Whether you are just starting out your career and looking to educate yourself on analytics or are a seasoned veteran who wants to understand how things are changing and what the future of retail will look like, you can gain value from learning and leveraging analytics. Throughout this book, we have discussed the importance of leveraging analytics in the retail process, from creating strategic plans, curating assortments, fulfilling inventory, pricing, and marketing to the in-store experience and cybersecurity. Each component benefits from analytics by increasing accuracy and efficiencies and enabling a more personalized engagement with customers. As the digital landscape continues to evolve and competition is at an all-time high, analytics become critical for retailers to stay in the game.

At the same time, art is a large component of retail. Style and fashion are both forms of art, personal art. Retail cannot be completely mathematical or black and white. Analytical insights are a part of retail merchandising, pricing, marketing, in-store experience, and cybersecurity. However, an understanding of the customer, an eye for taste and art, and a deep understanding of the business and strategy are critical to truly leverage an analytical approach.

“Domain knowledge” is a term that describes having knowledge related to the customer, the business, and the strategy. There will never be a day when you walk into a retail corporate office and it is 100% statisticians. Buyers are typically hired for their eye for fashion and taste, not because they have PhDs in statistics. Marketers typically have a great sense of business strategy and vision. Store associates are brought on because of their ability to connect with customers. These business users need to be able to leverage analytics, and the insights must be consumable and easy to understand so that the users can move from insight to action.

This is where the concept of approachability comes into play. Often, if you mention analytics to business users or buyers, they look at you like a deer frozen in headlights. The key to a successful analytics-based process is approachability. Visualization is a popular method of reporting and of showing analytical insights in easy-to-understand ways. Analytical insights can be visualized in the form of line graphs, bar charts, pie charts, bubble plots, heat maps, and many graphic forms. Through visualizations, business users can personally leverage analytical insights into their day-to-day work lives. Regardless of your analytical skill set, visualizations are used to interpret the results in a way that makes sense for business users so that you can gain value from them. For example, we discussed using regression analysis to determine which attributes are most important to customers’ purchasing decisions in Chapter 3. The results of regression analysis can be visualized in a pie chart showing the importance of each attribute as a percentage contribution.

Visualization has almost become the norm in analytical software in the market. The actual core analytics that are presented vary significantly by software vendor, depending on their maturity in the analytical market and their expertise. But anyone can make a pie chart. Analytical insights must also be aligned with workflow. Analytics or any software solution works best when it is integrated into users’ day-to-day normal working habits. If the first thing buyers do when determining the assortment is to determine the overall choice count needed, this first step in their workflow should remain consistent. What would change is the core determination of the choice count. Instead of looking at historical numbers, for example, buyers would be presented with optimized figures determined through analytics or visualizing the difference on a bar chart.

Reporting visualizations by themselves is not practical. We often use the term “operationalizing the analytics” to describe the ability to actually take the analytical insights and apply them to a work function. The insights are not just nice to know; how can users take action on this information? And is this information in an easy-to-use form, so users do not necessarily need to read a report and then manually make decisions in a separate tool? The process must be integrated and seamless for true adoption and efficiency. So in our example, the choice count can be visualized but also placed as the starting working values in buyers’ actual assortment planning worksheets. One-off reports are not always practical for short-staffed departments. Sure, some retailers start off with integrating analytical insights as reports offered to the business as they begin to infuse analytics into their current process, and this can be very beneficial. But to get the complete package, integration is key. Having an analytical process integrated into the workflow will enable you to do your job more efficiently, and your results will be more accurate. Typically, retail employees are reviewed each and every year on their job performance. Additional business key performance indicators are also used to review employees. For example, merchandise planners typically are graded on their sales, gross margin performance, and inventory turn or some type of productivity metric. Having a statistical forecast to predict sales enables you to have a more accurate sales plan. This in turn gets you closer to your end-of-year goals, which most times will result in a bonus, raise, or possibly promotion. Not only can you gain from analytics, making your job easier by visualizations and integrated workflow, these analytics help drive your personal career success.

CITIZEN DATA SCIENTIST

To understand how best to visualize this information for the end business user, you must understand the analytics. You need to have a strong understanding of what the analytics are actually doing in order to translate that into visualizations and explain them in layman’s terms for business users who are questioning results. But again, you also must have the domain knowledge to understand what exactly the business is trying to achieve, what the strategic initiatives are, how analytics can be leveraged, and what the best approach should be. The term “citizen data scientist” was coined by Gartner, an analyst firm, in 2015; it describes an individual who sits right in the middle of the art and the analytics.

Often, this role has been positioned as a liaison between the business and the analytics teams and the information technology (IT) team. Citizen data scientists can clearly articulate the business challenges, needs, wants, and requirements. These individuals can also clearly articulate to businesses what the approach is and how it will solve their challenges or fulfill their requirements. There was initially a bit of a stir over this exact term. Hard-core data scientists felt almost insulted that people without their level of expertise could be placed in a similar arena. I personally think the hard-core data scientists were being prima donnas. Today the general concept of citizen data scientists is very much accepted in the industry as people who bring together business domain knowledge and understanding of the analytics.

If you currently have domain knowledge and are interested in learning more about analytics, the citizen data scientist is a great path for you. This path is also a great fit if you have a strong understanding of analytics but would like to gain more knowledge about retail business or if you are just starting your career and envision yourself as a combination of Einstein and Picasso. I suggest starting out by taking an introductory statistics course focused on business. A great way to find these courses is through analytical software companies. These training classes are geared more toward solving real-world business problems. Over the years, I have found that this approach helps me learn in more depth because the material is explained more easily in the form of a business challenge or scenario. The SAS Institute offers many training classes in analytical approaches related to business problems. These classes are hands-on rather than lectures. They also have training paths so you have a good guide into what class to take next, and each class builds on the previous one.

If you have this type of training, either on the job or through your college experience, but you would like to learn more about retail, I suggest you look for a position at a corporate retail office. One of the best ways to get a variety of experiences is through management training programs, which many retailers offer. These programs typically create rotations where employees work in various positions in the corporate office. For example, a trainee may spend four months in merchandise planning, four months in merchandise buying, four months as a store manager, and four months in marketing. Throughout these rotations, trainees attend weekly or biweekly meetings to hear special guests speak about their jobs and different components of the industry.

This experience is extremely beneficial as it helps to create a sense of how all pieces truly do fit together. The best part of this process is being on the other side of the desk when one task creates complications downstream. For example, say trainees go through their allocation rotation before their buying rotation. Often these trainees have to key in purchase orders during their buying rotation. In other words, the trainees are given purchase order spreadsheets and must key the information into the merchandising system. If trainees key the order incorrectly, it would create additional work once the purchase order came to the distribution center for allocation. The analyst would have to call the buying office to make the adjustment and then resend the allocation. During my time in a management trainee program, it was interesting to watch trainees cope with the annoyance of calling the buying office and having to have them resend the allocation. After trainees moved to the buying rotation, they would key in their orders with 100% accuracy. Because they understood how important it was to get it right the first time, they paid extra attention. Individuals who work through management training program rotations graduate with a better sense of the process and understanding how one task on one side of the business affects the other areas of the business.

CHANGE AGENT

Whether it is learning more about analytical approaches through further training or understanding how to tackle business challenges through hands-on practical experience, moving toward a strong understanding of both sides is a great approach to gaining personal value from analytics. Citizen data scientists are in high demand, and the demand will continue to grow as analytical approaches to tackling the ever-changing retail environment increase. These individuals are also key in system implementations. That is actually how I first realized my love for technology and analytics. I was nominated by my company’s president to be a part of my company’s allocation software implementation. These implementations typically involve a solution design workshop, where business teams get together with software consultants to talk about the current challenges and the future vision of a process. After these workshops, the consulting team can tailor the solution or analytics to fit the process. Once the solutions and/or analytics are tailored to fit the future vision, the next step is testing to make sure that it works, that the results are what is expected, and that the workflow is also aligned; this is called user acceptance testing. A key to success in both these steps is participation and speaking up.

Being a part of an implementation team can be a lot of fun and a lot of pressure. You are the voice for the entire user community, which is why it is critical to speak up and not be afraid to have an opinion. Chances are that if you are thinking something, other people on the team are thinking the same thing, and the user community would agree as well. Being an implementation team member is a great way to further your career and development. You learn a lot about yourself and how to work well with a team. You learn that you have many strengths that you may not have recognized.

Being a member of an implementation team also enables you to learn the solution and gain deeper understanding of the business. Learning how certain aspects of a workflow affect downstream elements is also beneficial. In order to test the system, you have to think of every way possible that users would try to use the solution as well as every business scenario. Thinking outside the box on how you might tackle a specific business problem that may not be inherent in the solution is also a great way to exercise your creativity. Once the acceptance testing is complete, then the solution roll-out occurs.

You become the change agent. You are the champion for the solution and help others to understand the solution, how it works, and its benefits. Having a strong change management process and team is critical to successful implementations. Often analytics is thought of as a black box from the user community. The term “black box” is used to describe the lack of understanding of what the analytics are actually doing and how the analytics are coming up with the results. This is why it becomes critical for change agents and/or citizen data scientists to be able to explain how specific analytics work and the results in a way that is easy for users to understand. You can have the best software out there, but if the user community does not accept it, it does no good. System implementations are always about having the people, the process, and the technology. Retailers must have all three, which is why becoming the change agent for a retailer can be very beneficial to your success. Most times when a software implementation is occurring to gain analytical insights and efficiencies, people fear their positions are at risk. Typically if retailers expect to gain efficiencies and no longer need some of their staff, they will look to move these individuals elsewhere in the business and have them focus on driving the business forward rather than performing mundane tasks that can now be automated. Enhanced collaboration and vision generation are also key benefits to being able to move individuals across the organization. Rarely are these individuals fired, but sometimes it does happen. Individuals often fear change and the idea of becoming superfluous. This can create a massive amount of apprehension and hinder the adoption process during an implementation. These individuals need to be assured that their jobs are not at risk. This is where having upper management supporting the project and communicating the future vision is vital. The adoption and support must come all the way from the top of the company, including the C-suite.

The support of the change agents is also required. Communication that the process includes the technology and the people drives the success of the implementation. Just as we have discussed throughout this book, retail requires the merging of art and analytics. It is the people who bring the true art of retail along with the deep understanding of customers as well as their business strategies such as growing national brands versus private label or changing the pricing strategy from being nonpromotional to offering promotions and coupons. Becoming the change agent for a retailer enables you to become the leader in the success of the business. The change agent is the go-to person for the user community when they have questions or issues arise.

I encourage individuals who are looking to move to becoming change agents or citizen data scientists in their organizations to offer or volunteer to be on a project. Any chance to get involved with technological changes is a great way to learn more and find out if this type of career is for you.

FINDING THE RIGHT FIT

You might also be starting out early in your career and have not yet found a retailer. If this is the case, I encourage you to interview a retailer just as much as you are being interviewed. Do your homework. At the end of the day, you want to find a retailer that enables you to grow with the company, regardless of your current career level. Looking for a retailer that aligns with your style of work and management is critical as well. For example, if you are looking for a work environment that offers flexibility, such as flexible hours, then make sure you ask the questions. Work–life balance is a very important element. I have found this to be very true as I balance working and being a mom. I want the flexibility to have an extremely successful career but also not miss my son’s school plays or Muffins with Mom on Mother’s Day. This flexibility continues to become the norm across organizations as perceptions of flexibility and connectedness change.

It also is important to find a career where you can continue to learn and evolve. Management training programs are a great way to learn across how the entire business functions or if you just aren’t sure which aspect of the business resonates the most with you. Does the retailer offer continuous learning and training? Is there tuition reimbursement if you are looking to continue to expand your knowledge? These are great questions to ask when interviewing to find the right fit for you.

Technology is also an important aspect to understand. Are you looking to become a change agent at a retailer, or are you looking for a retailer that already has advanced technology set in place that you’d like experience with? Many times you can learn a lot about what type of technology retailers use by reading their job descriptions. A list of job descriptions, including positions in IT, can give insight into what skills the retailer is look for. These descriptions or skills needed may include Excel and PowerPoint but also may list specific software experience, such as SAS. This type of research can give insight into the types of tools the retailer leverages. System administrator roles also typically show these software solutions under “desired skills.” As technology advances, you want a clear understanding of what type of systems retailers have today and what their plans or visions for the future are. If technology and learning more about analytics is important to you, the last thing you want to do is land a job at a retailer that is still using green bar reports and ancient, homegrown solutions. The work may end up being extremely mundane and repetitive due to a lack of automation.

Last, you want to ensure that you will be able to learn and grow in your role and have a clear understanding of your career path for the future. Sometimes retailers may have a very tough promotion process. Promotions may be hard to come by, and future growth and movement may be slim to none. You may find this type of an organization in rural areas where there is little competition. These retailers are the only game in town, and therefore employees do not leave or move on to other opportunities. The only time a position becomes available is when someone retires or dies. In contrast, in New York City, people are continuously moving around in the industry, and positions are available quite frequently. This is something to take note of and be cautious. One way to get a sense of the potential for personal growth is by talking to people you know who work at the retailer and looking at their LinkedIn profiles to see their movement over the years.

THE VALUE OF ANALYTICS

This book has emphasized that analytics can help retailers to drive profitability. Throughout the entire retail business, analytical insights can be infused into the merchandising, pricing, marketing, in-store experience, and cybersecurity divisions to connect retailers to customers. Customers are at the forefront of each step in the process. Our first step in the process was creating high-level merchandise financial plans by using statistical forecasts that capture changes in demand by product and by channel to ensure market trends are incorporated into the financial strategy.

Then we discussed breaking these higher-level merchandise plans down to item-level assortment plans to begin to curate the product offerings that tie to customers’ merchandise preferences. We were able to cluster our locations as well as trade areas based on a statistical clustering approach rather than traditional sales volume and/or climate-based assortments. Doing this helps in further localizing the product offerings based on customer demand, moving away from product- centric assortments to customer-centric assortments. We leveraged analytical insights to understand which products were driving the business and the risks and opportunities while taking into account additional data elements, such as social media and spatial constraints. From there, we were able to understand and predict trends by leveraging merchandise attributes and combinations of attributes that were not even in the assortment to identify missed opportunities. Then these item-level assortments were further broken down to the size level based on the true size demand, taking into account if the store out-of-stocks as where in the product life cycle these out-of-stocks occurred. Retailers are moving forward by creating profitable, localized assortments down to the size level to ensure the product is in the right place at the right time to drive sales and reduce markdowns while leveraging analytics.

From there, analytics are used to determine the right price to drive the customer to purchase and enable retailers to gain incremental margin throughout the product life cycle. These assortments and pricing strategies are then used in conjunction with marketing efforts to ensure the most relevant price, product, and promotional type is being presented to customers, whether through e-mail, direct mail, texts, or notifications via the retailer’s app. Leveraging analytics, retailers can be more strategic in their marketing spending and increase their return on investment. Strategically understanding which customers are most likely to respond to an offer or which ones would purchase items regardless of the promotion drives profitability.

We can then further refine this communication and path to purchase in-store by leveraging real-time data and advanced technology in the Internet of Things. Being able to support clienteling and connecting further with customers to grow customer loyalty and purchase sizes drive sales and market share. We can then protect customers by utilizing analytics in cybersecurity initiatives. This not only protects customers from having their personal information stolen but also protects retailers from data breaches and resulting financial impacts.

Throughout each step, analytical capabilities are utilized to create more efficient processes. Increased efficiencies enable end users to focus on driving the business forward with collaboration and vision generation. These efficiencies create a better work environment where employees are not wasting time on boring, mundane tasks. These analytical capabilities are also driving the success of the business throughout any of these steps in the process, and each end user is rewarded based on performance and business success. Leveraging analytics to drive the key performance indicators enables analytics to be used for your own personal gain.

In 2018, the industry demand for people who are skilled in analytics could outpace the number of users by 60%. This equates to 1.5 million new jobs. Further growing your own skill set and knowledge as it relates to the business and analytical aspects are key ways to drive your career forward. Citizen data scientists who aid users in understanding what the analytics are doing and what is going on is a rapidly growing career path. These individuals often are hard to come by, so their salaries can be very competitive. An article by Monster.com stated that SAS was the number one skill to lead to a larger paycheck. Learning how to interpret analytical insights and enhancing your analytical skill set by learning SAS code can help you advance in your career. Students can leverage this skill set to land great jobs right out of school, and retailers can leverage SAS to attract top talent.

Whether you are coding, becoming a change agent in an implementation, are a citizen data scientist, or are an end user who wants to grow your knowledge, it is critical to learn and grow your understanding of analytics. When it comes to leading as a change agent, being able to communicate to the end user these elements enables adoption and change management. Without successful adoption and change management, a retailer could spend millions of dollars and not gain a return on investment. Whether you are looking for a position in merchandising, pricing, marketing, or in-store or cybersecurity, there are opportunities to pursue and expand your knowledge.

Continue to educate yourself by signing up for a training class. SAS.com offers free tutorials and training classes across the United States and globally. These classes are taught both hands-on and remotely and give you practical applications to test and grow your knowledge. You can take a basic business knowledge class, where the conceptual information is taught. Advanced analytical programming courses are also available, such as regression analysis and predictive modeling. Courses are offered to educate individuals on software solutions; the Statistical Forecast Studio offers users a graphical user interface.

Continue reading books to grow your knowledge set. Further your education by taking college courses, or think about pursuing a master’s degree. Download free software. SAS University Edition offers free SAS software to students, who can download the software and learn hands-on in the comfort of their own homes. Take charge of your success and learn how to leverage analytics. If you are currently in school, take an analytical course or ask if there are any courses that teach SAS. YouTube is another great channel to continue education. There are a wealth of recorded trainings and seminars. SAS has its own YouTube channel with a library of videos to educate viewers; there are even product demonstrations.

If you are currently working at a retailer, SAS also offers a try-before-you-buy program for its Visual Analytics, the SAS visualization and reporting tool. Users of this tool can visualize and report analytical insights via pie charts, line graphs, bubble plots, and many more formats. This tool also offers the ability to pull in word clouds from Twitter, Google Analytics, and Facebook. Multiple data sources are supported, including SAS data sets, Excel spreadsheets, CSV files, SAP HANA, and many more. I encourage you to test drive this tool via the SAS website at www.sas.com.

The SAS communities also have a plethora of information and share programming code, ask questions, and discover additional capabilities. Demonstration videos and code snippets are accessible to share among users. SAS has a very strong community and support network. SAS also offers a user-led conference known as SAS Global Forum. Each year, users from all over the globe and from many industries meet together for workshops, keynote addresses, and user-led presentations. At these conferences, users can learn what’s new at SAS and collaborate with others and stay forward thinking into the future.

SAS makes it its mission to ensure that the user community has a voice and is included in advancing technologies. SAS reinvests 25% of its revenue each year in research and development to move forward into the future as industries and demands change.

I encourage you to continue to move forward by continuously educating yourself on SAS offerings and capabilities. Speak up in your career. Leverage analytics to get your foot in the door, land your dream job, and benefit your current position within the company as well as your future career growth. Challenge the norm. Most important, drive change for the future and have fun doing it! You may find that you are artistically inclined and envision yourself becoming that fabulous designer who will sketch out and create products. You might find you love the excitement and hustle and bustle of working in stores. Taking down hackers and stopping cyberattacks might sound like the ultimate battle for you. Working with creative teams to craft beautiful marketing campaigns and flyers to collaborate with merchants on trends and events along with understanding relevant customer communication might lead you down a marketing path. Or envisioning a career of shopping for your assortment to tie to your customer as a merchant or buyer may appeal as the dream job. There truly is a place for each and every person in the wonderful world of retail. In every aspect, you can drive the future with analytics.