As the annual NRF Big Show draws closer, industry stakeholders are being called to ‘Make it matter’ (the show’s official message for 2024). To create memorable, frictionless retail experiences, many elements ‘matter’: convenience, associate interaction, relevant merchandise, competitive pricing, compelling promotions, and the list goes on. But for all these elements to come together and empower one another, modern retailers must rely on accurate advanced analytics. 

In this way, RetailNext serves as The Pulse of the Store. Our innovative UI serves the express purpose of connecting various store functions into one intuitive suite for both store teams and management. Many functions are streamlined into one network of information, which is then gleaned for actionable insights that are backed by data and supported by a team of retail experts. 

LEARN MORE: Recognizing The Value Of Shopper Journey Analysis In Stores

Understanding RetailNext’s Functions

In stores, our tech collects data from multiple sources and processes it in ways that are meaningful to those using it. Raw data serves little purpose to store teams, but that is why our product is designed to interpret this information for them, leaving them with practical insights. 

Operations

The RetailNext suite cuts through the noise and distills key information for (and about) store teams. Our product seeks to eliminate points of friction through optimized labor scheduling, real-time task management, and remote visibility for field and corporate staff. This functionality is made possible with accurate traffic, occupancy, and conversion data. Moreover, predictive traffic trends use historical traffic data to predict store footfall in advance, allowing retailers to merchandise, staff, and secure most effectively.  

Marketing 

Stores are a key customer acquisition and marketing channel. As such, ROI needs to be assessed regularly – and this is only possible when the data is available and, perhaps more importantly, accessible. The software optimizes marketing campaigns via shopper insights and location-based analytics so that retailers can A/B test merchandising, adjust store layout per campaign, and plan activations and events to maximize ROI.

Asset Protection

With real-time analytics, retailers can more easily provide a safe environment for shoppers and staff alike. What’s more: the suite enables remote investigations. Investigating shrinkage remotely is proven to save resources and cut investigation time by 75%. Reduce internal theft and Organized Retail Crime (ORC) investigation time from days down to hours with sophisticated cloud-based tools, and instant access to video, images, and point-of-sale data.

Advanced Analytics

Evolving beyond basic traffic and occupancy metrics, the RetailNext product can provide traffic heatmaps and visualizations of how shoppers travel through the store. Aurora sensors capture millions of data points a day for customer journeys in stores, and can talk to each other to build a single view of each shopper journey. Retailers can analyze this data right within the user interface or use the API for analysis by their data science team. This gives visibility into interior traffic and dwells and is a fantastic way to A/B test store layouts, merchandising, and visual displays. 

Merchandising

Make data-driven decisions on all things product with insights from RetailNext. These insights can inform product placement and assortment, as well as visual merchandising compliance at scale. Moreover, multi-brand or shop-in-shop concepts can be brought to life and kept consistent across various store formats to drive fleet-wide performance. Naturally, this data can easily be shared with brand partners as a means to build relationships and maintain trust in an ever-evolving ecosystem.

No Pulse, No Store: Real Retail Case Studies

Retailers from across the globe have enjoyed the benefits of The Pulse of the Store. Here are a few notable callouts. 

Optimizing Labor With The Vitamin Shoppe

Previously, The Vitamin Shoppe (TVS) manually scheduled its store staff resulting in mismatched labor per shoppers. This also created additional tasks for stores shift schedules were being manually created. The brand subsequently started piping data into its scheduling tool, using the RetailNext data as the main source for labor forecasts. TVS stores were able to see labor forecasts based on historical and predicted performance, paired with labor sales goals, etc. for approximately 3500 employees in the field.

TVS ultimately improved profitability across the chain through the reallocation of labor based on traffic trends. Idle labor at some stores was reallocated to other stores with higher traffic volumes. In doing so, TVS was able to drive sales at stores with higher foot traffic while removing the expense of idle labor at other locations. In just two years, this has resulted in significant improvement in the payroll rate to sales.

💡 Read the full case study 👉 here

Increasing Traffic With Camper

By reviewing the in-store conversion rates on the RetailNext suite, store managers had key insights on performance metrics in comparison to last year, peers, and goals. Based on metric performance, the RetailNext platform recommended actions to the Camper team to implement in stores to increase results. Furthermore, Camper was able to accurately identify top performers for reward and recognition, as well as make sound business decisions to improve underperforming areas.

The Results? Implementation has provided Camper with exceptional ROI through a unified internal culture, improved customer service, staff scheduling, and increased marketing efficiency and productivity.

💡 Read the full case study 👉 here

Driving Performance With Megane no Tanaka

By investing in the RetailNext platform, this retailer was able to access accurate and actionable data that enabled them to pinpoint areas for improvement and removed the guesswork from making strategic business decisions. By reviewing traffic and conversion analytics, the brand developed a performance-based culture. Best practices were identified among top performers while underperforming stores were earmarked for improvement. Megane no Tanaka Optical also identified a trend that required the company to address the quality of staff training, store layouts, and merchandising.

Empowered by in-store analytics, the retailer’s performance-based culture found its stride in 2021. On the customer experience front, improved staff scheduling helped match customer demand, which ultimately boosted the customers’ in-store experience. There is now also increased efficiency as the brand measures the impact of store layouts, product placements, and other merchandising decisions on shopper engagement and performance metrics like conversion, average transaction value (ATV), and shopper yield. But perhaps most significantly, RetailNext has helped Megane no Tanaka Optical adopt a more analytical approach to all things brick and mortar.

💡 Read the full case study 👉 here

The future of resilient brick-and-mortar stores relies on leveraging trustworthy, privacy-friendly analytics. The RetailNext suite has been developed in partnership with the world’s leading retailers, making it agile, reliable, and mind-blowingly intelligent. It takes the guesswork out of store operations, allowing retailers to act on store truths they can trust. 

READ MORE: The New Agenda For Growth: 5 Imperatives For The Digital-Savvy Retailer