Clarity: Turning retail consumables data into insight
Retailers generate huge amounts of data, yet many still struggle to get a clear picture of what they are spending on the consumables that keep their stores running.
Once Control is established, the next challenge is turning that purchasing activity into something meaningful. Without clear visibility across stores, products and suppliers, it becomes difficult to understand where money is going, identify inconsistencies or spot opportunities to improve.
The cost of not knowing
Retail consumables can be spread across multiple suppliers, product categories and locations, with different stores sometimes ordering the same or similar products in different ways.
That makes it difficult to answer some fundamental questions:
- What are we buying?
- How much are we spending?
- Where is that spend happening across our stores?
- Who are the suppliers we are using?
- Are different stores buying the same products at different prices?
- Where are the opportunities to improve?
Without this clarity, purchasing decisions can continue to be driven by habit rather than insight. And when margins are under pressure, not knowing where opportunities exist can be costly.
Joe Pennington, Retail Director (ProCook, Charles Tyrwhitt) put it this way, “Data is absolutely key. If you don’t have it, you can’t use it”
What Clarity brings
It is about turning purchasing information into a clear picture of what is happening across the business.
Three things matter most:
- Consistent data, so products, suppliers and purchasing activity can be compared meaningfully across the estate.
- Visibility of spend, so retailers can understand what they are spending and where.
- Actionable insight, so the information can be used to identify inconsistencies, opportunities and areas for improvement.
The objective isn’t simply to collect more data. It is to make the data useful.
What good looks like
With greater clarity, retailers can begin to see patterns that were previously hidden: differences in pricing, unnecessary product duplication, variations in purchasing behaviour and areas where demand or ordering could be better managed.
That creates a much stronger basis for decision-making. Rather than relying on assumptions or individual store knowledge, procurement and operations teams can work from a shared view of what is actually happening.
And once you can see the picture clearly, you can start to change it.
Clarity builds directly on Control. With the right structure and processes in place, purchasing data becomes more consistent and more useful. That visibility provides the foundation for the next step: identifying where greater efficiency and cost savings can be achieved.
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Read the full article on gaining Clarity here
And if you missed the Control article you can get updated here
