Continual advances in technology are changing the face of the retail industry forever. The ability to be able to produce detailed analytics of sales and stock reports from across an entire estate in the blink of an eye means that retailers are much better placed to implement effective retail marketing strategies.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the trading relationship, consumers are now spoilt for choice when it comes to deciding on their shopping arena, whether it is in a physical store or online. Shopping has very much become a multi-channel experience, and this has led to the rise of such things as showrooming and webrooming.

The best retail technology provides directors and marketing teams with accurate big data, from which they can plan and implement the most effective retail marketing solutions for their business. With access to information on current sales, stock availability and future trend forecasts, retailers are perhaps in a better position than ever before to give consumers exactly what they want.

One of the most recent advances in retail technology is the provision of estate intelligence through retail audits. While access to sales and stock data has been available for some time, accurate analytics on the estate side of a retail business have been sadly lacking. However, with the advent of the retail software known as InSite, retailers who trade on a national basis can perform in-depth retail audits of their estates to collate data, providing them with detailed estate intelligence which is vital to successful trading. Through extensive, time-sensitive retail audits conducted by experienced audit teams, the InSite software captures details of individual stores such as store layout analysis, including shop-floor length, ceiling height, shelving capacity and gondola locations, brand compliance measurement and store profiling.

Once the retail audits are complete, the stored data can then be accessed on the InSite platform at the touch of a button on smartphones in-store, seamlessly blending with sales and stock analysis to enable promotional planning of the utmost precision. The demands of modern-day retailing are such that all processes should be implemented as quickly and as smoothly as possible. Without the estate intelligence and incredibly detailed data which InSite provides, retailers and brands find that they are unable to react quickly enough to the evolving retail landscape.

The rapid advances in technology bring both challenges and benefits. From a retail perspective, the biggest challenge today is adapting to the demands of trading across a multi-channel platform. By adopting InSite and estate intelligence into their marketing plans, retailers are fully equipped to meet that challenge.