A recent New York Times article (“Can Ulta Muss Up Sephora’s Makeup?”) highlighted the differences between two retailers competing in overlapping, yet dissimilar markets. Both companies’ offer cosmetics yet cater to a dramatically different customer in many cases. Thus, while suppliers that sell products in both—for example, “prestige cosmetics” brands like Benefit or Smashbox, as the article suggests—may get some insight into their products’ activity through analyzing POS data from both, a vast depth of information lies beneath with layer upon layer of additional, valuable information.
Raw POS data alone is hard enough to handle and the Rainmaker Group™ utilizes its Accelerated Analytic® reporting solution to that limited end alone in many cases. But the Rainmaker Group™ was a data warehousing company first, and its data warehouse expertise offers the perfect complement to POS reporting. By utilizing an integrated data warehouse, our customers can integrate a plethora of additional information with their POS data. The Times article notes such distinctions as stand-alone or mall-based retail locations, which while sometimes found in the POS document, is most often found in a store details file provided by the retailer. Rather than having the IT department start cross-referencing massive spreadsheets, Accelerated Analytics® reports draw off of a database that automatically cross-references connected items and presents them in a powerful, drillable, and yet user-friendly interface.
The Times article also reference “urban” stores and “prestige” products, highlighting the differences in the type of customer that generally frequents certain establishments. An integrated data warehouse would allow a supplier to incorporate detailed census data, including socioeconomic statistics, demographics, etc. into regular reports, grouping stores by any such category and analyzing item performance across the various retailers, stores, and other categories, insights that raw POS data cannot alone provide.
These are but two simple examples of depth of additional information available to be used when analyzing sales data—Rainmaker’s expert staff can suggest additional layers from their experiences with other similar suppliers like you. Thus, while use of a data warehouse is not of itself a competitive advantage in the marketplace, it is nonetheless an opportunity to improve sales performance that goes begging in far too many cases for lack of initiative and vision. Don’t miss your opportunity to improve sales performance by utilizing a custom-built, integrated data warehouse for your business today. Click to the right to view a demonstration of Rainmaker’s services through Accelerated Analytics® or click the contact us button for more information.
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