Research & Trends: BI For Changing Retail Markets

By Greg Belkin

Aberdeen surveyed 117 retailers between January and April 2010 to better understand how these organizations are increasing consumer and business insight within their organization. Our results indicate that nearly 2/3 of Best-in- Class retailers (63%) are turning to pervasive BI to increase consumer- centric data accessibility. In fact, Aberdeen data reveals that over half (53%) of Best-in-Class retailers have established an enterprisewide BI deployment procedure, and nearly 2/3 (61%) of these same top retailers are focused on making BI easier to use for all ends of the enterprise in hopes of a more rapid response to changing market conditions. This report examines how retailers are incorporating BI tools into their standard processes to establish a companywide view into constantly changing customer buying trends and how internal departments are using this data to make processes more efficient and effective throughout the enterprise.