KPMG UK has unveiled its new digital product, Dash, to boost the analytical capability of businesses in the retail sector.
Dash combines business data with AI and three billion external data points to create an interactive dashboard of insights to help businesses make better commercial decisions and generate predictions and recommendations. This provides strategic insights across their store portfolio, allowing retailers to analyze their customers, catchments, forecasting and competition.
KPMG has leveraged automation to ensure that Dash is accessible to businesses big and small as it can get to work with minimal lead times, no development or implementation and no upfront fees.
Dash will be initially launched to the retail sector, where data insights are critical to understanding customer behavior.
Jonathan Attia, head of products at KMPG UK, said: “In the retail sector the current extent of challenge and uncertainty means businesses are without a playbook. They need to understand the drivers of their business performance and have the right information to make critical decisions, like where to open new or consolidate an existing store portfolio, or which products are predicted to sell well. Dash gives retailers access to predictive analytics and powerful insights that help them better understand their business and gain a competitive edge by turning internal and external data into commercial insights, without requiring significant investment of money or time.”
Paul Martin, UK head of retail at KPMG, said: “Retailers have been faced with rising prices and economic headwinds, so they are looking at how to address these challenges through cost optimization and operational efficiency. Understanding areas of improvement is important for retailers and to make a proper assessment, data is crucial.
“In addition, understanding their customers is mission critical for retailers, and it’s a job that keeps getting harder. The cost of living crisis is driving different shopping behaviors. Data insights should be an intelligence source that is tapped into to products to stock in each location and on the effectiveness of promotions.
“Let’s not forget, these challenges overlay longer term customer behavior unpredictability. Retailers are still working out what the new normal is on the High Street and online in terms of shopping post the pandemic. This is an issue with huge long term investment implications and data must have a role in strategy development.”