Grocery Stores Can Use Data Analytics to Enhance Operations

Introduction

By now, all of us are familiar with the luxury of the online grocery market. In 2021 alone, the total revenue of online stores hit $97.7 billion in sales through deliveries, pickups, and direct-to-consumer channels. How has this revolution taken place?

Supermarkets and grocery stores have more information on customers than we usually think. With each transaction that occurs in-store, data about the customer is collected and then utilized by the grocery supermarkets and chains to get these customers to come back to their stores.

How Grocery Stores Make Use of Analytics

This blog gives you information on how supermarkets and grocery stores are making use of all the information coming their way.

Marketing Campaigns and Promotions

Data analytics harnesses the benefits of the valuable data of the consumers when they purchase items, be it online or offline. This data helps to paint the customer profile. With recurrent purchases occurring in supermarkets, such businesses can see a pattern of the customer’s shopping behavior. Understanding what products the customers buy and from where they buy those products enables supermarkets to create customized marketing promotions and offers for the customers. This draws the customers back to the stores. Data analytics also enables these supermarkets to comprehend how effective the marketing campaigns are.

Inventory management

Inventory is the heart of any retail business. A well-managed inventory guarantees that consumers can purchase the products they need at any time. However, managing an inventory is not as easy.

In the year 2021, two-thirds of in-store shoppers and 51% of online customers had to face the scenario of out-of-stock products. This led to more than $3 billion loss for supermarkets and grocery stores across the United States. If a store has a stock of too many products, then one has to bear the costs of overstocked shelves and spoilage. If one orders too less, one is at risk of disgruntled customers due to empty racks.

Inventory management so tough due to the seasonality, rapidly fluctuating demand, and delays in reordering. The only way to resolve these issues is to use data to understand how to prevent such issues. An integrated point-of-sale (POS) system helps stores to explore the following metrics:

• Unnecessary inventory
• Sales velocity of every item category
• Seasonality manipulating customer demands
• Average decomposition time for each item category
• Special event requirements

Next, grocers should drive analytics that enables them to predict future demands and wisely manage replenishment. The idea is to decrease costs that are a result of items taking up needless shelf space or going to waste frequently.

Rentability

Conventionally, the supermarket sector is a low-margin business. This means that it is crucial to strike the right balance between the price at which customers buy products and the cost of those products. Here, data analytics takes customer feedback and sales numbers into account to help determine the price at which the customer demand is the highest. For example, grocery stores can assess multiple pricing strategies and assess the effect on sales data, enabling them to identify products where a price raise does not affect buyers’ decisions (e.g. luxury food, fresh produce).

Conclusion

With the growth of e-commerce, most people shop online to purchase their groceries. This takes them away from the traditional brick-and-mortar supermarkets and grocery stores. Data analytics helps such companies to stay competitive by making use of valuable transactional data collated in stores.