Instant Market Intelligence is Do or Die for Modern Retailers
TL;DR — 3 examples of customers profiting from instant market intelligence.
When Ragtrades meets with fashion brands and retailers around the world the “early adopter” personalities see our dashboard and get extremely excited. The “lightbulb” moment happens early, and often. They see clearly-presented data and get ideas for how they can immediately implement these insights.
On the flip side, more conservative decision-makers at the same company can be reluctant to change and innovate. “This data looks great, but why do I need to look at it more than once a quarter?” Another common refrain is, “What am I actually going to DO with it?” They are rightfully skeptical of a new technology and want to do more analysis before making an investment in market intelligence software.
The short answer is that Ragtrades allows you to see and act on data immediately, confidently and most importantly, profitably. In today’s world, if you’re making adjustments to your strategy once per quarter instead of in real-time, you’re already behind the competition.
Below are three real world examples that show how you can use real-time market intelligence to “x-ray” your business– instantly revealing strengths and weaknesses — and how a platform like Ragtrades empowers your teams to take profitable action on those insights. Client names are excluded to protect their privacy.
1. Black Friday Bonanza — One SKU Change/MASSIVE revenue increase
According to Adobe Digital Insights approximately $14.47B USD in sales were made online between Thanksgiving, Black Friday and Cyber Monday. At the peak of the frenzy, Americans were spending NEARLY $1MM PER MINUTE.
If there was ever a time to be able to instantly understand your pricing strategy across all of your competitors, distribution channels, and wholesale partners it would be during this type of shopping onslaught.
Internationally, Singles Day in China which saw $23.5B spent online in 2017 is another excellent example of a high-volume shopping day when global brands should be monitored on a minute-by-minute basis. One mis-priced item could represent an opportunity cost in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Ragtrades strategic price adjustment tool enabled one of our Fortune 500 partners to capitalize on the chaos. They had planned to sell through 100% of their inventory (hundreds of thousands of units) of a particular SKU during the cyber holiday weekend. On the first day, they saw incredible demand. Ragtrades highlighted that their price on the SKU was lower than wholesale partners.
Using Ragtrades’ software they very quickly scanned the competitive landscape and confirmed they had flexibility to immediately MARK-UP their pricing on a particular item.
That slight, quick adjustment enabled this client to recoup hundreds of thousands of gross margin dollars. Every company wants to sell through 100% of their inventory. Ragtrades can help you do that at the most profitable price.
2. Capitalizing on Exclusive Merchandise
Ragtrades’ platform is also utilized by our partners to inform merchandising decisions. This allows them to stay nimble, taking advantage of simple opportunities other companies are ignoring.
Using the merchandising portion of the platform, a world-leading luxury brand was able to see that a particularly popular SKU was sold out everywhere except their own e-commerce site.
In response, they highlighted the item as exclusive, and sold through their entire inventory that day. Ragtrades is one of the quickest and easiest ways to make sure that you get maximum value out of your exclusive offerings.
3. Geopolitical Turmoil, Trump’s Tariffs, and Fashion
Geopolitical shifts are affecting fashion now more than ever due to the international reach of e-commerce. Brexit, the isolation of Qatar, and Trump’s Trade War with China are recent examples.
Fashion has not been immune as the impacts of these policy changes ripple across global markets. Ragtrades data indicates that premiums have fluctuated even more than normal, particularly in areas like China. Where there is confusion and turmoil opportunity arises.
There is certainly opportunity if you are tracking your price architecture across multiple markets to ensure global alignment. Most estimates indicate that the Chinese now account for ⅓ of all global luxury sales, though most transactions take place overseas. It is a market brands must ABSOLUTELY get right.
According to BNP Paribas, luxury goods purchased in Italy and France cost 22% less than global average. Those same luxury goods in China cost 21% more than global average. It is no wonder then that the Chinese luxury consumer is willing to travel to buy. Who wouldn’t for a 43% difference in price?
What does this mean? For brands, make sure your global premiums are optimized in each market and your wholesale partners are paying attention to geo-pricing guidelines. For retailers, make sure you’re working with brands who are actively paying attention to global pricing and your prices are not being undercut by competitors.
Savvy consumers the world over will buy elsewhere and exploit holes in your global pricing strategy. For brands this is a triple negative. Easy profits are lost and, you and your partners are left sitting on excess inventory, increasing the likelihood items will be dumped on the gray market at a discounted price and negatively impact your brand image.
This is the first time in history that the consumer has been able to instantly see macro events affecting pricing, and adjust their buying strategy in real-time. The modern consumer is constantly comparison shopping. What countermeasures are you taking to protect your bottom line and brand reputation?
These are a few examples of how making 100% data informed decisions can have a profitable impact right now. If all of your competitors are looking at the past quarter to guide their decisions — and you are looking at the global landscape in real-time — you are so far ahead of the curve its like looking into the future.
Does this type of actionable intelligence sounds interesting to you? Please contact us to get a demo.
