Retailers struggle to understand consumables spending

Despite collecting vast amounts of data, retailers often face challenges in understanding their consumables spending. The complexity arises from managing diverse stores, products, and suppliers, making it difficult to transform purchasing data into actionable insights without a unified view.

Retail consumables can be spread across multiple suppliers, product categories, and locations, making it difficult to answer fundamental questions about spending and suppliers.

Joe Pennington, Retail Director at ProCook and Charles Tyrwhitt, emphasizes the importance of data, saying, “Data is absolutely key. If you don’t have it, you can’t use it.” Consistent data is necessary to compare products, suppliers, and purchasing activity across the estate.

Having a clear view of spending is essential, as it allows retailers to understand what they are spending and where. This information can then be used to identify inconsistencies, opportunities, and areas for improvement.

The objective is to make data useful, not just collect more of it. With greater clarity, retailers can identify patterns such as differences in pricing, unnecessary product duplication, and variations in purchasing behavior.

This clarity builds on control, providing a foundation for identifying greater efficiency and cost savings. By working from a shared view of what is actually happening, procurement and operations teams can make more informed decisions.

Once the picture is clear, retailers can start to change it, making data-driven decisions rather than relying on assumptions or individual store knowledge.