Data – Keeping it clean for greater results

When it comes to effective omnichannel retailing, managing your businesses data is imperative.

With the busiest trading period of the year upon us, the need to keep your data clean is even greater.

When I say you need to keep your data clean I am referring to maintaining the accuracy of your data.

Your retail solution holds large amounts of data including, product information, pricing, sales records, inventory information, customer records and more. As this data is used to help make important decisions and monitor the performance of your store, it goes without saying that bad data will not give you the best basis in which to achieve these tasks.

The main culprits of data pollution are sales staff taking shortcuts in processing sales and returns as well as not inputting the correct stock figures when receiving goods.

In the high pressure environment that the Christmas shopping rush brings, any weaknesses in your staff processes will be found, allowing for data management shortfalls to creep in.

Now is the time to ensure that your staff are well trained to manage the day to day retail solution tasks as well as instil the importance of ensuring that the systems are used correctly.

Processing sales is the first action staff are taught but are you training your staff on how to process returns or product exchanges? What about processing gift cards or laybys?

Those staff involved in inventory management need to ensure that every item received into stock is managed correctly. As stock arrives, it must be entered into your retail solution accurately as do any stock transfers between stores.

If your data is clean your reporting is accurate across your business and when you think about it, the most important time to understand your stores performance is the busy Christmas trading period.

Your retail solution should be viewed as an important business tool that manages your store processes. If you respect the role of the retail solution, then you will breed a culture of data excellence.

Your retail solution is only as good as the cleanliness of your data so maximise your investment this Christmas trading period by keeping your data clean.