Retailer improves promotional effectiveness with bespoke analytics

The Challenge

One huge problem at this retailer - promotional activity effectiveness. Across its 1,300 stores and online shop, margin was being lost, products over and under ordered, and there was no understanding of how effective the activity was, across the commercial, marketing, and the FP&A teams. Causes couldn’t be identified until months later, if at all.

The Solution

Our solution came in three stages:

1. Obtain all the disparate data sources live
2. Simplify the data to surface simple insights
3. Create bespoke reports and dashboards that enabled analysts to make quick, simple decisions about promotional activity. 

We created APIs to the customer ERP, and sales and deal management databases, building on Microsoft’s technology stack.

The Results

We designed reports for each of the customer’s teams, tailored to their specific needs. This not only gave them money and time saving insights, but also improved collaboration and understanding across all teams involved.

Actionable insights surfaced:

• SKUs were being added to promotions with no supplier funding which had a multi-£m impact on margin
• ranges of SKUs were effected by declining sales volumes as promotion ‘fatigue’ and consumer behaviours evolved
• the forecasting mechanism required an overhaul with over £14m of stock being over-ordered and £7m of lost sales through under-ordering
• sales of ranges of SKUs were cannibalised from non-promotional periods with an overall negative impact on margin