BI, retailers and the product you want - How it all connects

Dear readers, when you walk into a store and see the shelves properly stocked, the displays nicely set-up and the inconspicuous promotion signs, don’t you feel at ease? Everything is where it is supposed to be and things are working as usual. However, did you know that in order to keep the store looking fresh and well stocked the retailers have to perform a series of activities which get increasily more difficult every day with the current economic market conditions? The retailers need to continuously look for ways to lower their costs and increase their efficiency to enable them to limit the impact of the price increases the product manufacturers are passing. Business Intelligence enables the retailers to identify ways to counter back these price increases by given them the tools to do better negotiations with the suppliers, planning for better inventory levels, allocating the right product to the right store and understanding how to better price it so it is a win for the customer and a win for the store. Without the information that Business Intelligence provides, retailers would be in the dark as to what to do; they would rely in gut feelings rather than information, taking them back several decades (imagine how things used to work during the great depression of 1929). So next time you go to store, look around and be glad that Business Intelligence is around, as otherwise that article you are planning to buy it would be significantly more expensive and perhaps out of stock.