The new year has finally arrived and for retailers a lot is in store (pun intended). With the start of a new year comes the time for resolutions to be made. For retailers, they finalize their goals for the upcoming year to ensure more efficiency, a higher profit, better consumer experiences, and more.

Here are some New Years resolution ideas for retailers to make for a successful 2017.

Update and Automate Technology

It’s 2017 and everyone is moving towards tech…and so should retailers! It’s important for retailers to automate their business, fully leveraging the newest and greatest technology. Here’s why:

• Technology is constantly evolving, becoming faster and more efficient with less errors. This frees up time for retailers while simultaneously helping guarantee a more accurate result. This time can then be used to focus on other projects.
• Adding technology to automate portions of the business that previously were done manually thus is not only a step towards the future but it sets the company up for future success as more and more processes turn into technically-dependent ones.

Enhance Visibility

In order to make improvements in the 2017 retail year, it’s important to gain visibility in different aspects of the industry and business.

• In particular, it is important to better understand inventory — that is, inventory levels, re-orders, shipments, returns, buying patterns, etc. Inventory is cash tied up in material goods, and thus having a surplus of inventory can inhibit a retailer’s cash flow and impede business growth. Thus, better management and organization of this inventory to help keep inventory levels under control will help 2017 be profitable.

Become more data-driven

Retailers are presented with the opportunity to make future improvements on their business by referring to their historical and real-time data. Here are some examples of how data can be analyzed and utilized:

• View the previous years’ success and compare back to marketing strategies to create a successful new year’s plan.
• View and compare successes and failures between the different omnichannel outlets to determine the best business moves for the new year.
• Analyze customers’ engagement with the company to determine how to improve their experience and satisfaction.
• View shopping patterns and behaviors to better plan production and re-ordering strategies.

By implementing even some of these New Years “resolutions”, retailers are in for a successful year. Bring it on 2017!