Consulting Giants PwC and Accenture Each Release New Research on Retail

"Investing in the right tools and talent to extract analytic insights that allow companies to take action at the shelf and consistently applying analytics to sales and customer processes and decisions across the company -- from the boardroom to sales force -- represents the greatest opportunity for improving market performance," said Koen Van Bockstaele, managing director for consumer goods and services at Accenture. 

Meanwhile, PwC's annual consumer survey has revealed that physical stores remain the primary destination for shoppers in the US despite the fast growth of digital retailers. The survey titled, "Total Retail: Retailers and the Age of Disruption" found more than 68% of respondents admit to browsing products in the store but purchasing online while 73% say they have browsed products online but purchased in-store. Delivery fees (65%), item immediacy (61%) and trying it on/seeing it (61%) were cited as the major reasons for this dominance of in-store purchases over online.

PwC US retail & consumer practice leader Steven Barr said: "Integrating technology, along with the power to engage on social media, has enhanced the consumer experience while requiring companies to transform their legacy systems."

Both survey findings support RSi's core business offerings and move toward the integration of daily downstream data with hyper-local advertising and social media best practices to help automate the digital path to purchase, to ensuring product is on the shelf when the consumer is ready to make a purchase and to customizing or personalizing the in-store experience.  It's an exciting, transformative time to be in retail and we look forward to helping brands, manufacturers and retailers successful navigate the new terrain by turning data into actionable insights in the store and on the shelf.