iJento Development of Prototype for Innovative Retail Analytics
Lead Participant:
IJENTO LIMITED
Abstract
The retail sector is a financially and societally valuable part of the UK economy worth over
£300B p.a. Innovation is exerting a significant effect on the sector - retailers are continually
responding to many new economic, social and environmental challenges to keep their
businesses competitive in a rapidly changing landscape. Failure to respond to these challenges
quickly and effectively led recently to an unprecedented collapse of UK high-street businesses
and the insolvency of many high profile retail brands.
The pressure on retailers to adapt and innovate will continue even as the economy recovers,
driven by the growth in e-commerce, mobile commerce and omni-channel retailing and by the
changing expectations and purchasing behaviour of consumers. Retailers must increasingly
understand their customers’ purchasing behaviour and present their products and services in a
way, at a time, and through a mechanism that the consumer finds engaging and compelling.
This requires excellent and detailed insight. Traditional retail analytics systems are complex,
slow (typically offering daily summaries) and take a one-dimensional ‘sessional’ view of a
customer’s interactions. Only the largest retailers who can afford dedicated systems and staff
typically benefit from these systems.
This project will deliver a prototype of a next-generation consumer-centric retail analytics
platform operating in real-time and across multiple retail channels. The platform will identify
a consumer’s interactions across all channels and construct a longitudinal view of their
product research and purchasing history from which detailed behavioural segmentation
analyses can be run in near real-time. This will be used to drive the most appropriate content,
products and services to them. The iJento platform is designed to be accessible to a very wide
range of retail businesses from the small-medium to very large, leading to better
understanding of the customer, better communication and increasing sales
£300B p.a. Innovation is exerting a significant effect on the sector - retailers are continually
responding to many new economic, social and environmental challenges to keep their
businesses competitive in a rapidly changing landscape. Failure to respond to these challenges
quickly and effectively led recently to an unprecedented collapse of UK high-street businesses
and the insolvency of many high profile retail brands.
The pressure on retailers to adapt and innovate will continue even as the economy recovers,
driven by the growth in e-commerce, mobile commerce and omni-channel retailing and by the
changing expectations and purchasing behaviour of consumers. Retailers must increasingly
understand their customers’ purchasing behaviour and present their products and services in a
way, at a time, and through a mechanism that the consumer finds engaging and compelling.
This requires excellent and detailed insight. Traditional retail analytics systems are complex,
slow (typically offering daily summaries) and take a one-dimensional ‘sessional’ view of a
customer’s interactions. Only the largest retailers who can afford dedicated systems and staff
typically benefit from these systems.
This project will deliver a prototype of a next-generation consumer-centric retail analytics
platform operating in real-time and across multiple retail channels. The platform will identify
a consumer’s interactions across all channels and construct a longitudinal view of their
product research and purchasing history from which detailed behavioural segmentation
analyses can be run in near real-time. This will be used to drive the most appropriate content,
products and services to them. The iJento platform is designed to be accessible to a very wide
range of retail businesses from the small-medium to very large, leading to better
understanding of the customer, better communication and increasing sales
Lead Participant | Project Cost | Grant Offer |
|---|---|---|
| IJENTO LIMITED | £741,868 | £ 184,288 |
People |
ORCID iD |
| Gareth Jones (Project Manager) |