For brands and retailers, relying on inaccurate, incomplete, or inconsistent point-of-sale and inventory data is like inviting a Halloween horror show into their business. Such data nightmares can haunt sales planning, marketing and trade promotions, demand forecasting, supply chain teams, and beyond, turning critical, collaborative decisions into a fright fest.
13 Scary Things About Using Bad POS and Inventory Data
Using poor-quality data for analysis, insights, and decision-making is enough to make consumer brands and retailers scream.
Bad data can have numerous horrific consequences for a business and its bottom line. It’s challenging to rank them definitively, but here are some of the scariest aspects of relying on flawed weekly or monthly POS and inventory data for decision-making.
1. Misinformed Decisions.
Dirty, latent data can lead to incorrect conclusions and poor decision-making by sales, marketing, supply chain, operations, and finance. This results in spine-chilling financial and operational consequences that would make you want to run to your mummy.
2. Financial Losses.
Making critical business decisions based on inaccurate or incomplete data, such as syndicated data, can lead to ghastly financial losses. Investments, resource allocations, and pricing strategies may be misguided, taking your sales and profits to the grave.
3. Reputation Damage.
Flawed retail data can give rise to deadly errors in demand planning and forecasting, resulting in out-of-stocks and poor retail execution that frustrates shoppers and puts a major hex on your company's brand reputation.
4. Loss of Trust.
Consumers, retailers, and even employees can lose trust in your organization and brand—and possibly ghost you and your products—if they discover that you've been making “strategic” decisions based on unreliable data.
5. Compliance & Legal Issues.
Operating with incorrect data may result in violations of regulations or legal requirements, bringing about penalties, lawsuits, or regulatory actions that could haunt your company for longer than you might think.
6. Wasted Resources.
Implementing plans and initiatives based on inaccurate data can result in wasted time, money, and resources, as you may need to correct errors and re-evaluate your strategies to keep you from going batty.
7. Inefficient Operations.
Low-quality data can spur inefficiencies with new product launches, trade promotions, replenishment, supply chain, and resource management, leading to terrifying higher costs and lower productivity that would certainly spook your finance department.
8. Competitive Disadvantage.
Using weekly or monthly and/or chain-level point-of-sale and inventory data puts your organization at a monstrous disadvantage compared to sinister competitors and brands that make data-driven decisions based on daily SKU- and store-level data.
9. Missed Opportunities.
Bad, incomplete retail data can leave you alone in the dark, causing brands to overlook potential opportunities for sales growth, product innovation, and market expansion.
10. Poor Shopper Experiences.
Accurate consumer data is crucial for personalization and improving the shopper experience. Faulty data can put a dreadful spell on creating accurate customer profiles and interactions.
11. Low Employee Morale.
Decision-making based on bad data can create a frustrating and demotivating work environment, potentially leading to unhappy employees and some wickedly high turnover.
12. Bias & Discrimination.
Poor data can perpetuate distressing biases and abominable discriminatory practices, as decisions made on inaccurate information may be influenced by existing prejudices in the data.
13. Arduous Root Cause Analysis.
When problems arise, seep, and creep in, identifying and addressing the underlying issues can be frightful and challenging with unreliable data, making it harder to prevent future incidents.
Your strategic decision-making doesn’t have to be cursed forever.
If you prioritize data quality and integrity and invest in an automated data collection, cleansing, and harmonization solution like Retail Velocity's VELOCITY® retail data platform, you can take a bite out of these hair-raising risks and make more fang-tastic, informed decisions that help you bury the competition and grow your business spooktacularly.
