More questions and fewer answers.  That’s typically what Tuesday has in store.  After spending Monday generating the reports necessary to evaluate performance, now come the questions:

What happened?  Why did it happen?

Most merchants enter their weekly team meetings with reports in hand - ready to discuss the output of last week.   All too quickly these meetings shift to a debate over what happened and analyzing metric performance within the reports.  Unfortunately, addressing specific levers for the merchant team to pull in order to answer said “performance” still remains in question.  Every merchant is aware that they will exit their weekly meetings with a longer list of items to investigate:

• Did conversion rate drop in their category of products?
• Did the promotion for last week not drive the sales forecasted?
• Was inventory not selling through at the rate required given where we are in the season?

The questions go on and on and what’s interesting is that while the intention of the meeting is to determine actionable tasks to delegate, they seem to generate more questions that require hours and days of work to answer.

Why is it so hard to start the week with action?  Why can’t merchants walk in on Monday understanding the performance of last week, and immediately ascertain the specific actions that they need to deploy? The truth is getting to action is difficult.  It’s difficult due to the vast amount of reasons why a metric moves in any given direction on any given week.   If we think about a very simple question, “Why isn’t a specific product selling?” the investigation required is a list, a mile long:

• Is the product actually live on the website?
• Is the product in stock?
• Is it available in the most popular sizes and colors?
• Can someone find this product if searching for it?
• Is the image correct?  Is the product page description accurate?
• Are the ratings low?
• Is there enough traffic to the product page?
• Are the right customers viewing it?
• Can it be added to the cart?
• Was the promotional message aligned?

The list goes on and on.  Imagine the effort required for one product when you need to check across all of these variables, especially when it requires access and cross-collaboration with multiple data systems within the business.  It is no wonder why a simple question could result in a weeklong effort towards resolution.

This realization is what I call the “Tipping Point.”  It is the point at which retailers around the globe are forced to spend time investigating simple questions in a very complex environment. The point at which any question large or small, unknown or expected, causes a halt in higher value activities.

How can retailers solve this?  What can retailers focus on in order to accept this tipping point in a way that doesn’t derail strategic focus or cannibalize precious critical hours in the day.  What can be done to find simple, easy answers to what are recurring and simple questions?

To me, the answer lies in the following:

1.     A single and connected view of all data critical to operating the business.  Retailers must invest in a single place by which all metrics can be evaluated together, eliminating the separate reporting streams that kickoff debates every week.  Retailers should insist on the importance of connected data vs. displayed data.  It is not enough to invest in a dashboard that shows metrics in one view.  The power in the single view is when those metrics are connected.  Giving teams visibility to how a promotion impacts conversion rate and cost, for example, is more powerful than just conversion alone.

2.     A systematic approach to surfacing what actions to take.  Analysts spend countless hours investigating all the reasons why a metric moves up or down.  I have even heard many merchandisers refer to this as their “hit list”.  The list of checks and balances that are run through with every Tipping Point question that comes across their desk.  In the case of product sell-through, there is no reason why analysts and merchandisers should be running down that list manually.  A system should be in place to alert merchants to key opportunities, such as when low sell-through products occur due to low visibility or products that need more paid search traffic support.  Imagine automating the hundreds of standard questions that merchandisers and analysts ask of the data every day?  The output should be a list of actions immediately available to retailers every single week.   This system should already know the questions that are asked of the data every day and automatically provide answers, as well as alerting potential opportunities with which to take action.

3.     An ability to know which actions to prioritize.  If answering the question of poor product sell-through yields zero incremental revenue, would we want analysts spending the hours to get to the answer?  Or on the contrary - if answering the question yields thousands of incremental dollars to the business, would we want the team to mistakenly brush off or focus elsewhere?  Retailers need a way to prioritize their time against the actions that are critical to their business. Investing in systems can provide a framework for the teams to prioritize activities with the understanding of the joint objectives.

With all of the retailers that I have worked with, the weekly Tipping Point is a dreaded moment.  Not only can it render your week completely unproductive, the generated “answers” are rarely achieved efficiently.  However, the Tipping Point is actually a signal for opportunity, there is revenue and profit available to the business once pinpointed.  The questions, which create the Tipping Point, are simple.  And in many cases, even the answers to those questions are easily within grasp.

Retailers who reimagine their week are on the right path to realize the Tipping Point is an opportunity - not a problem.  With investments in intelligent solution systems, they will have the ability to react to these moments enabling sizable change and growth within their organizations.

As I continue this series, the “New Realization of a Retailer’s Week” will illuminate the shift in time and focus for merchants.  With this new paradigm comes the question of managing all these surfaced actions, as well as now transitioning focus to strategic initiatives.