A home improvement retailer improves customer experience and boosts sales
Case Study
The Problem
A large home improvement retailer, with a co-op business model, had a higher-than-expected rate of return due to inaccurate and stale product information in their stores and on their eCommerce website. In addition, the company did not have access to Point-of-Sale (POS) data from its co-op members thereby leading to inaccurate sales forecasts and sub-optimal inventory management.
Our Recommendations
- Implement a Product Information Management (PIM) system to manage products, and their attributes and hierarchies
- Integrate PIM with the eCommerce website, remove duplicate products and cleanup product bundles
- Leverage a 3rd party vendor such as IRi to procure curated POS information, and gain a better understanding of customer segmentation and sales trends
The Results
- Increased accuracy in sales forecasts using 3rd party data and therefore improved production planning and inventory management
- Decreased rate of returns due to accurate product information on the eCommerce site
- Improved customer experience boosting overall sales from repeat business on the eCommerce site