10 Best Retail Analytics Software Shortlist
Here's my pick of the 10 best software from the 24 tools reviewed.
With so many different ecommerce customer service software solutions available, figuring out which is right for you is tough. You know you want insights into sales trends, customer behavior, inventory levels, and supply chain efficiency—but now need to figure out which tool is best. I've got you! In this post, I'll help make your choice easy, sharing my personal experiences using dozens of different retail analytics tools with online stores of all sizes, with my picks of the best retail analytics software overall.
What Is Retail Analytics Software?
Retail analytics software is a tool used by retailers to gather and analyze data from various aspects of their business, such as sales, customer interactions, inventory, and supply chain operations. The purpose is to processe and interpret this data to provide valuable insights into consumer behavior, product performance, and overall business efficiency.
Overviews Of The 10 Best Retail Analytics Software
Based on my experience with ecommerce software, the following overviews of the best retail analytics software will help highlight the pros and cons of each tool and what makes them unique.
Oracle Retail is a powerful retail analytics software solution designed to empower retailers with comprehensive insights and data-driven tools to enhance their operations and customer experiences. it offers a wide array of features, including demand forecasting, inventory optimization, merchandise planning, and pricing optimization, all integrated within a unified platform. oracle retail leverages advanced analytics, machine learning, and artificial intelligence to provide retailers with actionable data, enabling them to make informed decisions, optimize supply chains, reduce costs, and adapt to evolving market dynamics.
Why I Picked Oracle Retail: Oracle Retail distinguishes itself by offering an end-to-end retail suite that covers all major aspects of retail operations, from inventory management and pricing optimization to demand forecasting and merchandising planning. Many competitors offer specialized solutions for specific functions, but Oracle Retail provides a comprehensive platform that integrates all these functions seamlessly. This comprehensive approach reduces the complexity of managing multiple systems, fosters better collaboration across departments, and ensures a unified view of retail analytics, setting Oracle Retail apart as an all-encompassing retail analytics solution.
Oracle Retail Standout Features & Integrations
Features include demand forecasting, inventory optimization, merchandise planning, pricing optimization, point-of-sale (pos) solutions, end-to-end omnichannel support, real-time analytics, task management, integration with oracle cloud infrastructure (oci), customization, and extensibility.
Integrations are not listed by name, but it does promise connections with foundation data cloud services, retail pricing cloud service, stock count export, notification services, ticket printing, and other 3rd parties.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Integration with Oracle Cloud Infrastructure offers scalability
- Advanced analytics, ML, and AL for analytics
- Feature-rich, comprehensive retail suite
Cons:
- Not cost-effective for small businesses
- Implimentation takes time, resource-intensive
Tableau helps ecommerce businesses visualize and understand retail data and use it to resolve pressing difficulties. The platform offers a real-time, interactive dashboard, enabling users to do a deep dive, discover the insights they need, and identify new opportunities.
Why I picked Tableau: Data visualizations are a significant aspect of retail analytics, which is where Tableau shines more than other retail analytics platforms. Tableau can provide intuitive, detailed, and accessible retail data via user-friendly data dashboards. When using Tableau, you’ll gain real-time insights, allowing you to make effective data-driven decisions in your operations.
Tableau Standout Features and Integrations
Features include a cloud-based, flexible, self-service platform that helps your business make more intelligent, insight-based decisions. Tableau also allows you to share and collaborate analyses and insights securely.
Integrations include many native system connection options that allow you to share your data wherever it resides, such as Anaplan, Box, Databricks, Datorama, Dropbox, Google Analytics, Marketo, Oracle Eloqua, QuickBooks Online, Salesforce, and other software options. Tableau also offers an Extensions API that allows you to create custom integrations and interact with your data from other third-party applications.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Simple drag-and-drop tool to handle data calculations
- Users can develop various charts
- Creates useful data visualization dashboards
Cons:
- Requires some coding knowledge
- Customer support can be slow
Looker offers a customizable retail analytics platform to ecommerce businesses that provides extensive customizability capabilities to help make smarter business decisions. The software has multiple customizable interfaces businesses can use to fit their needs.
Why I picked Looker: Using cookie-cutter, out-of-the-box data display templates can be helpful at first and quickly get you started when you need to keep a closer eye on your retail analytics, but customizable platforms will help you tailor the software to your business’s unique requirements. So, I added Looker to this article because it empowers you to customize its convenient data analytics templates. You can use Looker to choose from various data visualization components and focus on the metrics that matter most.
Looker Standout Features and Integrations
Features include tools to centralize trusted data metrics across teams and systems; you can also deploy and test data changes in a safe environment. Looker also offers business intelligence capabilities that allow you to access, analyze, and act on real-time data at scale on the cloud service of your choice.
Integrations include connections with popular business management applications, such as Asana, Coupler.io, Hightouch, HubSpot, Parabola.io, Pipedream, Salesforce, Transcend.io, Twilio Segment, Workato, and other software options. You can also use a paid Zapier account or Looker’s API to connect the platform with your current systems.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Effective collaboration capabilities
- User-friendly interface
- Powerful data visualization tool
Cons:
- Not cost-effective for small businesses
- Large data sets slow the platform down
MicroStrategy offers enterprise-level ecommerce organizations a comprehensive analytics system that covers a wide range of data.
Why I picked MicroStrategy: I decided to add MicroStrategy to this article because of its ability to cater to the needs of enterprise ecommerce businesses and manage comprehensive datasets. MicroStrategy can handle extensive data to provide a complete view of your businesses. The platform offers intelligent workflows to make data-driven analytics dashboards easier to navigate and monitor.
MicroStrategy Standout Features and Integrations
Features include an AI-power chatbot that locates answers and self-service insights to help users understand what’s happening with their data. The software also provides insight tools that use advanced algorithms that detect data outliers, patterns, and anomalies across datasets.
Integrations include connections with standard business applications, such as Datalytics, Kyvos, LivePreso, Metric Insights, Openbridge, Phrazor, Promethium, Salesforce, Toucan, Vibe.fyi, and other software options. MicroStrategy also offers an API that allows users to create custom connections with their toolsets.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Fluid, interactive design
- Easy to understand
- Excellent user interface
Cons:
- Setup takes longer to complete
- Doesn’t display correctly on smaller screens
Microsoft Power BI is a data analytics platform that enables users to import data from multiple sources with various structures. The software also allows teams to share reports and insights among key stakeholders.
Why I picked Microsoft Power BI: Sharing data with other teams and external stakeholders is essential to ensure everyone is on the same page, so I added Microsoft Power BI to help with this process. Microsoft Power BI can collect data from various business departments and external sources and uses multiple tools to analyze and share information. These tools include Power Query to extract and transform data, Power Pivot to model and analyze it, and Power View and Map to visualize it.
Microsoft Power BI Standout Features and Integrations
Features include artificial intelligence tools that help you uncover your data’s full potential and turn it into actionable insights. Microsoft Power BI also offers trend analysis capabilities that track data pattern changes and analyze data behavior.
Integrations include over 400 native connections with top business software, such as Asana, Attlaz, Hevo, HubSpot, Insightly, Liongard, Salesforce, Shopify, Tray.io, Workato, and other software options. If you have a paid Zapier account, you can create custom integrations with your toolset.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Wide range of data charts
- Simple drag-and-drop visualization tools
- Easy to use
Cons:
- Interface is difficult to navigate
- Processing imported data is slow
Matillion helps ecommerce brands analyze retail data accurately as they scale for growth. The platform allows them to build better insights to increase loyalty, provide personalized experiences, and improve segmentation and cross-selling.
Why I picked Matillion: As your business scales for growth, monitoring larger data sets can become more difficult without the right tools, so I wanted to add Matillion to this list to address this scenario. With Matillion, you can quickly build data pipelines to provide business-ready information with as much or as little coding as necessary. The platform allows you to quickly scale the number of users and retail tasks and enable everyone to make data work more productive by empowering them to move, transform, and orchestrate data pipelines.
Matillion Standout Features and Integrations
Features include a library of hundreds of connectors that enables teams to quickly load data and meet growing business needs. Matillion empowers users to quickly and easily perform complex data transformations via a visual, low-code designer.
Integrations include connections with some of the most powerful and popular business management systems available on the market. These include integrations with third-party applications such as Google Ads, Google Analytics, HubSpot CRM, Mailchimp, Marketo, Microsoft Dynamics 365, Mixpanel, QuickBooks, Xero, Zendesk, and other software options.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Pay-as-you-go plans
- Quick setup
- Provides a smooth transition to the cloud
Cons:
- Few video tutorials are available
- Complex user interface
Qlik Sense allows ecommerce businesses to quickly combine, load, explore, and visualize their data of any size using self-service tools. Users can ask questions, drill down, or zoom out to find any answer they need or change focus.
Why I picked Qlik Sense: I chose to add Qlik Sense to this article because of its ability to help users explore their data with interactive charts, tables, and objects. When using Qlik Sense, you can analyze your data and generate insights. Self-service data tools will help you provide access to business data and help everyone make better decisions, regardless of expertise levels.
Qlik Sense Standout Features and Integrations
Features include alerting and action tools that help you monitor and react to data changes; you can also establish event-driven actions to automate routine tasks. You’ll also have access to search and conversational analytics tools that use natural language to interact with data and generate insights.
Integrations include connections with over 40 third-party tools and applications to help manage your ecommerce business, such as CloudSwyft, Collibra, Datameer, HubSpot, Salesforce, Smartsheet, Spacewell, SysAid, Tray.io, Vertica, and other software options. Qlik Sense also provides an API that empowers users to create custom integrations with their current systems.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Syncs data from multiple websites and data sources
- Excellent customization capabilities
- Simple to get started
Cons:
- Can slow down when working with large data sets
- Pricing isn’t suitable for small businesses
Infor Retail Analytics offers analytics solutions to help ecommerce brands resolve their most critical challenges when operating their business.
Why I picked Infor Retail Analytics: The platform provides a suite of machine-learning, scalable cloud-based tools to help you optimize various processes with analytics. With Infor Retail analytics, you can plan demand and supply across your sales channels and reduce sourcing capital. You can use the platform’s information to exceed your profit goals by uncovering what factors drive demand and automate improvements.
Infor Retail Analytics Standout Features and Integrations
Features include analytics tools with artificial intelligence that delivers relevant and meaningful insights for all stakeholders to monitor. The platform also offers governance, risk, and compliance capabilities to protect complex business environments.
Integrations include connections with robust business management tools that empower teams to work productively. These connections include third-party tools such as Acxiom InfoBase, B2Sell, Blue Ridge, Fortude, INTELITY, Marketo, Openbridge, ShareBase, Syniti Data Matching, Tableau, and other software options.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Handles large datasets
- Excellent data processing capabilities
- User-friendly report tools
Cons:
- User interface needs improvement
- Can be slow at times
Twilio Segment helps ecommerce businesses better understand customers by unifying touch points across all platforms and channels. Segment’s information will empower users to personalize marketing campaigns further and increase return on ad spend via better targeting and engagement.
Why I picked Twilio Segment: I wanted to add Twilio Segment to this article because of its ability to enhance your marketing processes with a complete customer view. Twilio Segment provides analytics to help you get an in-depth understanding of your customer’s journeys and allow you to deliver personalized messages. You can use the platform to engage with customers in real-time from anywhere without relying on other teams.
Twilio Segment Standout Features and Integrations
Features include tools to help align marketing, engineering, and analytics teams with a shared data dictionary that standardizes your data. Twilio Segment also provides a secure environment that automatically detects and classifies problems in real time and accelerates compliance.
Integrations include connections with high-level business management tools to help optimize data processes, such as Algolio Insights, AppsFlyer, Bento, Bloomreach Engagement, Everflow, Hotjar, Intercom, LiveChat, Looker, OneTrust, and other software options. Twilio Segment also allows users to create custom integrations with a paid Zapier account.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Improves data accuracy
- Significant number of native integrations
- Manages data from multiple sources
Cons:
- Paid plan isn’t suitable for smaller businesses
- Steep learning curve
SAS Retail Analytics provides real-time consumer data to empower ecommerce businesses to enhance product demand planning.
Why I picked SAS Retail Analytics: Understanding product demand is essential for your business’s success, so I added SAS Retail Analytics to help with this aspect of retail analytics. The platform allows users to apply analytics throughout their customers’ journeys for deeper insights and enhanced demand planning. With SAS Retail Analytics, you can automate demand planning insights across your entire supply chain and visualize demand data to quickly identify patterns related to sales, pricing, shipments, promotions, and other vital aspects.
SAS Retail Analytics Standout Features and Integrations
Features include insights to help you optimize inventory and product pricing to increase inventory turns with fewer markdowns. The software also offers merchandise and assortment planning tools that provide information to help you get the right merchandise when customers are ready to buy.
Integrations include connections with top process management and database applications to enhance retail analytics processes. These include connections with third-party tools such as Anaconda, Google Analytics 360, Google Drive, Microsoft OneDrive, Microsoft Teams, MySQL, Salesforce, SingleStore, Snowflake, Vertica, and other software options.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Handles large-scale analytics
- Quick analysis of large data
- Interactive data visualizations
Cons:
- Lack of documentation
- Steep learning curve
The Best Retail Analytics Software Summary
| Tools | Price | |
|---|---|---|
| Oracle Retail | Pricing upon request | Website |
| Tableau | Pricing starts from $70/user/month (billed annually). This reflects the starting price for their individual plans, providing access to Tableau's comprehensive suite of tools. | Website |
| Looker | Pricing upon request | Website |
| MicroStrategy | Pricing upon request | Website |
| Microsoft Power BI | From $13.70/user/month | Website |
| Matillion | s from $1.37/user/hour (equivalent to approximately $1000/user/month, assuming 24/7 usage). It's worth noting this is for the Matillion ETL for Amazon Redshift, their entry-level offering. The cost may vary based on use and the chosen cloud data warehouse. | Website |
| Qlik Sense | $30/user/month | Website |
| Infor Retail Analytics | Pricing upon request | Website |
| Twilio Segment | From $120/month (billed annually) | Website |
| SAS Retail Analytics | Pricing upon request | Website |
Compare Software Specs Side by Side
Use our comparison chart to review and evaluate software specs side-by-side.
Compare SoftwareOther Options
To make this article more robust, I had to add additional retail analytics software options worth some consideration. Here are other platform options you should research when looking for new retail analytics tools.
- Adobe Analytics
Best for turning insights into action
- Oracle Retail Analytics
Best for analyzing retail experiences
- Salesforce Einstein Analytics
Best for artificial intelligence
- Sisense
Best for infusing retail analytics into daily workflows.
- Domo
Best for optimizing business processes with retail data.
- Heap
Best for understanding customers’ digital journeys.
- Alteryx
Best for quick data insights.
- Lightspeed
Best for multichannel sales and inventory management.
- SAP BusinessObjects
Best scalable business information infrastructure.
- RetailEdge
Best point-of-sale analytics solution.
- Sigma Computing
Best spreadsheet-like data interface.
- LS Retail
Best for managing entire retail operations.
- IBM Cognos Analytics
Best for relevant analysis that aligns with objectives.
- Mi9 Retail Analytics
Best for enterprise ecommerce organizations.
Selection Criteria For Retail Analytics Software
Here’s a short summary of the main selection and evaluation criteria I used to develop my list of the best retail analytics software for this article:
Core Functionality
When looking for new retail analytics software for your ecommerce business, understanding their core functionality is essential. You’ll find the following core functionality in every platform you discover during your search, no matter the vendor:
- Identify and analyze customer data to determine which items sell well, when they sell the most, and what demographics purchase which items.
- Study shopping patterns and identify consumer trends to help marketing and sales teams develop better strategies and implement loyalty programs.
- Offer real-time analytics and data visualization via intelligent dashboards that allow businesses to monitor vital KPIs and enable trend prediction and data forecasting.
Key Features
The key features of retail analytics software will help you perform specific processes and get the most out of your data. The following are some key features to look for when searching for new retail analytics tools.
- Data Aggregation: Retail analytics platforms gather data from several sources, such as POS and enterprise resource planning tools, to provide an overview of your ecommerce store’s operations and performance.
- Performance Metrics: The reports retail analytics tools generate include metrics that relate to sales trends, customer behavior, inventory management, and product performance, allowing you to track performance compared to critical benchmarks and make proper adjustments.
- Behavioral Insights: By collecting customer behavioral data across multiple sales channels, such as website visits or social media marketplaces, your retail analytics software provides helpful insights into how customers interact with your online store and identifies areas that need improvement.
- Competitor Monitoring: The ability to control who and what you’re monitoring is vital, and your retail analytics software will gather data comprised of your competitors and other retailers that fit your product catalog and style you’re offering through your online store.
- Action Triggers and Alerts: Retail analytics tools can help you automate time-sensitive, dynamic price settings and product assortments in real time to help you interpret and leverage situations as they unfold to make predictive intelligence-based decisions.
- Real-Time Competitor Benchmarking: These platforms can help you benchmark your pricing based on competitors in real time to empower your teams to make quick, effective pricing strategy changes.
Usability
When researching the best retail analytics software for this article, I research reviews of each platform to determine whether they make it easier for teams to quickly access and analyze data without extensive training. I also look for tools that quickly generate performance reports in multiple formats, such as PDF, CSV, or Excel. Many of the tools in this article also enable users to easily share data and insights with key stakeholders.
Software Integrations
Another aspect I considered when deciding which retail analytics software to add to this article is how well they integrate with other business systems. When operating your ecommerce business, you might have several data sources, such as customer relationship management, POS, and retail inventory management tools. To make it onto this list, these platforms had to be compatible with standard ecommerce toolsets, and they must simply connect data from all sources to provide an in-depth view of your operations.
Customizable
Customizable and flexible retail analytics solutions can be beneficial for generating reports based on your specific needs and specifications. Customized data reporting can help you easily track your products’ performance and make adjustments when necessary via real-time data that allows your teams to discover growth opportunities. So, when creating this article, I looked for retail analytics solutions you can customize to capture and analyze data from multiple sources and allow you to specify the exact data points you want to include in future reports, allowing you or other team leaders to analyze key performance metrics to identify data trends and patterns.
People Also Ask
You might have some questions that you need answered before coming to a final decision on which retail analytics software to choose. Luckily, many others have frequently asked questions I wanted to answer and help you understand these tools further.
How much does retail analytics software cost?
Retail analytics software costs depend on the functionality and features your business requires. Many vendors offer subscription-based pricing that costs a monthly fee that includes access to all features with no additional fee for data storage, installation, and other services. Others offer pay-as-you-go options that give you access to basic features and allow you to customize your package according to your needs by adding more modules and assistance when needed. Since ecommerce businesses’ needs differ, prices vary widely on the platform’s specific features and other factors, such as customer support level required, contract duration, and other aspects. However, after researching the tools in this article, you can expect to pay anywhere between $10/month to $120/month.
What are the 4 types of retail analytics?
There are four primary types of retail analytics: descriptive, diagnostic, predictive, and prescriptive. Here is more detail on each of these approaches.
- Descriptive Analytics: The foundation for more sophisticated analytics types, including the other types in this list; descriptive analytics addresses fundamental questions of how many, when, where, and what to reflect and explain past performance.
- Diagnostic Analytics: Helps ecommerce businesses identify and analyze challenges that can hinder performance; it combines data from multiple sources, such as customer feedback, operational metrics, and financial performance, to offer a more comprehensive understanding of a given problem.
- Predictive Analytics: Allows ecommerce businesses to anticipate future events based on multiple factors, such as weather, supply chain disruptions, economic trends, and competitive pressures; it often takes the form of a what-if analysis to forecast future results such as customer behavior and which products will become popular.
- Prescriptive Analytics: By combining big data and artificial intelligence, prescriptive analytics takes predictive analytics outcomes and recommends specific actions to maximize your ROI; it can anticipate demand changes, supply shocks, and consumer sentiment to help you make necessary adjustments.
What are the benefits of retail analytics software?
Retail analytics software offers a wide range of benefits that can significantly impact a retailer’s success and overall performance. Here are some of the key advantages:
- Data-Driven Decision Making: Retail analytics software collects and analyzes large volumes of data from various sources, such as point-of-sale systems, customer databases, and inventory management systems. This data-driven approach allows retailers to make informed decisions based on real-time insights and trends.
- Improved Inventory Management: By analyzing historical sales data and current demand patterns, retailers can optimize their inventory levels, reduce stockouts, minimize overstocking, and improve overall inventory turnover. This leads to cost savings and increased efficiency.
- Enhanced Customer Understanding: Retail analytics software enables retailers to gain deeper insights into customer behavior, preferences, and purchase patterns. This understanding helps create personalized marketing campaigns, tailored offers, and improved customer experiences, leading to higher customer satisfaction and loyalty.
- Optimized Pricing Strategies: With retail analytics, businesses can track competitors’ prices, monitor market trends, and analyze customer response to price changes. This information helps retailers set optimal pricing strategies to maximize sales and profitability.
- Identifying Sales Trends and Opportunities: Retail analytics software can identify sales trends and patterns, helping retailers understand which products are selling well and which ones may need improvement. This insight allows for the development of targeted marketing campaigns and the identification of new sales opportunities.
- Efficient Staff Management: Analytics software can help retailers optimize staffing levels based on historical sales data, foot traffic patterns, and peak hours. This ensures that the right number of staff members are available during busy times, improving customer service and reducing labor costs during slower periods.
- Loss Prevention and Fraud Detection: Retail analytics can aid in identifying irregularities and patterns associated with fraud and theft, reducing losses due to shrinkage and enhancing security measures.
- Real-time Reporting and Dashboards: Modern retail analytics solutions offer real-time reporting and customizable dashboards, enabling stakeholders to access critical business insights at any time. This empowers decision-makers to act swiftly and adapt to changing market conditions.
- Forecasting and Demand Planning: By analyzing historical data and trends, retailers can develop accurate demand forecasts. This helps with effective supply chain management, ensuring products are available when and where they are needed.
- Identifying Store Performance: Retail analytics software can evaluate the performance of individual stores or outlets, enabling retailers to identify top-performing locations and implement strategies to improve underperforming ones.
- Improved Marketing ROI: By understanding the effectiveness of marketing campaigns and promotional efforts, retailers can allocate their resources more efficiently, maximizing the return on investment (ROI) of their marketing initiatives.
Other Ecommerce Planning & Analytics Software Reviews
Planning and analytics are vital functions when managing an ecommerce business’s operations, so utilizing the right tools is essential. There is a multitude of other software outside of this article that can handle your planning and analytics needs which you can find in the following review lists:
The Takeaway
Having all the details can make choosing the best retail analytics software easier. Using retail analytics solutions is always a good idea if you know how to leverage them to answer questions you have about enhancing your ecommerce operations and gaining more insights to better serve customers. However, remember that you need a deep understanding of these platforms, their features, and the pros and cons to choose the most suitable for your business—and this article is an excellent starting point.
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