<b>Vantage point:</b> Insights from cutting-edge research

Omnichannel strategy is a panacea for retail woes

Omnichannel strategy is a panacea for a difficult environment at a time online retail is thriving and traditional retailers are feeling the heat with decline in shopper visits, suggests an article by Emma Sopadjieva, Utpal M Dholakia and Beth Benjamin for Harvard Business Review. “The omnichannel strategy hinges on the idea that providing a seamless shopping experience in brick-and-mortar stores and through a variety of digital channels not only differentiates retailers from their peers, but also gives them a competitive edge over online-only retailers by leveraging their store assets,” says the article.

The authors collaborated with a major US company, which operates hundreds of retail stores across the country, to study the shopping behaviour of over 46,000 customers who made a purchase between June 2015 and August 2016. Customers were asked about every aspect of their shopping journey with the retailer, focusing on which channels they used and why. They were also asked to evaluate their shopping experience. Only seven per cent were online-only shoppers and 20 per cent were store-only shoppers. The remaining majority, or 73 per cent, used multiple channels during their shopping journey.

Luxury carmakers in India promoting exchange business

Luxury car manufacturers in India are promoting exchange businesses along with dedicated efforts on their part and that of dealers towards marketing and promotion of their product launches and incentive schemes for buyers, according to a report by Ken Research. The report, titled “Case Study — Premium car exchange market in India: Focus on Audi, BMW and Mercedes with concentration on marketing initiatives”, pointed out a couple of factors that have led dealers to increase focus on the exchange business. First, the luxury car companies have put in place a separate department for the pre-owned car segment, which deals with the purchase and sales of used car as well as exchange business. This segment tends to generate a higher profit margin for the dealers, who sell the car at a higher price after the repair. Secondly, the luxury car makers have increased the launch of newer models in the wake of rising competition. This has led to a surge in preference for car upgrade.

The mode of communication for the car exchange at the dealer level is made through below the line advertisement and direct communication with the customer. Each dealer of the luxury car manufacturer always has a target for new car and used car sales. High customer acquisition costs motivate dealers to convert store traffic to sales using aggressive tactics that extract differential margins based on customers’ willingness to pay.

Citizen data scientists can bridge gap in analytics, says Gartner

Over 40 per cent of data science tasks will be automated by 2020, resulting in increased productivity and broader usage of data and analytics by citizen data scientists, says Gartner, Inc. Gartner defines a citizen data scientist as one who creates or generates models that use advanced diagnostic analytics or predictive and prescriptive capabilities, but whose primary job function is outside statistics and analytics. According to Gartner, citizen data scientists can bridge the gap between mainstream self-service analytics by business users and the advanced analytics techniques of data scientists. They are now able to perform sophisticated analysis that would previously have required more expertise, enabling them to deliver advanced analytics without that of data scientists.

With data science continuing to emerge as a powerful differentiator across industries, almost every data and analytics software platform vendor is focused on simplification as a top goal through the automation of tasks, such as data integration and model building. “Making data science products easier for citizen data scientists to use will increase vendors’ reach across the enterprise as well as help overcome the skills gap,” said Alexander Linden, research vice-president at Gartner.