Reports and analytics give us the pulse of any business. In the case of Retail, it is even more important due to the permanent nature of promotions and offers to attract customers. Once we have the right data, a Retailer can make well-informed decisions to make the right offers, design the right promotions, and stock-up the right products to match promotions. Finally, the bottom line in terms of dollars is the real retail business health check.

Retailers use various reports to engage in discussions with operating teams and chalk out plans for improvement. Reports not only help to analyze business performance but also improve the team’s performance. In Retail, one must review Daily Trading Performance, Weekly Trading Performance and Monthly Trading Performance. These three reports, if structured well, can give the essential performance details, and point towards improvement actions.

Trading performance reports are generally clustered with several columns and numbers. Whatever way a report is designed, following top 5 must reflect in clear terms to any conventional or modern reader

1. How many winning categories

2. How many losing categories

3. Gross Margin

4. How many winning stores

5. How many losing stores