Data Juice Story #2: Analytics is the Future of Retail

The following is an excerpt from the book, "Data Juice: 101 Real-World Stories of How Organizations Are Squeezing Value From Available Data Assets."

In the digital age, e-commerce has become a complex and highly competitive business. For online business owners, the key to success lies in the ability to connect with customers in real-time, across multiple channels and tailor offerings to their needs. However, with millions of online customers, keeping track of their behavior, preferences, and activities can be a daunting task. This is where data analytics comes into play.

The case of Future Group, India's leading conglomerate, is a prime example of how analytics and big data can drive business success. By partnering with Manthan, a US-based analytics and AI solutions provider, Future Group has been able to identify customer opportunities at a deeper and more granular level, and tailor their offerings and promotions accordingly. Manthan's analytics tools track and monitor over 10 million customer transactions every month, providing Future Group with valuable, precise, and real-time actionable information.

One of the key benefits of data analytics for Future Group is the ability to personalize messaging and marketing promotions across multiple channels. By analyzing customer behavior and preferences, Future Group can deliver personalized offers to its 30 million loyalty program customers. Moreover, analytics-driven solutions have enabled Future Group to adapt rapid predictive modeling for specific strategic and tactical business objectives.

The success of Future Group's partnership with Manthan is largely due to two crucial actions. First, Future Group chose to partner with a company that already had a proven product, rather than building their own system. This helped them generate business value quickly and avoid competitive disadvantages. Second, they joined a data ecosystem, which allowed them to contribute their data and receive valuable insights in return. This enabled them to know more about their customers and reach additional target customers, which is the key to growth.

The case of Future Group and Manthan provides valuable insights for other businesses looking to leverage data analytics for success. Companies need to consider what data they have and what additional data they need, plan what they want to do with the data, and how to manage it. Moreover, they need to plan for delivering and using the data at the point of decision, such as during a real-time web shopping session or checkout. Real-time call-to-action with up-to-date data is crucial for maximizing the investment value in analytics.