TAKEAWAYS FROM ACCELERATED ANALYTICS’ GS1 CONNECT 2016 SESSION: ‘The Importance and Value of Data Sharing – Using Point-of-Sale Data to Deliver Outstanding Customer Experiences’

I had the opportunity to lead this session last week and came back with some takeaways that I wanted to share, as I feel they are reflective of the state of retail today and how retailers and vendors are using point-of-sale data to manage their business in this time of OMNI-channel, customer-experience driven retail.

Customers want a single-vision of brands and be able to have a consistent, complete and winning experience every time they shop, in whatever channel they shop in. To ensure products are available when and where the customer shops, retailers need real-time inventory visibility, a seamless order management system and the ability to deliver. Retailers and brands realize they need to work together to have both a single view of the customer and a single view of their data in order to be successful.

Some interesting, yet not surprising, statistics were gathered from the retailers and vendors represented in the room. When asked about managing their POS data week to week, 66% were using POS data that was not provided via an EDI 852 file, eliminating their ability to automate the collection and processing of the data electronically, and instead having to work with multiple sources and formats of data. This process of data management and then trying to create usable reports to have meaningful partnership conversations between retailer and vendor is extremely time consuming: 83% of the retailers in the room spend 11-50+ hours per week managing and processing their POS data. More staggering was 95% of the vendors in the session were spending 11-50+ hours per week: 30% spending 11-20 hours, 40% spending 25-50 hours and 25% over 50 hours per week!

The good news is over half of the attendees in the room felt they are getting better at managing and using POS data each week, but 30% still admit to ‘Barely Using’ their POS data. Recognizing that heavy resources are needed to use POS data, especially on the vendor side, is making vendors ask, “Do we build an in-house solution to manage this, or outsource it?” CLICK HERE for an infographic detailing the pros and cons of each, and the differences in resource and financial investment.

Based on the time and effort being made by most of those represented, it is clear that POS data sharing is important for effective collaboration between retailers and vendors to “get it right for the customer”. POS data can be used to not just track units sold overall, but can give product/store level details on out-of-stocks, weeks of supply, sell thru %, average sales, geographic trends, inventory investment and lost sales opportunities. CLICK HERE for our industry sell thru % guidelines infographic.

We need to do everything we can to exceed our customers’ expectations and deliver an outstanding experience for them when they come across our brand. Sharing POS data and then using it to partner together to analyze it will help shape the customers’ experiences and give us inventory visibility and fulfillment across channels to meet customer expectations.

Want to learn more? Contact Jennifer@AcceleratedAnalytics.com to start a conversation. CLICK HERE to download whitepapers on analyzing POS data like a pro.

- Jennifer Freyer, Director of Sales and Marketing, Accelerated Analytics

CVS TAKES OVER TARGET PHARMACIES

CVS Health and Target announced a $1.9 billion sale of Target’s pharmacy business to CVS. CVH will rebrand Target’s 1,700 prescriptions departments as CVS and CVS will acquire Target’s 80 clinic locations and rebrand them as MinuteClinic. Both companies also announced plans to develop 5-10 small format stores in the next 2 years that will be branded Target Express and contain a CVS Health pharmacy.

Both companies have stated goals of core business investments to drive growth, and focus on wellness as a signature category, focusing on consumers eating well, being active and finding natural and clean label products. The rollout will take place over a period of several months to ensure the smoothest possible transition for their pharmacy and clinic patients.

"This strategic relationship with Target supports the highly complementary customer base, brand and culture we share," said Larry Merlo, CVS Health president and CEO. “This relationship with Target will provide consumers with expanded options and access to our unique healthcare services that lead to better health outcomes and lower overall healthcare costs.”

"At Target, we've talked a lot about the evolving preferences of our guests and this partnership demonstrates that we're committed to putting them at the forefront of everything we do," said Brian Cornell, Target chairman and CEO. "By partnering with CVS Health, we will offer our guests industry leading healthcare services, and at the same time, sharpen our focus on elevating the way we deliver wellness products and experiences to our guests."

Source: Chain Store Age

AAFES CONDUCTS FIRST-EVER EXCHANGE IMPACT WORKSHOP TO DETAIL GO TO MARKET STRATEGIES

The Army and Air Force Exchange Service (AAFES) conducted a workshop in Dallas, detailing the Exchanges’ go to market strategy, with over 50 AAFES representatives and an audience of manufacturers, brokers, distributors and service providers. The goal of the workshop was to simplify the process of selling to AAFES.

AAFES representatives discussed store repositioning strategies and individual category breakouts including hard lines, soft lines, consumables and e-commerce. They also covered legislative and policy issues affecting military resale. The average company can take two to four years to navigate the military resale environment, but a workshop such as this one can help shorten that to a six to twelve month learning curve.

The workshop was led by AAFES Chief Merchandising Officer Ana Middleton.

Resource: Retailing Today

Collaboration Key To Survival

Press enquiriesFor Economist Intelligence Unit: Joanne McKenna, Press Liaison: +44 (0)20 7576 8188 joannemckenna@eiu.com 

 For immediate release:  Wednesday, November 15th 2006 
Collaborative partnerships will be key to corporate survival, reveals a new survey from the Economist Intelligence Unit

Companies believe collaboration with other companies has become critical to their long-term survival, according to new research from the Economist Intelligence Unit. More than half of the 187 executives polled for this report say collaboration will either form an important part of their firm’s competitive advantage or will actually be central to its survival over the next three years. In addition, 51% say that they have changed their business model over the past three years to take greater advantage of collaborative partnerships. Key areas of collaboration include sharing supply chain data, establishing sales partnerships to tap fast-growing markets, and collaborating on research and development. In each of these areas, collaborative partnerships are delivering significant rewards: 28% of respondents say their biggest collaborative ventures have delivered either more or much more value than expected, compared with 11% who say they have not. 

“What this research reveals is that companies of all sizes are engaging in, and benefiting from, collaboration with other organisations, either locally or in countries where they may have no direct presence whatsoever,” said James Watson, the editor of the report. “What is striking is that a significant minority of these companies acknowledge that they couldn’t even exist if it wasn’t for the collaborative relationships they have engaged in.”   These findings are published today in Companies without borders: collaborating to compete, a report from the Economist Intelligence Unit, sponsored by BT.  Other key findings of the report include:

Collaborating with other firms is now the norm for nearly all businesses. The majority of companies (64%) engage with up to 10 partners, although some have established agreements with more than 100. And nearly all firms expect the average number of partnerships they have to rise over the next three years.

Most collaboration centres on sales and marketing. Firms collaborate for a number of reasons: to provide products they can’t deliver alone, to keep up with competitors or to expand their global reach, to mention just a few. These partnerships are typically being driven by the sales and marketing departments.  

The biggest challenge involves finding suitable partners. About one-third of executives polled for this report say the biggest impediment to collaboration is simply being able to find an appropriate partner. And when they do, overcoming any cultural clashes between the two organisations is a major concern, along with more practical issues, such as getting system integration right or dealing with data security concerns.

Successful collaboration hinges primarily on people skills. Making partnerships work relies more on people than anything else. Survey respondents identified the skills of the personnel assigned to a relationship as the single most critical factor for successfully managing the partnership.  

Andy Green, CEO BT Global Services, said: “This research shows the increasing importance of collaborating within and between organisations. The digital networked economy is enabling companies to create new business models, utilise global resources and work in real time with people anywhere in the world as if they were in the office next door. This erosion of the traditional barriers of time and distance means that the ability to partner and work effectively is more important than ever to achieve success in the global competitive environment.” 

Companies without borders: collaborating to compete is available, free of charge, at: http://www.eiu.com/CompaniesWithoutBorders

Vendor Collaboration Success Story

In the June issue of Consumer Goods Technology (read article) there is a terrific success story on how data sharing and collaboration between a retailer and vendor should work.  This is a must read for any retail or vendor operations, sales, or supply chain professional. 

Here is a clip from the article:

Smart & Final offers the same service to its key vendor partners. “We can filter the information by product line so we can tell Coca-Cola or Pepsi, or the Ice Man, what they are selling in real time by item and by store,” he says. “By sharing real-time sales information with the ice vendor, the vendor now manages its own sell-through on the ice,” says Duge. As a result, Smart & Final’s ice sales increased 40 percent in the first year.

Did you catch the bottom line - 40% increase in sales on ice!  I can't think of too many strategies that are this simple, and can drive a double-digit increase in sales.  OK, everyone, lets collaborate.

Compelled to blog

Hello.  Nearly three years ago I started a technology service organization called Accelerated Analytics (www.acceleratedanalytics.com) with a simple mission....help organizations better use the data they have in their computer systems to drive business success.  To accomplish this objective, I designed and am currently seeking a patent on a software application, for retailers to send point of sale and inventory data to their vendors.  This data sharing process has been growing in popularity in the last ten years as organizations like VICS, AMR Research, Harvard Business Review, and many others have been educating retailers and vendors on the benefits of close collaboration.  As I have traveled and met with various retail executives, I have been disappointed by how little collaboration is actually occurring.

So, I have felt compelled to setup my own little area in the blogosphere to educate, excite, and hopefully encourage retailers and their vendors to take advantage of this tremendous opportunity.  Stay tuned... I plan to chronicle the successes of as many organizations as I can.  I hope many of you will contribute, so together we can all drive more collaborative success.