A key way for retailers to maximize revenue, reduce costs, and delight customers is to connect people with the right products, in the right place, and at the right price and time. In today’s multi-channel, ultra-competitive retail market where customers are increasingly expecting businesses to deliver on their every whim, that can be a significant challenge.
Gartner outlines the importance of contextualized real-time pricing in its July 2021 Hype Cycle for Digital Commerce and the Hype Cycle for Retail Technologies reports. Named as one solution that should be considered, Hypersonix delivers what Gartner deems necessary in providing “the immediate relevance that customers expect, while enabling multichannel retailers to maintain the appropriate competitive stance.”
Gartner continues in the reports by noting that “by personalizing prices, retailers can target discounts toward best customers, evaluate the market basket and effectively save margin dollars. Further, moving pricing settlement to the smart check-out process via the customer’s mobile app eases the workload and complexity of execution for in-store associates.”
Hypersonix delivers against these edicts in the following ways:
Focused on Demand Forecasting
At the heart of all retail decisions made by Hypersonix customers is demand forecasting. “We use sophisticated predictive analytics to understand and predict customer demand based on data provided by the individual retailer as well as relevant third-party sources,” said Kumar Srivastava, chief technology officer at Hypersonix. “We then stitch together this data to achieve a better view into the retail ecosystem.”
Recommended: Hypersonix Scores Big with Gartner
Hypersonix aggregates data that accurately reveals customer behavior and trends, and understands the buyer’s desire to optimize their retail journey each and every time.
For example, Hypersonix works with several retailers that have catalogs containing millions of items. These retailers often struggle to understand future demand for such a myriad of items. The massive computing cost and complexity of running demand forecasting across millions of items is often prohibitive. Even when retailers choose to try, the expense forces them to do so rarely and intermittently. Hypersonix’s platform is designed to scale automatically, which enables deep and broad demand forecasting across a massive product catalog at a frequency that was previously unimaginable.
Which Results in Optimizing Stock
When retailers successfully forecast customer demand, they begin a domino effect in the rest of their business that leads to reduced cost and increased efficiency. For example, demand forecasting can help retailers optimize their inventory stock, reducing both the likelihood of running short of demanded products as well as overstocking items that have less demand.
Historically, setting price points too low can increase demand to the point of stockouts, depriving both the retailer of extra revenue as well as adding to customer frustration about promised product availability. Overstocks that result from poor demand forecasting may lead to stale or outdated products and require significant markdowns later that also cut into the revenue stream.
“Consumers no longer tolerate out-of-stocks and second-choice substitutions. They want instant access to their favorite products and expect an orchestrated merchandising presentation and customized, well-timed discounts.”
– Kumar Srivastava (CTO, Hypersonix)
Enterprises must become extremely proficient at understanding the amount of stock required to sufficiently meet demand for a product through a particular channel, whether it be e-commerce, through a retailer, or in a store. This impacts how distributions are planned and managed to endpoints, which has an impact on where and when manufacturing plans are defined and executed. The ability to access an up-to-date view of the supply chain, coupled with an ability to predict demand to minimize stock outs or wasted goods, creates just-in-time delivery. These predictive mitigation abilities are key to maximizing profits.
And Better Visibility into Supply Chain
With all the well-publicized supply chain problems that have recently surfaced during the global pandemic, customers are often resigned to longer shipping times and more difficult access to products. Those retailers who can shed the supply chain excuses the fastest will have a significant advantage in today’s retail market.
Hypersonix’s artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) capabilities enable and support this level of optimization. The number one concern from customers is their inability to view their supply chain status. As each individual system produces and stores data, Hypersonix delivers a complete end-to-end view that connects all this information almost as fast as the data is produced. This ensures that enterprises can easily understand the entire lifecycle of an order, including how raw material is sourced and delivered, where and how the product is manufactured, when they are delivered to distribution centers and warehouses, and how it is delivered to retailers or to end consumers. This is all done at the proper price point and correct channel.
Enabling Ground-Level Staff to Make Better Decisions
In the end, the powerful data and analytics provided by Hypersonix is then readily accessible in real-time for individual store managers and associates. By using Hypersonix’s virtual assistant, Jarvix, front-line retail employees can make Alexa-like and Google-like inquiries to understand what is happening in the moment.
As a result, retailers can better personalize prices day-by-day if desired, offer personalized deals to top customers, select the best retail channels to reach specific segments, and evaluate the market basket to maximize margins.
Making better decisions requires access to processed, predictive information. Ground staff tend to be on the go, transitioning between the office and the floor. This requires that product interfaces deliver information when and where the user needs it as well as actually notifying the user that a specific decision needs to be made to mitigate business risk or capture additional business value. The Hypersonix product line ensures both proactive and reactive decision making.
Want to see what Gartner sees in us? Request a demo today.
Read part one of this three-part series here: A Closer Look at Hypersonix’s Mention in the Gartner Hype Cycles: Retail Technologies & Digital Commerce
