Data Science, Analytics & Solutions
Situation
The seasonal department for this DIY retailer had the potential to make or break the annual results. The previous two years had been very hit and miss with regards to meeting sales targets and the performance of various promotions. The client was looking for actionable insights and reporting into the customers shopping department, so that they could figure out how to optimise the range and promotional timing and create more confidence in the plans.
What We Did
The retailer had no effective loyalty programme and central to our approach was building a customer-centric view of behaviours, so that we could begin to understand the drivers and timing for shopping these seasonal categories. Using anonymised payment card data to link their in-store shopping baskets we were able to create a detailed, joined-up view of the profiles, needs and performance of the different types of customers shopping both the seasonal and other departments. This was developed into a seasonal segmentation dash-boarding tool with which the range and promotional strategy could be formed and evaluated against. The insights generated through developing this customer view into shopping behaviours highlighted key project/basket types and timings. For example customers typically undertook pre-holiday decorating tasks earlier than originally understood and it was now straightforward to see which trading weeks were best suited to paint promotions.
Outcome
Using these insights we developed instore trials with promotions that were easy to switch around with minimum disruption. These proved extremely successful and provided the business case for the business to immediately pull forward, push back, a number of key promotional events to better suit customers home improvement activities. In addition the work identified a large group of core gardening customers who were being under-served during the winter months as a result of the seasonal space taking up sections of the core gardening category. This provided the insight to re-configure the core gardening range that needed to be in place all year.
The insights bought us data based facts that supported and informed our hunches. This gave us the confidence to try new things.
Seasonal Category Director