Retail in 2025 is the survival of the fittest. Brands embracing data science and AI (i.e. decision intelligence) for fast-paced decision-making are thriving.
Data and AI for optimal retail decisions.
IBM defines decision intelligence as ‘AI that optimises decision-making’. This is especially important when modern businesses are ‘under constant pressure to make faster, smarter decisions.’
In our world, decision intelligence is a combination of data and AI for better retail decisions. It puts insights in the hands of decision makers so they can take action.
This is more important than ever, with inflation and cost price increases, spiralling media costs and mushrooming loyalty programmes all designed to steal share for customers. Decisions need data, and data needs simplifying to support decisions.
But let’s take a step back. Retailers own a treasure trove of zero- and first-party data. It’s impossible to make the most of that data without AI and machine learning, which identifies patterns and extracts insight in a fraction of the time it’d take a team of human beings. Decision intelligence comes into its own for complex data and decisions; especially when making one change has a domino effect on other business areas.
Critically, decision intelligence is a game changer in a challenging economy; providing more certainty for tough decisions around pricing, loyalty and marketing.
How to implement decision intelligence effectively.
We’re already seeing the positive impact of decision intelligence on the retailers we work with, like Costa Coffee, Toolstation and Nutriment.
So, given its potential, how can retailers make sure it delivers for them?
People + tech drives better results.
Traditionally, retailers with a problem to solve have opted for either a big consultancy or an enterprise SaaS platform.
There are challenges with both options. Let’s start with The Big Four retail consultancies. They come with the security of a known name – but the solutions they offer are expensive (like, really expensive) and often only reveal a snapshot of what’s happening. Point in time analytics is great at first but quickly becomes outdated.
On the other hand, enterprise SaaS has a lot to offer. There’s a wealth of value to unlock – but often retailers don’t have the time or the resources to make full use of it. It’s often inflexible, too, which is a problem when every retailer is different.
We believe ‘people + tech’ drives better results. It’s the best of both worlds: AI-powered software supported by real retail expertise for a truly bespoke solution.
After all, one size fits… well, no one.
The missing layer in a composable tech stack.
You know how we said retailers struggle to unlock the value in SaaS? That’s because they’re missing an intelligence layer in their data stack (that’s us, by the way).
Our decision engine brings everything together, working in parallel with loyalty and pricing orchestration engines, like Bloomreach and Braze. This means you can:
- Combine products and offers for next best action in your marketing and loyalty programmes.
- Optimise Google ads using first party data, to combat the spiralling costs of advertising.
- Personalise social media adverts using first party browse and purchase data.
You heard it here first: composable tech stacks are the future of retail.
Selecting the right tools for long-term value.
We want to break the expensive big consultancy cycle.
Our leadership team has a combined 80 years’ experience in consumer-facing businesses. We’ve seen the low impact of short-term analytical projects that need rebooting every few months.
That’s why we create long-term value with decision intelligence solutions that’ll become an integral part of a retailer’s business. Data-driven price intelligence that protects value for customers? We’re on it. Customer behaviour analysis for increased retention and loyalty? We’ll sort it. BI dashboards that dive into past and current sales performance, then forecast what’s to come? It’s our bread and butter.
We’re not an overpriced consultancy that’ll walk away – instead, we empower our clients with the right tools and behaviours for ongoing results. How? By providing solutions retailers can feed new data into and use time and again.
The importance of measurement.
Everything should start with measurement. If you can’t see the results, how do you know where to invest further?
With our marketing and loyalty solutions, retailers can expect up to 15% increase in revenue as a result of AI-driven personalisation. Meanwhile, with our pricing offering, retailers can anticipate a 5% margin improvement across key product categories.
It’s simple, really. We’re obsessed with value creation, so we measure everything to prove it’s working. We won’t work with a retailer if we can’t show the impact of data-driven decision making. Check out our case studies for real examples of decision intelligence in action.
Tired of faffing around building reports and scrabbling for insight? Our decision intelligence solutions will do the leg work, so you can make the decisions that pay. Chat to our team today.
