CB4 is a tool for retail store teams, but it requires the buy-in of their counterparts in IT. In our experience working with retailers, we’ve found that operations leaders are reluctant to go to IT with a big ask, knowing that the team is drowning in work and delivery is slow. In order for ops to have confidence approaching IT for help with software implementation, they need to be sure that rolling out the tool they’re proposing won’t turn into a resource-sucking boondoggle.
IT teams, on the other hand, are reluctant to take on additional initiatives without knowing with certainty that store teams will use the tools they’re given and that software implementation will have clear impact on the bottom line.
CB4 ticks all the boxes. Read on to learn how.
Easy Software Implementation
“It was one of the simplest implementations that our team has been involved with.”—Wade Judd, CIO of Associated Foods
CB4’s patented machine learning algorithms are super sophisticated, but our tool is incredibly simple to onboard and use. The software implementation process begins with a Proof of Concept. During this stage, IT teams upload their chain’s aggregated, pre-existing POS data to CB4. It’s as easy as that. Within a few days, we’ll be able to help you understand how much revenue CB4 can add to your company’s bottom line, one recommendation at a time.
After that, onboarding is quick and simple. There’s no in-store hardware or cumbersome equipment, and the tool is incredibly simple to use. Even new employees can get up and running quickly. Our Customer Success team is your partner every step of the way, visiting stores and corporate to get you started. You’ll have a dedicated team member who manages your account, and it’s us (not your IT team) who ultimately do the legwork in ensuring software implementation is seamless and the program is successful.
Store Manager Buy-In
“CB4 provides visibility into the exact impact it has on our stores. And the impact has been tremendous.” —Itzik Uzana, CEO Ace Hardware
Getting retail teams to embrace the software they’re given is a challenge. And who can blame them? They weren’t in the room when the decision to purchase the software was made. In many cases, they already have existing tools they’ve lost faith in and aren’t using to the full extent the provider promised. Or, there are tools they wish they had, but haven’t been given.
BI tools especially inspire skepticism amongst store teams. While they work well for the executive tier, the alerts they generate at store-level fall short. That’s because they rely on traditional benchmarking to track store performance. In other words, they use time-based reports (i.e. this year vs. last year), group “like” stores (i.e. top doors or warm doors), or chainwide top sellers to detect when an item in underselling at a store in your chain.
This method is limited as it fails to account for the full spectrum of factors that influence how a product performs in a store. A gym opening next to a retail store can affect that store’s selling patterns, and (rightly) make that store’s selling patterns look completely different from other stores in the chain. An elementary school across the street will affect a given store’s selling patterns. Any store manager will tell you that all the chainwide top sellers aren’t applicable to her customers because they’re unique. So she chafes at the BI tool that tells her button-down gingham shirts are underselling when she knows nothing she does can make them move, least of all display them on her most trafficked fixture.
CB4’s patented algorithm accounts for all the local eccentricities that influence demand patterns in each of your stores. Our tool has a hit rate—i.e. the percentage of recommendations that successfully uncover real issues—of up to 7x greater than the most widely used BI tools in retail. That’s why store managers trust and follow through on CB4’s recommendations. In fact, we boast a 95% compliance rate on average, meaning that when we send 100 recommendations, store teams will follow through with and provide feedback on 95 of them.
CB4 is successful at store-level because the recommendations are spot-on and easy to complete. CB4 is not an obstacle that stores want to simply check off their list. It provides simple directions and asks little in return. Most stores complete CB4 recommendations in under an hour each week. It’s a total win/win for IT.
Clear ROI Attribution
“We’re seeing positive results everywhere in gross margin dollars. So, we couldn’t be happier…” —Doug MacDonald, Director of Operations at Wilson Fuel
Most software solutions struggle to provide clear evidence of revenue lift and attribution is murky. Every single task CB4 sends is associated with a quantitative lift to ROI. When store managers receive a recommendation to fix in issue with a product, they can see exactly how much money our tool predicts will be restored to their store’s bottom line with the fix.
Once an issue is resolved, CB4 tracks sales of the affected SKU for the two-week periods before and after the fix. We also track the store’s overall sales trends, as well as the way the chain as a whole sells the product within the periods in question. We subtract any changes that can’t be attributed specifically to the change the store manager made at store-level. We share our findings in our regional manager and executive dashboards so that there’s no ambiguity when it comes to the monetary value of the program.
CB4’s ROI transparency makes it an expense that’s easy to justify. Based on your POS data, we can estimate just how much implementing the tool will increase your revenue—no mystery, no magic.
CB4 Helps Bridge the Gap Between IT and Operations
CB4 is crazy easy to implement and support. The tasks CB4 generates have a direct link to revenue, so ROI is clear-cut. Unlike other tools, store managers like CB4. In fact, in a recent in-app survey, 80% of users said they love CB4. And any in-store execution tool is only as powerful as its users.
Our ask on IT teams is incredibly light, both during software implementation and in the long run, given CB4’s impact in your organization. Ready to see how you can put CB4 to work for your retail chain? Let’s talk.
