How do you know you’re serving your customers the way they want to be catered to? Are you making assumptions about what they need or taking for granted how they want to experience your brand?  As luxury evolves to appeal to a new generation of customers who are demanding, impatient and distracted, getting the CX right can’t be based on an intuitive guess. It needs to be based on trust. This is where the vital role of technology makes a play!

Many leaders of commodity retail and marketplaces use technology to understand customer purchasing behavior. However, it’s crucial to rethink what’s going on in retail and how to build a better relationship between brands and the retailer. Transforming the industry will take a nuanced connection between art and science: having the right stuff and the right tools are table stakes.

Tech Talk

Many leaders of commodity retail and marketplaces use technology to understand customer purchasing behavior. However, it’s crucial to rethink what’s going on in retail and how to build a better relationship between brands and the retailer. Transforming the industry will take a nuanced connection between art and science: having the right stuff and the right tools are table stakes. And the right tools increasingly are data collaborations among brands and their retail partners. Flying blindly in any retail market sector is the equivalent of a death knell, and with many younger customers, you’ve got only one chance to win them over. If they are disappointed, they will move on without a look back.

Value of Collaboration

International retailers are more advanced than their counterparts in the U.S. in realizing the value of partnerships and collaborations. Here’s a retail success story that reveals how being a collaborator and innovator pays off. A luxury French superstar retailer delivers a cool-edge, modern experience for next-gen luxury customers. The retailer understands the need for a significant industry shift towards greater transparency and access to data from retailers, inviting their brands to glean actionable insights and make informed decisions. When brands and retailers share relevant data with their respective brands, it yields valuable insights into market trends, customer preferences, and performance metrics. This enables a higher-level development of more targeted strategies and enhances overall performance. With transparency and collaboration in data sharing, stronger partnerships elevate the customer experience. And the customer is the ultimate arbiter of your success or failure.

This type of partnership transcends the need for amassing data, it is forged in a symbiotic relationship among brands and their retailers, viewing retailers not merely as distribution channels but rather as strategic collaborators. Fostering open communication channels and co-creating value through shared data insights among brands and retailers drive mutual growth and profitability while delivering exceptional value to consumers. It’s a win-win. These insights propel a positive interaction with customers and build their loyalty with an experience that doesn’t disappoint.

Roadblocks for Brands

So, how does a retailer deliver the right insights with the right context to help their brands? There are typically three key roadblocks that prevent consistent, trusted sell-out data from retail partners.

• Consistency in Data Delivery: How do you ensure a consistent flow of sales and inventory data from retail partners? Different partners may have different data formats, reporting frequencies, or even data availability. This inconsistency can make it difficult to compile and analyze data comprehensively across all partners on a timely basis, at the top of the week.
• Data Accuracy and Reliability: Data accuracy and reliability are hurdles. Inaccurate or outdated data can lead to flawed analyses and decision-making. Knowing the data is up-to-date, reliable, and reflects the actual sales and inventory status is crucial for making informed business decisions.
• Standardized Metrics and Communication: Establishing a common language and standardized metrics across all retail partners is essential. Without standardized metrics, comparing data from different partners can lead to misunderstandings or misinterpretations. It’s important to speak “apples to apples” with retail partners, using consistent terminology and metrics for meaningful data analysis and collaboration.

Envision the Future

There is a mind-boggling choice of data solution platforms available to both brands and retailers. Ultimately, the right tech infrastructure must guarantee a great CX including key operational strategies of inventory management optimization and dependable supply chain management. Imagine the advantages of streamlined reporting, automation, and data aggregation among brands and retailers that enhance their performances. Imagine implementing a streamlined reporting platform and leveraging automation that reduces errors and saves time and resources, allowing for more efficient decision-making. Imagine visibility into retailer partners’ stock levels in real-time to enable precise decision-making to optimize revenue streams and mitigate potential challenges, such as overstock or missed opportunities. And then imagine data aggregation that enhances these operational efficiencies by centralizing and consolidating data from multiple sources, providing a comprehensive and transparent view for analysis and insights.

Foresight and Insight

The modern luxury multi-vendor retailer in our case study supports its innovative approach to fashion by fostering closer ties with partners and embracing cutting-edge technologies like SKYPAD. Here are some of our findings:

• Innovation lies in harnessing advanced analytics and AI-driven solutions to unlock hidden patterns within data, enabling the retailer to anticipate regional market trends, forecast demand more accurately, and tailor product offerings to specific consumer segments.
• The decision-making processes across diverse departments, including product development, assortment planning, and marketing strategies, have been significantly shaped by improved access to SKYPAD data.
• With this mutual reporting solution, a brand can customize its offerings based on sell-out performance, which fosters a synergy that ensures that partner brand success directly translates into its retail partner’s success.
• The integration of robust forecasting and demand planning also allows the luxury multi-vendor retailer’s brands to proactively meet the retailer’s needs, thereby enhancing delivery efficiency and overall customer satisfaction.
• The data-driven approach empowers the brand to anticipate product slowdowns and swiftly implement responsive strategies, such as introducing new styles or adjusting production rates, to sustain engagement and growth with key retail partners

In summary, adopting streamlined reporting, automation, and data aggregation practices, along with fostering a culture of data sharing and collaboration, can significantly contribute to the success and competitiveness of brands and retailers in today’s data-driven business landscape.

Note: SKYPAD is a TRR Innovator