By Jim Lewis, CEO Enhanced Retail Solutions LLC

Organizations can get overwhelmed with so many POS reports. We hear it all the time. Management wants 1 report that every part of the company can work from. The “1” truth. But it is hard to accomplish when each employee has their own preference on how they like to see things. And there’s almost no chance of it happening when spreadsheets are the main source.

Yet there is hope. Tools are so much better today. With a little outside help, most companies can bring their reporting and decision-making capability to a new level. It isn’t just about reporting. Obtaining data, organizing it and storing it properly for AI is critical. And the analytics routine and inventory planning processes might need updating as well. These things need to work together to bring higher intelligence to your fingertips. To highlight the opportunities and liabilities that would otherwise go unnoticed.

The ideal “1” report. Item attributes including an image, inventory and POS sales KPI’s, trends, annual forecast, inventory health and a summary of what’s going on with the item. Short and longer versions of the report exist based on the user.

5 Must-Have Features

To get to the “1” report, it must meet what I call the 5 must-have features:

1. Provide actionable insights. It’s not just numbers; it tells you what’s going on.
2. Has visibility to the total inventory pipeline. Retailer on hand, wholesale ATS, and any other “bucket” where inventory lives.
3. Contains comparative time frames. You learn by comparing, so smart reports provide benchmarks of different time periods to determine trends.
4. Shows the past, present and future. Yes, all in one report. The past and present are easy. But probably the most important is what the forecast is.
5. Helps manage item status. Keeping status updated in environments with thousands of sku’s is critical. A smart report can help recommend what to do with an item.

POS report with KPI’s and written summary and recommended actions

Describing Performance

The report should provide more in-depth analysis beyond sales and sell through. It should help answer questions. Why did we get the performance we did? Is last week’s performance different than 4 weeks ago, or 12 weeks ago or a year ago? What’s changed? How seasonal or promotional is the item? What here will help me plan and share insights with the design team?

Integration

The key to accomplishing all of that is integration. That’s why we recommend outside help. You need experts that know what questions to ask, have best practices from multiple industries and tiers of retail and know how to code it up. Integration can be very subtle but incredibly impactful. For example, adding a column with the forecast puts what you need to know right at your fingertips. How did we come up with that number? It’s coming directly from the forecast solution, so a heck of a lot of intelligence. It’s not just an average with a trend applied to it.

Click on an item and more information is provided. Price sensitivity, seasonality, volume and age class, sales by week and more. The drilling capability turns a basic report into something more for a planner.

Platform

In terms of platforms, we recommend Microsoft Power BI for its flexibility, strength within the SQL environment, user friendliness and integration with MS Office (including CoPilot). It also provides excellent features for user fine-tuning including filtering, bookmarks, alerts and notifications.

With Microsoft Power BI, users can set up alerts based on their own criteria and receive notifications via email or Microsoft Teams. It keeps the “1” report intact, but enables every user to get what’s important to them.

At the end of the day, the 1 report should be good for sales, inventory planners, operations and semi-tech savvy executives. AI has them thinking: how do I use this to help me understand my item’s performance and to design the most profitable line? This report is a giant leap in that direction.