How retail analysts can turn scattered data into smart decisions

According to Deloitte’s Retail Industry Outlook 2025, the retail sector is shifting from mass to micro. It’s moving away from a broad, supply-driven approach and toward data-driven experiences. But legacy systems, siloed insights and tech debt continue to slow that progress.

At the World Retail Congress, global retail leaders echoed the same sentiment. As Silvia Rindone of Ernest & Young put it, “Uncertainty is the new certainty.” From inflation to changing consumer behavior, retail leaders agreed that success now depends on speed, adaptability and smarter data use across every channel. For retail analysts, these challenges create four costly problems:

1. Delayed insights that miss the window to act

2. Disconnected data across POS, loyalty and e-commerce systems

3. Slow testing cycles that can't keep pace with market shifts

4. Guesswork decisions that waste billions annually in markdowns

This article shows how Zappi delivers the speed and clarity to fix these problems—and protect your margins.

TL;DR

• $1.77T lost globally in 2024 from inventory distortion 

• $300 billion is lost each year in markdowns 

• Zappi delivers 60% more predictive accuracy and 243% ROI over 3 years 

With Zappi, retail analysts can finally stop guessing, reduce waste, protect margins and turn fragmented data into a strategy that scales. Let’s dive into what’s happening and how Zappi can help.

Retailers are drowning in data. It streams in from POS systems, loyalty programs, e-commerce platforms, in-store behavior, mobile apps and third-party aggregators. 

But fragmented data doesn’t create insights. Without unification, shopper or consumer profiles stay fragmented, mismatched or never linked. One shopper can appear as two different people depending on the channel. 

The result is stale, disconnected insights that make it impossible to act in real time. 

The takeaway: You can have all the data and still make blind decisions if your systems don’t talk to each other.

One misjudged promotion can cost millions and the damage adds up fast. In 2024, global retailers lost $1.77 trillion in 2024 due to inventory distortion, including overstocks, out-of-stocks and poor promotional forecasting. 

When promotions flop, the impact goes beyond lost sales:

• Media budgets vanish into campaigns that fail to convert

• Shoppers wait for deals instead of buying at full price

• Teams lose credibility when their forecasts miss the mark

The result is a ripple effect across margin and trust. One grocery chain, for example, ran a blanket price promotion. In competitive markets, discounts cut too deep; in captive markets, they gave away margin for nothing. The result? Inventory piled up, secondary markdowns followed and millions in profit evaporated.

The takeaway: Every miss not only erodes margin, but it also weakens the influence of insights teams, so it’s harder to secure budget or drive future strategy.

Retail analysts don't have weeks to wait for answers. The advantage now comes from testing quickly and learning continuously.

With Zappi, you can:

• Screen concepts fast — With Zappi’s concept testing, you get consumer-validated results in as little as 24 hours. Test new products, packaging or promotions early and move forward with confidence.    

• Run predictive pricing and bundling experiments — Model pricing and promotional scenarios before rollout, so you protect margin and avoid over- or under-discounting.

• Generate quick reports with AI — Zappi’s AI-powered reporting cuts analysis time from weeks to hours, so your team can focus on interpreting results and influencing strategy. BCG reports retailers using AI pricing strategies have grown profits by 5-10%. 

The takeaway: Faster cycles mean lower risk and more confident decisions. With fast, connected insights, insights teams can shift from firefighting to future-proofing.

Numbers tell you what is happening. People explain why. The real power lies in combining both.

• Pair scores with verbatim + sentiment — Quant ratings flag demand and open-ended feedback reveals motivations. Glassbox calls this the bridge from metrics to meaning.

• Catch trends before they scale — Qual input often alerts you to shifts in consumer priorities (e.g., sustainability, local sourcing) before they show up in large-scale surveys or sales data.

• Reveal friction visually & across channels — Heat maps and funnel drops reveal where consumers disengage. Then use cross-channel feedback (in-store, mobile, web) to compare performance and identify disconnects.

McDonald’s partnered with Zappi to integrate concept testing and bring consistency to its global testing. By applying the same set of consumer attributes, image libraries and question frameworks across tests, they were able to compare results across markets, spot patterns in what drives purchase intent and refine creative faster.

When McDonald’s saw Gen Z was leaning toward healthier snacks, they were able to refine ideas before momentum hit.

The takeaway: Quant shows the signal, while qual adds the story. Together, you understand your customers better.

Testing ideas in a few markets first provides objective evidence before committing brand-wide.

• Pilot in regional markets — Start with a handful of representative stores or trade areas. Pilot runs reveal issues in real settings before rollout. Retail experts note that without a clear pilot process, brands risk scaling flawed initiatives that waste margin and credibility.

• Regional agility matters — Preferences, competition and even regulations differ by market. Brands that adapt locally while enforcing core standards outperform those that take a one-size-fits-all approach. Analysts emphasize that retail success now depends on regional agility plus brand consistency.

• Feed learning loops into future cycles — Every pilot generates insight. Use those lessons to refine assortments, messaging, promotion mechanics and rollout timing. Without that loop, teams repeat mistakes instead of compounding wins.

The takeaway: Start small, adapt and feed every lesson forward. That’s how retail analysts build a system that compounds and leads to consumer-led growth.

See how Zappi’s Innovation System helps retail analysts deliver fast, consumer-driven insights that reduce risk and drive margin growth.