfilled.”
“Relative, localized assortments are driven by accurate history… as well as updated customer insights, and predictive intelligence.”
“Intelligent demand planning considers not only historical sales, but all influencing factors, such as the weather, events, and socio-economic factors to achieve greater forecast accuracy.”
Planalytics’ partnership with SAP enables integration of weather-driven demand analytics into SAP’s Customer Activity Repository for use in Demand Analytics, Unified Demand Forecasting, and additional applications. No other outside variable shifts consumer purchases as frequently, directly, and meaningfully as the weather. Together, Planalytics and SAP can help retailers and consumer-focused businesses stay ahead of these demand changes in all channels to minimize out-of-stocks, lower inventory costs, and improve margins.