How we do it

"The goal is to turn data into information, and information into insight." Carly Fiorina

Most retailers in New Zealand are likely to use only basic analytics to monitor what is is happening in their business. Our goal is to enable access to a wider range of analytics to enable our clients to learn more about their customers and their business and proactively make strategic decisions with confidence.

To do this we use a tried and true framework of four types of analytics - Descriptive, Diagnostic, Predictive and Prescriptive. These types of analytics, while different, are all necessary to provide a complete overview of your business and enable better informed decisions and more timely actions.

Descriptive Analytics

This type of analytics is concerned with understanding 'What Happened?"

This is where analytics begins. It enables your business to determine what has happened in the past and understand the relationship between your products or services and your customers. The objective is to take the insights from past behaviour and use them to shape the future. This is the foundation step from which the following types of analytics build upon.

Diagnostic Analytics

This type of analytics is concerned with understanding 'Why Did It Happen?"

This is where analytics is used to identify the root cause of the issue, whether good or bad. It involves digging deeper into trends observed in the descriptive analytics and using more detailed data. Diagnostic analytics is used to understand important events such as sudden increases or decreases in sales; a decrease in customer acquisition; an increase in customer attrition; or why specific stores are not performing as well as others in the network.

Predictive Analytics

This type of analytics is concerned with understanding 'What Will Happen?"

Predictive analytics is all about the future and provides actionable data-driven insights. This is where the complexity increases from simple aggregate and filtering analysis to data mining, modelling and machine learning. Predictive analytics can identify opportunities and risks in the future such as which customers are likely to become high value and which will leave.

Prescriptive Analytics

This type of analytics is concerned with understanding 'How Can We Make It Happen?"

Prescriptive analytics is the synergy of all the previous types of analytics. By taking the insights and predictions it can simplify decision making by suggesting the best actions to take advantage of future opportunities, or mitigate future risks; it can also highlight the possible implications of decisions.