WHAT’S NEW IN DIGITAL AND SOCIAL MEDIA FOR BEAUTY? OVER 200 BEAUTY EXECUTIVES MEET IN NYC TO SHARE AT THE WOMEN’S WEAR DAILY (WWD) DIGITAL BEAUTY FORUM

At Accelerated Analytics, I work with over 20 beauty brands to supply key reports and analysis of how their products are performing at their retail stores. Our expertise, based on years of working with beauty retailers like Dillard’s, Ulta, Sephora and Nordstrom, help account executives, planners and sales reps to track sales to goals, store display marketing, promotional effectiveness and inventory stock levels. I joined the WWD Digital Beauty Forum in New York on Tuesday to hear where the beauty industry is going with digital marketing and social media.

It was an inspiring day! From hearing how the Estee Lauder brand Smashbox is revolutionizing how to use social media influencers to expand their brand awareness, to learning how beauty brands like NYX and Shiseido are using digital technologies to expand social experiences online and in stores to broaden their customers’ experiences was mind blowing. In the ever-important retail need to address the increasing customer desire to have an experience, and not just shop, the beauty industry is using technology in a variety of ways to personalize what they can do for their customers and make their brand fresh, exciting and fun!

Beauty products are personal. Ecommerce efforts to use digital technology to put colors and skin care effects into a virtual customer’s hands live, is amazing. When a customer is in a store, actually touching products, digital technology gives shoppers a hands-on experience to custom-tailor products. Events and contests around pop-up stores is getting more and more common.

What resonated the most with me is, with so much activity and options for shoppers, and the very fast pace of beauty sales, the ability to see what is selling organically and where inventory is at all times is critical. I’m excited that our solution helps my beauty customers, like Coty, L’Oreal, Bvlgari and Parlux, to get the insights they need, when they need it, and gives them the opportunity to expand their digital reach to customers and react quickly when these initiatives take off!

2016 WAS A GREAT YEAR FOR DIY RETAIL

The holiday season is upon us, and how DIY retail will fare remains to be seen, but 2016 by most accounts has been a great year for DIY retail. The North American Retail Hardware Association (NRHA) is estimating industry growth for 2016 to end at 5.8%. The Home Improvement Research Institute (HIRI) is estimating a little higher, at 6%. The US Census Bureau reports home improvement industry sales through September at 6.7% growth over 2015.

Building materials and home improvement retail sales are 3 to 1 higher than overall retail sales increases for this year.

What has led to the success, and which areas in the DIY space have seen the best results?

Most economists agree that the renewed housing market seen in 2016 will continue into 2017. Add to that higher consumer confidence rates, multi-family housing construction has led to higher sales at home centers and lumber dealers. Remodeling projects and big-ticket purchases are stronger. Big ticket items, such as appliances, have seen the biggest sales uptick in the segment.

Accelerated Analytics DIY customers, using their retailer POS data to analyze sales and inventory, are experiencing the same trends. Across the Accelerated Analytics customer index, June and July showed poor results, followed by an improving August and strong September. 20% of Accelerated Analytics customers’ sales tickets are big ticket items, over $900 per sale. These items were identified as appliances and other expensive items, along with supporting/supplemental products.

The NHRA is predicting 2017 sales to continue this trend and that home improvement product sales should continue to outpace overall retail sales in 2017, anticipating DIY industry growth in the range of 5%.

For more industry stats and observations, download the Accelerated Analytics Retail Industry Briefing Book, which is a monthly publication of key retail industry trends, published to over 7,000 subscribers per month.

Sources: Accelerated Analytics, Hardwareretailing.com

FALL IS HERE…WILL ECONOMIC FACTORS RISE?

Economic indicators for August dropped, but 2016 overall is still growing.

Home Sales: Existing-home sales dropped .9% in August, marking the second month in a row of decline. However, year-over-year sales are up .8% over last year. While new home sales have been steadily rising, existing-home sales make up 90% of the home sale market. The National Association of Retailers reports that with the housing market in 2016 being the strongest sector of the economy over the past two years, the market may be a “victim of its own success”. Sales early this summer reached the highest levels since 2007, which has led to an increase in prices and a shortage of inventory. The average home price is $240,200, up 5.1% from 2015. The NAR feels an increase in home building would solve the issue. A Commerce Department report this week indicated building permits for single-family homes, the largest segment of the housing market, increased in August.

Manufacturing: The Conference Board reported its leading economic index, weighing 10 different economic indicators, dropped .2% in August. The decline in attributed to the average workweek of production workers and the amount of new orders. However, in the six-month period ending in August, the index increased .9% to an annual rate of 1.8%, which is in line with slow growth reported in gross domestic products. It is forecasted to grow at a 3% pace.

Retail Sales: US retail sales were up 1.9% in August, which was down from 2.4% in July. Retail sales had shown strong gains in the spring but has slowed through the summer months. Sales at department stores fell .6% and general merchandise store sales were flat. Building and garden equipment store sales dropped 1.4%. Retail sales are expected to be on the rise, with Halloween sales expected to boom and the 2016 holiday outlook expected to be positive, especially in e-commerce sales.

Sources: Wall St. Journal, Market Watch

WHICH ACCELERATED ANALYTICS CUSTOMER IS ‘POPPING UP’ IN NEW YORK? VERA BRADLEY!

Vera Bradley has plans to open a pop-up shop in NYC, replacing a shop occupied by Kate Spade through the end of last May. Opening in September, the pop-up shop will be 2,700 square feet over 2 stories and will carry the entire Vera Bradley collection. The store will also be the grand debut of Vera Bradley’s redesigned logo and store concept.

The store is geared toward an omni-channel customer experience, with interactive touchscreens allowing customers to participate in the “It’s Good to be a Girl” campaign over social media. Three digital wall displays will display virtual patterns. A kiosk in store will open shopping on VeraBradley.com.

“We are thrilled to open our first Vera Bradley store in New York City," said Robert Wallstrom, CEO, Vera Bradley, Fort Wayne, Ind. "We look forward to showcasing our iconic collections and signature in-store experience to both the local community and tourists.”

Accelerated Analytics has worked with Vera Bradley to provide POS sales and inventory reporting and analysis for their key retailer accounts and independent specialty retailers since 2013. 

Source: Chain Store Age

US BEAUTY MARKET EXPECTED TO GROW TO $90 BILLION IN 2020, AND ACCELERATED ANALYTICS COSMETICS BRANDS ARE IN THE NEWS!

Today’s $80 billion US beauty market will continue to grow according to a report by Euromonitor International. This growth rate will mean the beauty market will grow by 45% in 10 years. In 2015, the premium beauty category grew 7%, with premium foundation sales increasing 14.2%, compared to just 3% the prior year. Consumers have been shifting to premium products, looking for high quality products. Many luxury beauty brands who use Accelerated Analytics POS reporting to optimize inventory levels, track promotions and drive sales are in the news with big headlines this week, such as Parlux Fragrances, Shiseido, Inter Parfums, Estee Lauder, Elizabeth Arden, Coty and L’Oreal. Click Here to learn more about our solutions for beauty brands.

IT’s DAYS OF SUPPLY INSTEAD OF WEEKS OF SUPPLY FOR DIY RETAILERS LIKE HOME DEPOT

While the DIY retail segment is currently booming – Home Depot is targeting a 15% sales growth by 2018 – their strategies for inventory in their stores is changing. “Get comfortable with days of inventory, not weeks,” Tom Shortt, Home Depot’s senior vice president of supply chain, says is the message going out to stores. 

Rather than filling its warehouse stores with inventory, Home Depot wants fewer items on its shelves and wants those items within customers’ reach. Online shopping is making retailers think of better ways to profitably serve online shoppers and have inventory in stores, as well. They need to decide if they will ship to consumers from a distribution center or store.

WalMart and Target have also made changes to in-store inventory levels. WalMart’s inventory levels rose slower than sales, helping to improve their gross profit margins in the first quarter.  Boosting sales and stocking less items increase the percentage of cash they get back from the amount they invest in inventory. The strategy is to put less inventory in the stores and replenish more frequently based on demand instead of a forecast.

Home Depot’s strategy is called “Project Sync” which includes such changes as seeing suppliers send 2 trucks five days a week, versus 5 trucks 2 times per week.

Monitoring the return on invested inventory capital and tracking consumer demand closely in order to manage inventory and replenish based on demand can only be accomplished with frequent analysis of POS data in stores, looking at SKU-Store sales and on hands, trending days of supply and sales to stock ratios.

Source: Wall St. Journal

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

TARGET’S NEW RULES FOR VENDORS TO TIGHTEN UP SUPPLY CHAIN AND INVENTORY

Target Corp is tightening its supply chain requirements for its vendors as part of a multi-billion dollar plan. The rules, effective May 30, include tighter deadlines for deliveries to warehouses, and fines for late deliveries and inaccuracies in product information.

Says Target’s COO, John Mulligan, vendors need to help keep shelves stocked, maximize sales and control costs. A letter was sent to suppliers. In the letter, Target stated the goal to keep products stocked to “lower missed sales for all of us.” Target US stores in 2015 held 8 to 9 billion items on store floors, in transit or in warehouses at any point in time.

The new rules will be phased on over the summer, with household, paper, and pet products needing to comply in June, health and beauty complying by July and apparel, home and electronics in August.

Source: Reuters.com

UPSCALE COSMETICS SALES ARE BEAUTIFUL

The upscale beauty business continues to shine. In 2015, prestige beauty - makeup, fragrances and skin care products that are not found typically at drug stores, saw a 7% increase in sales. Sephora and Ulta each posted phenomenal sales results. Estee Lauder raised its sales forecast as demand for their product line are growing. The makeup subcategory was the strongest, with a 13% increase last year.

In a “selfie-ready age” and YouTube and Pinterest an easy way to get product tutorials, makeup trends are growing the sales. Thicker eyebrows are trendy, so products such as brow-enhancing serum and eyebrow mousse are becoming more popular. In our health-conscious society, products with natural or clinical orientation, which are pricier, comprise the largest share of prestige skincare sales.

JC Penney plans to accelerate its Sephora Inside JC Penney locations, and Kohl’s has redesigned its beauty area on 900 of its stores. Macy’s acquired $210 million Bluemercury, and plans to grow to 150 locations in the next 2 years. Target acquired Sonia Kashuk brand, and L’Oreal is opening brick-and-mortar locations of its NYX Cosmetics concept.

Accelerated Analytics works with a large percentage of beauty brands, such as L’Oreal, Anastasia Beverly Hills, Estee Lauder, Parlux Fragrances and LVMH. Click here to see our full list of beauty vendors, who utilize Accelerated Analytics’ POS reporting tools to track sales and inventory levels at their retailers, such as Dillard’s, Macy’s, Sephora and Ulta.

Source: Washington Post

WARM WEATHER HELPS HOME DEPOT SALES RISE ALMOST 10% IN 4TH QUARTER, AS HOME PRICES INCREASE AND DEMAND FOR NEW HOME CONSTRUCTION STARTS 2016 WITH SLOW GROWTH

The Home Depot’s fourth-quarter sales included an 8.9% sales increase in US stores that have been open for at least one year. This is despite the challenges facing the rest of the retail industry. Sales were strong the entire quarter, but warm weather in December brought in a sales spike – Home Depot attributes $100 million in sales growth to the milder weather. High sales were seen for power washers and pressure-treated lumber by homeowners building decks.

Home prices also rose in December, showing the strongest gains since July 2014. The Home Price Index showed a rise of 5.2% in the 12 months ending in December, versus a 5.2% in November. The national median sale price for a home in December was $213,800, 8.2% from the previous year. There is a limited inventory of homes for sale, and demand for new homes is likely to drive more new construction and help keep a ceiling on the rising home prices, although January 2016 was a slow start for new home construction for the year.

Accelerated Analytics helps Home Depot vendors, such as WM Barr, Hillman Group, Alexandria Molding, and CPG Building Products to manage their sales and inventory data to drive results. Our vendors use our analytical measures, such as sell through, inventory shortages, out of stocks, weeks of supply and consumer purchasing trends, to take quick actions to ensure they are optimizing inventory and growing sales.

Source: Wall St. Journal

AMAZON ANNOUNCING INCREASED SHIPPING FEES AND A PRIVATE LABEL APPAREL LINE MAY BE ON THE WAY

Big changes are being announced at Amazon.com. Based on shipping price increases imposed by UPS and FedEx late last year, Amazon announced its threshold for free shipping is increasing by 40%, to $49 in orders. However, Amazon is not raising the threshold with an interest in shipping revenue, but instead to incent more customers to become members of Amazon Prime. Amazon Prime members always receive free shipping on all orders, but membership costs $99 per year. These customer spend on average double what Amazon’s other customers spend, and absorbing shipping costs will be nothing to them compared to the billions of dollars in sales the company may gain.

Amazon is also hiring heavily to staff up its Amazon Fashion Private Label unit, which could take on fast-fashion chains to sellers of basic apparel. An analyst at Women’s Wear Daily estimates Amazon could launch a private label apparel brand by early 2017. Amazon can undercut prices that other fashion retailers have at brick and mortar stores, and its ability to collect customer data can help them to give customers exactly what they want.

Many Accelerated Analytics’ vendors utilize our POS reporting and analysis tools to manage their Amazon sales and inventory. These vendors sell online with the retail giant in addition to selling at department store brick and mortar stores and online sites. Being able to compare sales trends between them is a key tool to help them win at retail and ensure customers are able to access the products they want to buy regardless of which retailer they are shopping with.

Sources: Wall St. Journal, New York Business Journal

NORDSTOM IS RANKED FAVORITE RETAILER IN RECENT SURVEY

A survey of over 5,700 consumers found that Nordstrom ranked first among retailers in customer satisfaction. It specifically ranked highest scores for atmosphere, checkout speed and finding the correct size/product the customer was looking for. One in five customers surveyed indicated they were dissatisfied in general with their fashion retail experience across all retailers. 40% of these customers indicated that the sales experience was very important to them, and that less than half of them were approached by a sales associate, which was key to their satisfaction. Nordstrom’s sales associates assisted customers the most and received the highest satisfaction scores.

Coming in behind Nordstrom were Marshalls, H&M, Ross, Kohl’s and Macy’s.

With merchandise selection and ease of finding items and size selection the top of customers’ needs, retailers and vendors recognize the importance of partnering to share point of sale and inventory data in order to optimize store assortments. Many vendors, such as Brahmin Leather, Anastasia Beaute and The Sak, utilize Accelerated Analytics to monitor and act on inventory levels and customer buying patterns in Nordstrom and other retailers to maximize their effectiveness in this area.

Source: Chain Store Age

NRF SURVEY REVEALS INVENTORY SHRINK IS A $44 BILLION PROBLEM FOR RETAILERS

Inventory shrink, or the loss of product due to shoplifting, employee and vendor theft and administrative errors, costs retailers billions of dollars. The NRF and the University of Florida provided survey results this week stating that in 2014 inventory shrink averaged 1.38% of retail sales, or $44 billion.

Shoplifting accounted for 38% of the loss, followed by 34.5% in employee theft. The rest consisted of 16.5% administrative errors, 6.8% vendor fraud or error and 6.1% unknown loss.

While grocery chains have the highest shrink rate, home center/hardware/lumber/garden reported average shrinkage of 1.09%.

Tracking inventory effectively is key to managing shrink. Actual and accurate inventory counts eliminates the over/under counting in the results. Verifying product delivered is what was ordered and is accurately described in systems is also paramount – if an expected-sized item was not available, and the vendor ships a different size, but that difference is not noted, a retailer can end up with a surplus of one size, a shortage of another, and a dent in their inventory valuation. Inventory measurements should be looked at in both units and dollars. A retailer could be 99.5% accurate in dollars but only 94% accurate in units.

Shrink-related data is stored in different applications such as POS/point of sale, inventory, receiving and store applications. Having the ability to obtain reports that combine point of sale and inventory data in a timely fashion is imperative to take action quickly before the data becomes outdated.

Accelerated Analytics is a comprehensive service for collecting, analyzing and reporting on POS point of sale and inventory data, to increase sales, optimize inventory, recognize inventory shrink and respond faster to this information.

Source: Chain Store Age, ProSales

FOSSIL GROUP EXECUTIVE MOVES TO VERA BRADLEY, INC., AS CMO

Vera Bradley, Inc., has hired Theresa Palermo from Fossil to be its new Chief Marketing Officer. Ms. Palermo will start at Vera Bradley on June 22.

"Theresa comes to Vera Bradley with an accomplished retail marketing background," said Vera Bradley CEO Robert Wallstrom. "She has a terrific blend of creative and analytical skills and a solid track record of building brands, engaging consumers, and driving sales through designing and executing comprehensive marketing programs. Marketing is a key focus for Vera Bradley as we work to create excitement around our brand and introduce consumers to our myriad of new products. We are anxious for Theresa to get started." 

As CMO, Palermo will be responsible for marketing strategies and initiatives that build brand awareness and revenue growth across all of Vera Bradley’s product channels.

Palermo was VP, Global Marketing and PR for Fossil Group. Prior to Fossil, she held key marketing roles with Collective Brands, The Timberland Company and the J.Jill Group.

Vera Bradley, Inc. designs women’s handbags and accessories, luggage and travel items, eyewear, stationery, gifts and baby products.

Both Fossil Group and Vera Bradley, Inc. are customers of Accelerated Analytics, using their POS and Inventory analytics and reporting tools to manage stock levels, store performance, sell thru and sales activity.

Source: Retailing Today 

Demand Driven Planning in 2013

The availability of retail point of sale data over the past several years has created the opportunity for vendors to gain a detailed understanding of consumer demand at the retail point of sale.  Actual consumer demand at the retail point of sale presents a more accurate and timely picture of how your SKU’s are selling than retailer forecast advice or even retail purchase orders.  So why don’t all vendors collect EDI 852 or retail POS data from their customers and use it for creating forecasts and managing sales?  There seem to be several myths holding vendors back….

Myth #1: Collecting and analyzing EDI 852 / retail POS data is expensive and complex.  In a few limited cases like Home Depot and Menards it is true that the simple process of collecting the data has some expense.  Home Depot EDI 852 for example must be collected using a VAN so there are data transmission charges.  Menards charges a vendor to purchase a RSA SecurID.   But most retailers make EDI 852 or retail POS data available for free and even when there is a fee the benefits exceed the expenses.   Extracting the data, matching to item catalog details and store details does require some expertise but there are many SaaS applications now like Accelerated Analytics which will outsource the technical requirements for an affordable monthly fee.  By monitoring the consumer demand and inventory on hand at a SKU / store level of detail a vendor can proactively work with the retail replenishment manager to avoid out of stocks.  Every sale you get that would have been lost due to an empty shelf is returning value and paying for the expense of collecting and using the EDI 852 data.  How many lost sales do you need to recover a monthly data management fee that is typically less than $2,000?   At a chain like Home Depot with roughly 1900 stores in the USA the answer is not very many.

Myth #2:  My buyer won’t accept replenishment recommendations.  We hear this all the time – “I realize I could probably increase my in stock rate using EDI 852 / POS data but my retail customer uses automated replenishment or has a fixed open to buy plan so my recommendations fall on deaf ears”.  Several things are at work with this myth.  First, most vendors are operating on an assumption that if they talked to their buyer, they would discover is inaccurate.  I’ve talked to buyers at many retailers and I get a consistent answer – if the vendor can quantify the problem and provide an accurate order recommendation I will take it into consideration.  Second, the vendor has to demonstrate a competency in using the data for basic tasks like sales monitoring before they try to recommend orders.  I’ve seen countless examples of a vendor providing sales reporting and value to a buyer who then gains confidence the vendor can get the demand forecast right.  Finally, you have to start off slow.  Start with your highest turn products at your A volume stores and calculate the lost dollars sold for an 8 week period.  Then go to your buyer with a summary of your findings and actions to improve in stock and quantify the sales opportunity for both of you.  Make conservative recommendations to increase the WOS by one week so you gain back some sales but avoid loading the store with inventory and dropping your GMROI.  They have the same goal as you – to sell more product!

Every vendor that sells a product through a retail store should invest into analyzing retail point of sale data and using it for creating detailed action plans.  The data acquisition and reporting costs are very low when you consider them as a percentage of your retail sales and the upside benefits of increased sales, better assortment planning, and optimal inventory on hand are huge by comparison.  Let’s make 2013 the year that all vendors make the investment.  

Retail POS Reporting - Getting the ROI

Numerous research studies demonstrate that retail point of sale reporting (POS reporting) provides vendors with a critical advantage in sales and inventory management.  But we often find a disconnect between the POS report and a hard ROI.  Why is that?

Many vendors that create retail POS reporting systems are managing what we call “rear view” metrics.   A rear view metric tells you what happened yesterday or last week, but it is not very helpful in making actionable plans for the future.  For example, a POS report which shows units and dollars sold for the last 4 weeks is a rear view report.  It’s helpful to know what occurred, but without additional analysis, it does not indicate to you what actions should be taken.  What you should be looking to understand is the trend that sales are likely to follow in the upcoming 4 weeks.  Is the trend positive or negative?  That is the key information you need to put action plans in place.   An inventory weeks of supply is another very strong future looking POS reporting metric.  By understanding your lead time to put product on the shelf, and then comparing it against current weeks of supply inventory, you can quickly identify potential stock outs, which kill your vendor performance scorecard and your sales. 

Many vendors do not connect the dots between the POS reporting at corporate headquarters and the store.  I have personally sat in many meetings reviewing POS reports with a vendor and asked what actions they have taken to address low inventory levels seen on a POS report, only to hear, “Well, there’s not much we can do.”  Although I know many vendors feel that is the case, I know from practical experience it is not true.  The retail buyer or replenishment manager will listen to a well thought out and well documented business case on modifying inventory allocations.  Just make sure you are prepared for that conversation with accurate POS reports and make sure your fill level is not contributing to the problem.   Buyers have sales and profitability goals to hit just like you do, and to do that they need to have the right amount of inventory on the shelf.  A word of advice – focus your pitch on a small set of test stores where you want to change the inventory handling and have a test scorecard report ready to show the buyer so they know exactly how you will track the results. 

In order to get the hard ROI out of retail POS reporting, you have to design the reports the right way.   The tips above are a good start and there are many more good ideas on our blog, so stay a while and dig around.  You can also jump over to the contact us page and ask specific questions.

Outsourcing POS Analysis

Why does an outsourced service make sense? Using an outsourced service for POS data analysis is a great idea, because loading data every week and managing servers is not your core business- it's an expense.  And worse yet, the data and technology change all the time, which makes them very expensive to manage in-house.

Accelerated Analytics® eliminates all the cost and hassle of POS data analysis.

The Accelerated Analytics® service includes:

• Automatic loading of POS data for each retailer
• Hosting of a custom database for all your data
• Detailed sales, inventory, and forecast reports
• Training for your users
• World-class analysis tools
• Phone, email, and web support on-demand

Better yet, here's what one of our customers said...

“Accelerated Analytics® allows us to quickly come up with exceptions reports showing when on-hand levels are below desired levels and even red flag zero quantities. With this information we are able to offer support to our retail customers stores that need it most and increase the service level for our customers overall. Having management type reports with charts showing information like our (upward) trend analysis on sales is invaluable.” Steven Pugh VP Operations Howard Products.

Frequently Asked Questions about Accelerated Analytics

What is EDI 852?   EDI 852 is a standard data format used to transmit product activity data. Files are typically sent daily or weekly and will include sales activity by product, and for some retailers, inventory on-hand.  Activity is typically summarized at a distribution center level, unless store level data is deliberately selected. Some EDI 852 forms will also include pricing information, inventory on-hand but unavailable for sale, order point, order quantity, and order status. EDI 852 is provided as a text data file using special character sets to describe the coded data to the decoding software. 

My organization is a manufacturer and our retail customers are offering to send us point of sale data.  Can we use Accelerated Analytics® to analyze POS data? 

Absolutely! Accelerated Analytics® was designed to provide business users with a simple and effective means to analyze POS data from both a buyer and manufacturer/supplier perspective. Our engineers can work with your team as well as the retailer to load the data into Accelerated Analytics® and format your custom reports.  

 

Can we use Accelerated Analytics® to analyze EDI 852 data?

Yes.  As a part of our service we accept EDI 852 data and provide the translation into a useable format for reporting and analysis.    

 

What's the difference between point of sale data and EDI 852?

First, the format of the data is very different.  EDI 852 is provided as a text data file using special character sets to describe the coded data to the decoding software.  If you open an un-translated EDI 852 file, you will have a very hard time understanding what you are looking at.  POS data, on the other hand, is typically provided in a text file with descriptive column headers, which can be easily opened and used in Excel.  Second, EDI 852 contains a basic set of product activity data, while a POS file is usually much more rich.  POS often will include cost and price information, and more detail inventory.

 

What retailers are you working with today?

A list of our currently covered retailers can be found here.

 

What industries do your vendor customers work in? 

Our customers include apparel, footwear, consumer products, specialty hardlines, health and beauty, pharmaceuticals, and grocery.

 

Do we have to setup our own reports?

Not unless you want to.  Our service includes many pre-configure template reports that we customize during the on-boarding process to meet our customers precise needs.  Templates are included for sell-thru, stock-out exposure, inventory on-hand, period over period sale and inventory comparisons, top selling items, and much more.  All reports can be viewed by product, product category, store, geography, time, etc.  The reports are saved and available to end users with one click of the mouse. 

 

What is collaborative forecasting, planning and replenishment (CPFR)?

(CPFR) Collaborative Planning, Forecasting, and Replenishment is a business practices that combines the intelligence of multiple trading partners in the demand planning and fulfillment of customer demand. CPFR was pioneered by Wal-Mart as a next step to efficient consumer response (ECR) and vendor managed inventory (VMI) and is now promoted by the Voluntary Interindustry Commerce Standards Association (VICS). CPR is a proven retail supply chain improvement process.  

What is the bullwhip effect and why is it important?  

The bullwhip effect among supply chain partners is a situation in which the supplier has a clearer view of demand than the retailer, but a less accurate forecast. Traditional supply chains are extremely prone to this bullwhip effect; typical order fluctuations of +/-5% on the customer end can easily balloon to +/-40% on the manufacturer end, thus showing an increasing demand variation of 2:1 at each level of the supply chain. Accurate forecasting can help to eliminate the bullwhip effect and increase overall profitability by 5%. The most effective way of smoothing out bullwhip effect oscillations is for suppliers to understand what drives demand and supply patterns. Understanding demand and supply patterns is best accomplished through a detailed look at POS data.   

 

What makes Accelerated Analytics® unique?   

Accelerated Analytics® connects buyers and suppliers in a collaborative environment, where point-of-sale data is used to improve forecast accuracy, demand planning, and decrease stock-outs. The Accelerated Analytics® environment is a hosted service including pre-configured reports, world-class analysis tools, and color coded exception dashboards. These tools quickly turn data into actionable information and promote data based decision making.  With Accelerated Analytics®, there is no software to buy or install and Rainmaker Group does all the data processing. Read our full list of benefits. 

 

Who are some companies that have implemented collaborative planning forecasting and replenishment (CPFR)?   

Over 150 companies have implemented collaborative planning forecasting and replenishment (CPFR) including: Sara Lee, Wal-Mart, Schering-Plough, Walgreens, Kmart, Target, Eckerd, Safeway, Ace Hardware, Manco, Canadian Tire, Johnson & Johnson, Carrefour, Henkel, Kimberly-Clark, Marks & Spencer, Metro, Proctor & Gamble, Sainsbury's, Nestle, Best Buy, Scan Disk, and Federated. In all likelihood, there are many more unpublished implementations as well.  

 

How is my retail supply chain improved by demand planning using EDI, DDSN, or CPFR?   

Studies of retailers by Harvard Business, Grocery Manufacturers Association, National Retail Federation, and AMR Research show results of 15% less inventory, 17% better perfect order performance, and 35% shorter cash-to-cash cycles. The close collaboration between buyers and suppliers makes these improvements possible. Accelerated Analytics® provides the technology in a hosted service so there is no hardware or software to purchase.  

 

If our suppliers are not asking for POS data, why should I consider Accelerated Analytics®?  

It's not a surprise your suppliers are not asking for data. Most suppliers are intimidated by the prospect of asking for POS data and they do not have the tools to manage and analyze that volume of data. Successful business transformation does not begin as a reaction, but rather because business leaders have the vision to proactively invest in tools which drive their business forward faster than their competition. Research shows that when retailers proactively engage suppliers to collaborate on demand forecasting, 57% report improved relationships. Demand planning in the retail supply chain and collaboration between buyers and sellers, leads to more accurate forecasts and higher sales.  

  

Why can't we just use our electronic data interchange (EDI) system to send suppliers demand planning data?   

Many retailers have tried using EDI 852 to take advantage of collaboration and demand planning opportunities with suppliers. This is a natural first step; the infrastructure for EDI 852 is already in place, serving as the communication medium between retailers and suppliers. But most retailers are finding that sending out an EDI 852 document with summarized POS and inventory replenishment does not provide much benefit. Why? EDI does not add any new information; EDI is summarized at such a high level, it provides about the same detail as the purchase orders already in the system. The best a supplier can do with EDI 852 is load it into excel, because they do not have an analysis tool. In addition, parsing out a separate EDI 852 file every week for each supplier is time intensive. Most importantly, the supplier rarely has the tools necessary to accept the data and conduct effective analysis.

Improving Buyer Relationships Using POS Data

Time and time again, when setting up new vendors with Accelerated Analytics®, the same dilemma is expressed in some form or other: “We know that this product sells well here, but our buyer won’t listen to us.”  To determine why, the return question is invariably, “What evidence are you giving the buyer to back up your assertions?”
 
Almost as often as the initial question is expressed, the rejoining comment is met with frustration at the inability to provide the evidence the buyer wants to see.  This can be due to a vast array of issues, not the least of which is simply a lack of time to collect and analyze the available POS data and provide the buyer with real concrete evidence.  Conversely, it is rarely the case that vendors have insufficient data to make these conclusions.  As such, it is frequently a third party data analysis company that can provide the additional tools necessary to turn the POS data into actionable information for the buyer. Here are some tips:

1. Buyers fall into roughly two categories—those that are helpful and those that aren’t.  If you have a helpful buyer, you’re already a step ahead.  Work with the buyer to determine key performance indicators (KPIs) like target weeks of supply and preferred sales velocity for given items.  (Since these KPIs need to be managed at an item by store level, it may be necessary to use a third party analyst partner to assist you in building your database and reporting solutions.)  Then, track these KPIs for your products and show your results to your buyer—often you have better insight into your product activity in their stores than they do.  Since your buyer is friendly, work with him or her, using the information you’ve tracked and presented, to improve sales, limit out of stock, and prevent overstock.
2. The unhelpful buyer is more difficult, but by no means a lost cause.  For example, Wal-Mart buyers will almost always refuse to accept a push order of products from you, the vendor. But our experience with Wal-Mart is that this is usually because they have better insight into your product activity than you do.  However, if you can consistently demonstrate that your use of the POS data readily available to you would have rendered a more accurate result or better yield, then the buyer will gradually begin to trust your numbers instead of theirs.  This can be done, for example, by tracking your inventory, computing your weeks of supply, and showing your buyer, by item by store by week, which items you would have shipped to them and when.  If you can cross reference this at the same grain with a report showing out of stock stores, you can easily compute lost sales.   When, over time, the buyer sees the evidence presented consistently and the potential for increased sales, by simply doing nothing on his or her part except accepting an order file from you, you can begin to change your relationship with your buyer, and as he or she becomes more amicable, you can develop the type of relationship that allows you to discuss other KPIs as indicated in tip #1.

Managing POS data at an item by store level can be difficult and time consuming, especially when trying to build detailed, insightful reports like discussed in #2.  Accelerated Analytics® can give you one-click access to reports that will answer dozens of these kinds of questions and more.  

POS Analysis - Analysis and reporting made easy

If you are a vendor supplying to a retailer, you are no doubt receiving POS and inventory data. This can be a real headache since the files can be different for each retailer. Your team probably spends hours each week manually entering data, creating spreadsheets and then preparing reports.

Accelerated Analytics® can eliminate all of this wasted time. We will gather all of your POS data files automatically - no software to purchase or hardware to support.

Using Accelerated Analytics® makes all your POS reporting headaches go away. With Accelerated Analytics®, we handle all the data conversion, database hosting and reporting. We even provide training and the end user reporting tools. 

Accelerated Analytics® benefits:

• Eliminate manual data entry and manipulation
• Consolidate all retail data into one reporting database
• Pre-built exception reports with color coded dashboards
• No software or hardware to purchase
• Sophisticated charts and graphs

Available reports:

• This weeks sales and inventory by store and SKU
• Last weeks sales and inventory by store and SKU
• This months sales and inventory by store and SKU
• 6 week rolling sales and inventory by store and SKU
• Sell-thru
• Inventory turns
• Days supply on hand 

Accelerated Analytics® will give you the ability to anticipate changes in sales and inventory, so you can make adjustments before a costly mistake occurs. Our POS reporting is the best on the market.