Retailers face a dizzying number of technological solutions today. The market has become more competitive than ever, moving at the speed of light in trying to keep up with heightened customer expectations and competition from multiple channels.
Gartner provides invaluable resources to help retailers select solutions that will deliver on their marketing promises. In July 2021, Gartner published the Hype Cycle for Digital Commerce and the Hype Cycle for Retail Technologies reports, naming Hypersonix as a solution that “should be considered by CIOs of large multichannel retailers (and digital commerce businesses) when prioritizing technology investments to support … digital transformation and innovation.”
Gartner evaluated solutions based on their “ability to anticipate changing market conditions and respond quickly” and gave “priority to those technologies that enable flexibility and efficiency” in specific areas.
Presented here are perspectives on how Hypersonix delivers on each of the key areas in the two Gartner Hype Cycles.
Strengthening Store Operations for Flexibility
Hypersonix works with large retailers and grocers that have multiple stores, usually spread across large geographical areas. Many retail managers do not have the metrics they need to make decisions that will optimally influence revenue, profitability, average basket size, and the many other parameters because key data points are either not available or not accessible.
Hypersonix addresses this problem by providing a mission-critical commerce intelligence platform, allowing customers to connect disparate back office operational systems as well as pull in relevant external data to deliver real-time intelligence across their businesses.
For example, when grocers have perishable products that are near the end of their life, managers can use Hypersonix to determine the best price point to maximize revenue and minimize waste. They can play around with demand and how to influence demand while not cannibalizing demand for other products
Currently, many retailers simply don’t have access to real-time data. Stale information or aggregated data from last month is not going to provide an accurate reflection of what’s going on right now. As a result, managers usually fall back to making decisions based on past experience and gut instinct.
Hypersonix helps retailers fine-tune gut instincts with a data validation. For instance, although a retailer may assume customers will want barbecue supplies in July, Hypersonix can help fine-tune the quantity, assortment, placement and promotion details that makes stocking and on-time sourcing of these supplies more manageable. The solution is powered by unique retailer real-time data and machine-learning driven predictions, not by hard rules and instinct.
Enabling Touchless Interactions and Empowering Store Associates
By accessing Hypersonix on a mobile app, store associates can access and utilize this data to make daily decisions. They can walk around with a device, look at data for a particular item or category including predictions and history, and combine that data with what they see on the shelf. From there, they can make better decisions about stocking products, running a promotion or changing a price. Instead of relying on a month-old corporate report, individual stores can use real-time, unique data to formulate better decisions.
For example, if associates oversee perishable item markdowns, they can look at the inventory that remains and the rate at which the item is selling. Hypersonix can suggest the optimal markdown percentage rate, communicate with the system that generates price tags, and print the new label on the spot.
Transforming Merchandising Processes for Highly Effective Planning and Execution
By examining which products are moving or not moving and where they are placed in the store, Hypersonix can assign an effectiveness score that maps back to the merchandising plan.
“Retailers provide data about assortments, where they are placed, and whether they are being promoted. They can then look at trends around revenue and transactions that correlate with assortment and placement. Associates can also experiment with different combinations, seeing which ones make an impact. All this data is collected to help make better future merchandising decisions.”
– Kumar Srivastava, Chief Technology Officer at Hypersonix
Building Collaborative Ecosystem Partnerships
Besides aggregating the retailer’s unique store data, Hypersonix can import data from external data sources. These partners can provide a better understanding of the context that the individual retailer is operating in.
For example, data on weather, consumer behavior, competition, or mobile device movement can affect the performance of a particular retailer at a specific moment in time. We access these datasets and combine the information with customer data to help determine what has happened and why. We can also leverage these signals to build predictive models that help businesses be more prepared for what might happen in the future.
Implementing Cost Optimization as a Continuous Discipline
Cost optimization must be done on both a short-term and long-term basis, and Hypersonix provides the data aggregation to help retailers do that on a continuous basis.
Some of our customers send data on a daily basis, and as a result, can understand what’s happening at their stores at that frequency. Others may do more medium- to long-range planning, and we can recommend strategies to optimize costs week-over-week or day-over-day.
For example, if a store expects an increase in demand for soda during the upcoming week, Hypersonix can help managers make optimal decisions about how much to stock and even the number of employees required to work the registers. On the other side of the equation, if projected demand lags for some reason, managers can understand why and be able to cancel pre-submitted orders to a distribution center.
Proactively Anticipating and Responding to Change Signals via AI
Hypersonix ties together customer and highly correlated partner data points to accurately project demand in across stores or regions, leveraging that information to make better decisions. That means managers can, at the store level, implement the best pricing, promotion, and markdown strategies for specific products or categories on an ongoing basis.
Want to see what more Gartner sees in us, and how Hypersonix delivers profitable revenue growth? Request a demo.
