Every enterprise can benefit from business insights, from tracking progress and changes in customer preferences to market trends to identifying strengths and weaknesses.
While produce businesses can benefit greatly from data insights, increased access to data can come with its own caveats. This ultimately depends on whether they can transform and utilize gathered data into actionable targets. If they can’t leverage the information from their data metrics effectively, they risk losing their market share and customers to their competitors.
One of the key elements in getting business insights right is the use of produce software solutions like Silo. This kind of software offers competitive advantages to its users over their competitors, but it’s good to remember that increased data collection may not be beneficial if it only focuses on vanity metrics.
Business insights for produce businesses that want to scale up
1. Produce safety
Produce safety remains a significant concern in the market. However, with added traceability in the supply chain, produce businesses can feel more confident in data accuracy in safeguarding the operations.
Produce ERP systems that facilitate safety insights through integrations and automation, especially those that use QR codes to capture a large amount of data, are particularly helpful in deriving useful insights. With the use of data management software, the result is increased efficiency across the board. Produce traceability can be a vital area in which data can be leveraged to improve produce safety. Data collected from a mock recall, for instance, can be pivotal in strengthening a business’ approach to produce traceability.
2. Profitability
The produce sector has short ordering cycles, and when dealing with fresh produce, efficiency must be maximized, given the high risk of revenue loss. With the right produce management software, produce businesses can identify inefficiencies, whether it’s staffing, equipment, or material issues, allowing them to maximize profitability through the insights provided.
Depending on the type of produce, entities can reduce produce wastage by devising efficient picking methods and strict delivery timeframes. The First Expiry First Out (FEFO) picking method is a great example of how to avoid produce wastage.
3. Inventory management
It isn’t enough to just have a produce inventory management system – you also need to determine the efficiency and accuracy of the data gathering process that’s in place. Working with inaccuracies will only lead to more issues, from price mismatch and product availability to false profit margins.
As a result, instead of relying blindly on your produce management software, ensure you derive insights on its accuracy. For instance, carry out random physical checks of the stock and compare it with the inventory in the system. Doing so can quickly identify any discrepancies and avoid such situations in the future.
4. Market trends
The produce market is rather unpredictable, and certain changes in weather conditions and consumer preferences can drastically affect the performance of a business in a given cycle.
However, with market trend insights, produce companies can predict the demand of produce and stock more or less of the produce. This makes observing and analyzing market trends an extremely cost-saving strategy, especially given the high cost of produce during the off-season periods.
5. Strength and weaknesses
Regardless of your produce business model, there is always some room for improvement. Identifying weak areas can help businesses devise strategies that can remedy them. Similarly, once businesses know their areas of strength, they can use them as a competitive advantage and leverage them to improve their performance.
6. Competitors
Competitors can help produce business owners stay on their toes and work towards improving certain aspects of their operations. For instance, you may be paying double to vendors for your produce. However, with a few competitor insights, you can work towards reducing the cost of your production by sourcing produce from more affordable vendors.
This, however, doesn’t give you the leeway to push for unhealthy competition. Rather, it should be considered a vital learning strategy for businesses to glean insights from how their competitors operate, especially those just entering the market.
7. Target audience
Knowing your target consumer and their needs can save a produce business a great deal of time and hassle. If your target customers are members of specific demographics, you can use analytics to successfully identify trends and strategies that are likely to attract them. This is an excellent method for enterprises that want to cut back on advertising and marketing costs.
Data analytics are essential for any business. While many produce companies record valuable data in large quantities, some cannot effectively analyze and process the data. Making sure you’re using the right software to derive insights is a huge part of using your data meaningfully.
Here are ways in which produce businesses use data analytics for better insights
● Get the right data collection method right – Data collection is more complex than many would think. You may have lots of data in your produce management system, but it has to have been collected and stored ethically, and also needs to be relevant to your target markets. As such, produce businesses must figure out how to intently collect data that will help them scale their enterprises.
Some viable data collection tips for producing business are social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram. Also, the storage of transactional data is helpful in marketing and sales, more so to get repeat sales and build relationships with customers. And since every business has varying data collection practices within their operation areas, ensure you adhere to data regulations in your region.
● Data evaluation – Once data is collected, businesses need to evaluate its accuracy. If the data is compiled in an inefficient way, it may not be of any use or could lead to misleading conclusions. As such, verifying your data before it is used for any insights is vital.
● Let data work for you – Data collection is just one aspect of leveraging available information – you’ll have to analyze it frequently and regularly for the best results.
From improving purchases and sales, warehouse management to finances, there are many benefits that a business can get from effective and regular data analysis. Consulting a professional to analyze the data and offer insights can also be a great way to get an alternative perspective.
● Turn insights into actions – Data analysis provides you with actionable information, but it doesn’t stop there. Once you get insights on how to improve your produce business, it’s only as good as the steps you take towards using it towards improvements. Start implementing reforms to your process early, and tweak it gradually over a period of time to see what works and what doesn’t.