In today's digital world, where technology has permeated our daily routines, retail is also undergoing a transformation. Once considered separate worlds, online and offline shopping have become inseparable. This is evidenced by the use of pop-up stores and showrooms, where goods can be tried on site, but only purchased from the online store. In order to measure the functionality and success of such retail activities, it is essential to intelligently combine analytics data from both the brick-and-mortar and online worlds.
The Importance of Retail Analytics - Online and Offline
Retail analytics, or the analysis of retail data, has become increasingly important in recent years. This analysis enables retailers to make informed decisions that improve the customer shopping experience while increasing operational efficiency. The data can provide information on sales trends, customer behavior and inventory levels.
But what about brick-and-mortar retail? The good news is that data analytics has an important place here, too. In-store sensors can be used to track customer movements and understand how they use the store. This allows retailers to optimize store layouts, deploy staff more effectively, and improve the shopping experience.
Connected retail analytics - the unifying element.
But the real revolution comes from connecting online and offline analytics. By seamlessly sharing data between physical and digital channels, retailers can gain a holistic view of their customers. The benefits are many:
Personalization: Stores can offer personalized recommendations and discounts based on customer behavior both online and offline.
Inventory optimization: Linking in-store inventory with online warehouses enables more efficient inventory management.
Cross-channel shopping: Customers can move seamlessly between physical stores and online platforms while maintaining their preferences and shopping carts.
Marketing efficiency: Retailers can develop targeted marketing campaigns based on comprehensive customer data to better reach their target audience.
Measuring the success of pop-up stores
Connected Retail Analytics is an important step in the evolution of retail. By merging data from online and offline channels, retailers can gain valuable insights and optimize their business strategies. In particular, marketing activities that are planned and executed from the outset as part of an omnichannel strategy benefit from this symbiosis of online and offline insights.
For example, pop-up stores or shop-in-shop areas where physical products can be viewed and tested and then ordered online (or directly from the store). By scanning the QR code on the products, shoppers can be taken directly to a brand's or retailer's web store and purchase the product of their choice. The symbiosis of the movement data of a person who spent a certain amount of time in front of product X and the scan of the QR code can be used to determine whether and how many people came to the website via the pop-up and may have purchased products there. Technologies such as retail analytics from sensalytics thus combine online visits with real-world tracking within a single platform.
Best Practice: Showroom powered by _blaenk
Retail-as-a-service provider and sensalytics partner _blaenk recently realized just such a project. _blaenk designed a retail space that displayed products that could be purchased online. Visitors were able to scan these products using QR codes and were directed to the online store. Using tracking and cloud-based analytics software from sensalytics, it was then possible to track exactly how many of those who visited the pop-up showroom looked at one of the products they had seen online and possibly purchased it later. In this way, the retailer's omnichannel presence was further enhanced.