The concept of retail markets and shops has been around for centuries. In the past, business decisions were solely based on belief, intuition, and guesswork, as opposed to today’s sophisticated digital tools. Modern retail has evolved from simple shops to upscale malls that offer a variety of products and services, changing the dynamics of the shopping experience. It has also marked the beginning of the digital era with the significant rise of e-commerce businesses. This continual evolution can be attributed to smart business decisions – enabling retailers to navigate wisely and focus on the customer, as they have a direct impact on sales.
Today, as retailers we adhere to the same practises, ensuring an enriched customer-centric business. One of the major reasons for the introduction of numerous themed, concept, and reasonably priced stores is that the entire focus has fallen on customers’ needs and their preferences, as per changing trends and evolving culture. Additionally, being a retailer comes with countless other decisions to make every day, such as what to sell, how to display it, how much to charge, and many more. Good decisions are also crucial in times of crisis, as shown by the pandemic. To prevent businesses from sinking, retailers had to think fast and adopt the most innovative method, which resulted in businesses making their shift to e-commerce, which has been a growing trend in the retail sector.
Over the years, technological advancements have greatly impacted the evolution of the market. The use of data to make business decisions have enabled retailers to improve their predictive ability. Leveraging the power of artificial intelligence and machine learning has largely contributed to enabling modern technologies to detect trends or patterns that human logic might overlook. Retailers will need to consistently anticipate and meet customers’ expectations better, if they are to offer true value, and this can only be accomplished through constant monitoring, analysis, and staying updated with trends and events, which are key to making good decisions for a business. However, a major challenge that comes with this is that businesses cannot use the data from previous years because it is an anomaly and is not likely to be indicative of future trends.
As a retailer, making the right decisions is critical to reaching your long-term goals. In fact, it was these very smart decisions that once took the retail industry from a simple barter system to a fully functioning sector, in addition to the new-age online portals. It is certain that organisations in the future will take advantage of the data available, in order to make smart decisions and maximise their outcomes.
