Here's How Predictive Analytics Is Shaping the Future of Retail Industry
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Here’s How Predictive Analytics Is Shaping the Future of Retail Industry

Here's How Predictive Analytics Is Shaping the Future of Retail Industry

In the realm of the retail world there has been an advent growth in technology and predictive analytics is seen as the next big thing. Quite interestingly, analytics is a standard feature of retail and e-commerce which further allows the brands to engage their respective customers with advertised products. Predictive analytics dramatically assists in looking at the buying history of a shopper which in turn helps the brand to dish out personalized offers. This phenomenon creates a unique type of shopping experience which is personal. Moreover, with the help of predictive analytics, it is now relatively easy for the brands to connect with the target audiences in a more personalized tone. Furthermore, predictive analytics is helping the retailers to understand the behavior of the customers. In this manner, they can also plan the respective strategies so that they can communicate with their customers.

Predictive analytics in the world of retail

In the realm of the retail world, predictive analytics refer to predictions made in a micro-level environment. It is interesting to note in this scenario that with predictive analytics at the helm, you have the power to look at the buying patterns of each of your customers. Besides that, you can also evaluate their purchase in a real-time environment to predict in an accurate manner. This is how as a brand you can give those offers and discounts which would help your target audiences to be loyal to you. Additionally, it can be said that with the help of predictive analytics, you can correctly determine what they would buy.

Here's How Predictive Analytics Is Shaping the Future of Retail Industry
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How can predictive analytics address the significant challenges in the retail industry?

One of the first challenges that lie ahead of the retailers in the retail industry is turning your shoppers to brand loyalists. On the other hand, the sales data can also help you to gain significant insights into the behavior of your consumers. In this context, it is important to note that retailers like Amazon are tracking the habits of the users and search histories to provide them with a personalized shopping experience. These are the challenges in the retail domain that can be efficiently addressed with the help of predictive analytics.

Forecasting of sales in a smart manner

Instead of predicting sales based on the historical data of non-existent customers, you as a brand can use predictive analytics. It is so because this type of analytics allows for more accurate forecasts that are based on the buying habits of the customers.

Effective inventory management

It is a commonly observed fact that poor inventory management leads to a loss of sales. It would also paint an inaccurate picture of lower demand for specific items. However, smart retailers are using real-time data to stock up their shelves based on predictive analytics. They also use predictive analytics to decide what to stock and where which is again based on regional differences.

Here's How Predictive Analytics Is Shaping the Future of Retail Industry
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Strategies related to pricing

With the usage of predictive analytics in the realm of the retail world, the retailers can set the prices of the items in a competitive manner. Apart from considering the costs set by your competitors, you can also use predictive analytics to drive real-time sales data in your pricing strategies. For instance, predictive analytics would tell you when to optimize the price of a particular product to increase sales.

Recommendation engines

Recommendation engines are a big hit among the e-commerce giants. However, recommendation engine coupled with predictive analytics is slowly gaining its foothold in the physical retail sector too. With the help of real-time data, the salespeople on the floor are well aware how to make a customer happy by providing them with the best shopping experience.

The ways in which predictive analysis is advantageous to the retail sector

Predictive analytics has helped the retailers to forecast the behavior of their customers. For instance, they now know what kind of products would be successful in a particular season. Furthermore, predictive analytics has also facilitated in the effective planning of communication with the potential customers. Here is the list of ways by which predictive analytics is a boon to the retail industry.

Improvement in customer service

It is a widely accepted fact that predictive analytics helps a brand to know their customer in a holistic manner. It also helps in the marketing plan of the product. Before engaging with your customers, you have to know about their fundamental interests and likes and dislikes. However, with the help of predictive analytics, you can now perform better social media marketing.

Effective planning of promotional offers

In the process of planning promotional suggestions, you should be well aware of the fact that what type of offers are suitable for a seasoned customer and what is not. Moreover, as a brand, you have to integrate behavioral and attitudinal information to learn about the viewpoints of your customers. This can be significantly achieved with the help of predictive analytics.

Predictive Analytics helps you to set the price

In case you own an earrings store, you need to collect data with the help of predictive analytics. With the assistance of predictive analytics in the sale of earrings, you would be well aware that how much a customer is ready to pay. In this manner, you would not set the price too high or low which might be of immense help to gain your sales lead.

Thus, it can be concluded that predictive analytics is a huge help to the retail industry. It is so because it helps them to comprehend and relate to the needs and wants of their respective customers.

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Hassan is a Blogger, Author, Entrepreneur and the Administrator of OnzineArticles.com. He heads Burgeoning Technologies, a Web and IT Company and manages several other blogs and websites. He can be followed on , Twitter and Facebook.