Alteryx Case Studies Blend and Batch: A Macro View of Developing Trade Areas

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	Blend and Batch: A Macro View of Developing Trade Areas Alteryx

Blend and Batch: A Macro View of Developing Trade Areas

Alteryx

Technology Category	Platform as a Service (PaaS) - Data Management Platforms
Applicable Industries	Retail
Applicable Functions	Sales & Marketing Business Operation
Use Cases	Supply Chain Visibility Predictive Replenishment
Services	Data Science Services
Challenge	Blend and Batch, a retail company, was facing challenges in generating store-level reports showing geographic sales trends, competitive impacts, and demographic summaries. They needed an accurate baseline for predicting new stores and remodels, which required block group-level sales, market share, and percent of store sales. They also needed to combine data sources to delineate a trade area and group stores to provide trends to measure performance. The company was using a combination of T-Log data from front end point-of-sale, MapInfo for geocoding, and MS Access for data calculations. However, this process was time-consuming and required manual steps. Read More
About Customer	Blend and Batch is a retail company that operates over 1,300 stores. The company's site location research team is responsible for enabling geospatial support for new store forecasts, making real estate portfolio and capital allocation decisions, and providing geographic queries to help all areas of the organization. The company needed a system that could provide store-level reports showing geographic sales trends, competitive impacts, and demographic summaries. They also needed the ability to predict new stores and remodels, an accurate baseline, block group-level sales, market share, and percent of store sales. The company wanted to understand local dynamics rather than regional ones and group stores to provide trends to measure performance. Read More
Solution	The company decided to use Alteryx, a data management platform, to improve their process. Alteryx allowed them to remove multiple programs and incorporate one platform, reducing software costs and eliminating the need for a third-party engineer who developed and maintained the MS Access database. The platform also significantly reduced the time required for POS data processing. However, the company faced some challenges in the early days of using Alteryx due to their early experience level, which caused slower development and more workflows. To improve, they used the Directory, Dynamic Input, and Control Parameter tools in Alteryx. These tools allowed them to collect individual store files in one click, import many files at once, and run the workflow for a select group of stores. Read More Log in to view content
Contents

Technology Category

Platform as a Service (PaaS) - Data Management Platforms

Applicable Industries

Retail

Applicable Functions

Sales & Marketing

Business Operation

Use Cases

Supply Chain Visibility

Predictive Replenishment

Services

Data Science Services

Challenge

Blend and Batch, a retail company, was facing challenges in generating store-level reports showing geographic sales trends, competitive impacts, and demographic summaries. They needed an accurate baseline for predicting new stores and remodels, which required block group-level sales, market share, and percent of store sales. They also needed to combine data sources to delineate a trade area and group stores to provide trends to measure performance. The company was using a combination of T-Log data from front end point-of-sale, MapInfo for geocoding, and MS Access for data calculations. However, this process was time-consuming and required manual steps.

About Customer

Blend and Batch is a retail company that operates over 1,300 stores. The company's site location research team is responsible for enabling geospatial support for new store forecasts, making real estate portfolio and capital allocation decisions, and providing geographic queries to help all areas of the organization. The company needed a system that could provide store-level reports showing geographic sales trends, competitive impacts, and demographic summaries. They also needed the ability to predict new stores and remodels, an accurate baseline, block group-level sales, market share, and percent of store sales. The company wanted to understand local dynamics rather than regional ones and group stores to provide trends to measure performance.

Solution

The company decided to use Alteryx, a data management platform, to improve their process. Alteryx allowed them to remove multiple programs and incorporate one platform, reducing software costs and eliminating the need for a third-party engineer who developed and maintained the MS Access database. The platform also significantly reduced the time required for POS data processing. However, the company faced some challenges in the early days of using Alteryx due to their early experience level, which caused slower development and more workflows. To improve, they used the Directory, Dynamic Input, and Control Parameter tools in Alteryx. These tools allowed them to collect individual store files in one click, import many files at once, and run the workflow for a select group of stores.

Impact #1	Time savings: The company was able to reduce manual entry requirements and analyst wait-time.
Impact #2	Data availability & Analytical Accuracy: Trade areas and consumer reports were available for the entire banner. Reports could be generated quarterly, rather than once every few years. Sharing with retail associates became possible.

Impact #1

Time savings: The company was able to reduce manual entry requirements and analyst wait-time.

Impact #2

Data availability & Analytical Accuracy: Trade areas and consumer reports were available for the entire banner. Reports could be generated quarterly, rather than once every few years. Sharing with retail associates became possible.

Benefit #1	POS data processing time reduced from 20 minutes per store to 10 seconds per chain.
Benefit #2	Reduced software costs by cancelling 2 existing contracts.
Benefit #3	Eliminated the need for a 3rd party Engineer who developed and maintained MS Access DB.

Benefit #1

POS data processing time reduced from 20 minutes per store to 10 seconds per chain.

Benefit #2

Reduced software costs by cancelling 2 existing contracts.

Benefit #3

Eliminated the need for a 3rd party Engineer who developed and maintained MS Access DB.

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Overview

Blend and Batch: A Macro View of Developing Trade Areas

Operational Impact

Quantitative Benefit