Why is Real-Time Reporting so Important?

As someone in charge of wireless retail operations, you’ve got a lot on your plate. 

From managing inventory (sometimes in multiple locations), to ensuring an efficient in-store experience, to keeping up with the omnichannel expectations of today’s modern consumer, there’s a lot to cover and it’s hard to keep on top of it all. 

Without the up-to-the-minute insights from collected transactional data, your team is making unguided decisions. To get the kinds of insights your business needs means you need eyes on real-time data from your stores. Which means you need real-time reporting. 

But adding in advanced reporting functionality doesn’t happen overnight and there are a few important considerations to be had. Ask yourself:

• What information do I need?
• How capable is my retail software?
• Does a new process support my strategy for growth?

These may seem like easy questions, but the answers get complicated—fast. Let’s walk through each one and analyze your business’s real-time reporting needs. 

What information do I need?

As a successful wireless retailer, you already have metrics that you’re tracking that help steer your business towards increased profitability. But additional metrics added to your checklist can create further efficiency and increased revenue—if used correctly. 

Sales per square foot [Total sales per store/​size of selling area in square feet]

Making the most of your sales floor means using every asset at your disposal to its best ability. If this metric is low, consider adding features to your store that makes it a more holistic experience. Digital signage, interactive screens, and captivating displays not only fill store space effectively, but they also engage customers along their path to purchase.

Total shopper value [Total sales / total shopper traffic]

Want to reveal the monetary value of every customer who walks through your doors? This metric is for you. Not only does total shopper value help forecast how much your store could increase revenue through an increase in in-store traffic, but it also compares the value of in-store customers vs. those on other channels. This helps your marketing team adjust spend and allocated funds in the most beneficial place. 

Size of average shopping cart [Total number of products purchased / total number of transactions]

This metric assists in understanding how proficient your team is at the art of the upsell. Customers are coming to your wireless store with something in mind, but add-on items are likely both complementary and beneficial to use in congruence with their purchase. Upselling techniques will increase the average shopping cart size, and tracking this helps your staff learn what they’re strengths are and where they can improve. 

Total Lifetime Value of a Customer [(Average purchase value x average number of visits per customer) x gross margin]

Expanding channel offerings isn’t an excuse to forget about your customers. Retention of current and acquisition of prospective customers. Lifetime value (LTV) measures the value customers bring into your store and the revenue they generate from their purchases. This ensures high-value customers are catered to while lower-value customers can be nurtured with effective messaging that brings their value up. 

How capable is my retail software?

As the retail industry evolves, legacy point-of-sale systems aren’t capable of adding functionalities that help your business keep up with the competition. Effective, real time reporting informs other areas of business that are key to wireless success but not all solutions can offer the same functions. Does your current legacy system have the capacity for:

• Email marketing integrations: Accurate, real-time reports drive informed marketing copy that translates into sales
• Actionable results: Trends are easily acted upon when it matters if insights are earned as customers buy. 
• Online and in-store fusion: Customer engagement, activity, and habits should help to create positive paths to purchase across all channels.

Does a new process support my growth strategy?

As your business grows, you’ll notice what’s working and what’s not. For Cellular Sales, their homegrown retail solution wasn’t able to scale with the wireless retail success story. They knew that to be able to continue to increase profits and meet their goals, Cellular Sales had to leave their legacy retail software behind.

JT Thome is the COO at Cellular Sales and for him, having a robust and adaptable platform was key. Not only did the technology need to be able to support the growth strategy of the business, but he also expected there to be a scalable team of experts to guide him through toward success: ​“Switching our business practices along with our software system allowed my team and I…to be better across the board.” 

Making the move to a cloud-based, innovative technology didn’t only enable transparent and powerful reporting, it also meant staff training decreased from 5 days to 5 hours and transaction times went down by 50%. 

Added functionality meant that Cellular Sales had the right data when they needed it and more time to make sense of the insights to drive profitable decisions in-store. 

Real-time reporting is about more than just the numbers

When information is captured and analyzed up-to-the-minute, it betters all areas of a wireless business. From store experience to effective stocking to appropriate staffing levels to an optimized earned revenue, it all comes down to how quickly you can drive insights.

While we offer a ton of reports right out of the box, we know each business is unique. Customizable dashboards let you be informed without having to sort through spreadsheets so you can focus on bottom-line impact.