Power BI for customer behaviour analytics, promoting sales and efficient team communication

In the short term and in the long term, sales are affected by customer buying habits and culture. For example, if a certain category of products is not popular at a given moment, the team plans a campaign for promoting sales, highlighting the product or the product group. Thanks to Power BI, it is easy to identify the company shops and the regions in which specific products have been sold the most over a certain time - allowing to understand and predict financial flows. This comprehensive information allows implementing activities for promoting sales - and afterwards, determining whether the activities have been effective.

The MySport commercial model is largely based on the current weather conditions, just as any marketing activity is based on precise data. Now Power BI is like a mirror that shows both the weather conditions and the customer purchasing habits, thereby allowing the company to make decisions about ordering products and implementing campaigns, as well as determining which employees are best suited for which position. It is this approach to information that the company plans to maintain soon - thanks to Power BI. The company will greatly benefit from this information, as it will positively affect the quality of service and thereby increase the sales volumes.

Power BI provides reports that immediately show all the information needed for sales, allowing the management to quickly react and fill the shelves with the products that are currently most in demand. Power BI speeds up new orders - both for current sales and for the next season. In short, the systems reduce the time spent on making orders. To quote the company’s accountant - Power BI works instead of you, since the data is obtained automatically, and it is not necessary to create report tables. Each employee can view the virtual reports at a convenient time and using any device. Before Power BI, the accountant updated the data every day - now it happens automatically, saving at least an hour a day.

Power BI provides the necessary information for precise warehouse planning. The software helps making timely orders for products suited for the season and the weather conditions and allows objectively understanding which specific products have increased sales volumes and in which combinations. This extensive information on each sold product allows the company to select the most suitable product offers and quantities. This process could be compared to a dialogue with the customer - Power BI allows the company to listen and react to customer needs more quickly and efficiently.

Prior to introducing Power BI, the accountant had to prepare reports every day. It sometimes occurred that some of the employees created their own reports or interpreted the data as best they could, therefore the employees often had conflicting opinions. Now everyone in the company sees the same information and interprets it the same way. Thanks to the Power BI capacities, the system allows processing large data volumes, compiling comprehensive information about every customer and every sold product.

It often happens that company accounting sees information using only its own resources and the other employees and the management are not even aware of the current situation, or they may assess it differently. Power BI provides all the company employees the information that they need, in the same way. The MySport accountant stresses the fact that the company employees are themselves interested in seeing this information because it helps to understand the results of their work. This positively affects both work motivation and loyalty towards the employer, which in turn will later give positive results in the form of improved productivity.

At a time when the market is oversaturated with leisure and sports goods, it is important for the company to attract customers and to be able to react to the customer’s needs at the exact moment that the customer makes their decision. For example, to ensure that there is a wide choice of bicycles and running shoes during the summer and high-quality winter clothing and skis during the winter. Power BI analyses the market, understanding the customer desires, possibilities, brand trust, and understanding what circumstances affect all of these factors. When the big picture has been understood, it becomes possible to plan or change the product assortment more efficiently - both for the changing seasons and for promotion campaigns.

ELVA implemented the Power BI system after listening to the company’s ideas, and the implementation process only took 2 weeks. The entire implementation and training process took place remotely, on the Teams platform. The Teams platform (or alternatively e-mail) also allows easy day-to-day communication regarding the introduction of new types of reports or any specific issues. The cooperation is characterized by speed and flexibility - which is suited to the dynamic daily work of the MySport team. As for training in the Power BI environment, the company accountant admits that it did not turn out to be as challenging as it initially seemed, since the system is intuitive and easy to understand. As the accountant confidently states: “If you have even the slightest experience with Excel, you shouldn’t have any problems here.”

Power BI can rationally explain sales spikes and falls, allowing an objective view of these business processes. The company benefits because now the accountant, the management and all the employees speak in the same language - based on data. The MySport accountant compares it to a bird’s-eye view and a bridge that shows information to both sides in a comprehensible way.

The Power BI software has an intuitive interface that allows quickly reaching the desired result and immediately finding answers to urgent questions. The MySport accountant says that anyone who can understand diagrams and has worked with them will certainly be able to read the information in the Power BI virtual reports and understand the business KPIs.