Tips to Help Retailers Mind the Multichannel ‘Insight’ Gap

Many omnichannel retailers have a big analytic blind spot when it comes to in-store performance — a situation that has to change if they want to make the most of the holiday season. Here's how to get better at closing the "insight gap" between digital and in-store channels:

1. Broaden your data horizons. In the online and mobile world, retailers benefit from the fact that consumers leave a digital trail. Clickstream and social data provide valuable intelligence about shopping patterns, behaviors and preferences. Obtaining similar levels of insight in brick-and-mortar environments requires more than point-of-sale metrics. At a minimum, accurate traffic data (i.e., people counting) is a must. Knowing how many shoppers are entering/exiting in real time, as well understanding traffic patterns over time, is vital for measuring store performance and improving decision making related to staffing, inventory and marketing.