Lately, some professionals who operate in the electro-electronics/IT and Telecom market have asked me to better exemplify our operational proposal regarding “Retail Intelligence”. Like in all kinds of services, making tangible its working proposal would not be something easy, but let’s try: Any operation that focuses on the offer of products and services for the retail market through indirect channels (network of distributors and resellers) needs the realization of an in-depth study of its viability analysis. For such a study to be achieved, and for the working out of a Structured Program for the formation and operation of a Network of Authorized Resellers, it is necessary to know the market proposed for the operation, who are the players in this market, as well as business models for the operation, analysis of competition, etc.
The support for the development of the whole viability analysis, a strategic operational planning leading to tactics, the contact with the main players for the formation of the network, and the support for the operation’s management, round up the portfolio of services provided by Direct Channel and are what we call “Retail Intelligence”. We could also define “Retail Intelligence” as the application of retail expertise specialized in the electro-electronics/IT and Telecom market, with the aim of catalyzing the processes of implementation and operation with a network of resellers and distributors, with the main purpose of optimizing resources and maximizing results, that is, to develop an operation with a short period of time for the achievement of results with the smallest investment possible.
How could we make this proposal tangible? This is a challenge to all companies that provide solutions based on services, but we have a number of tools that help us in this process of products development, and make our proposal quite visible. Since we provide “knowledge”, our main “raw material” is information. For this purpose we have the largest data base specialized in retail in Brazil, with over 2000 POS that operate in the retail market (conventional and on-line) for the segment of electro-electronics/IT and Telecom, duly mapped out and qualified. This data base makes it possible, for example, to realize a large number of viability studies and coverage analysis, which include not only the most important economic centers in Brazil, but also the mapping out of POS in faraway regions like the Northern states. These POS’ are qualified with the identification of the operational area, mix segmentation, ways of servicing, etc, which enables the development of a study for the identification of targets for an operation with the aim of establishing a chain of resellers with a national coverage, or even the expansion of an already existing chain to regions with a low coverage.