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Blend and BatchA Macro View of Developing Trade Areas

Tuesday, May 19, 2015

Jon Albertini, Manager of GeoAnalytics, Delhaize AmericaMandy Gray, GeoAnalytics Analyst, Delhaize America

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• Where and Who we are• Customer & trade area reporting: what we needed,

what we built• Next level: how we improved• Implications for our business

Outline

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Where We Are – Eastern USA Grocery Retailer with 1300+ stores from Northeast - Mid-Atlantic - South

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• Supporting Site Location Research• Enable Geospatial support for new store forecasts • Real Estate Portfolio and Capital Allocation Decisions• Geographic queries helping all areas of organization

• How this applies – What do we need?• Store-level reports showing geographic sales trends, competitive

impacts, and demographic summaries• Ability to predict new stores and remodels, an accurate baseline

• Block Group-level sales, market share, and percent of store sales• Ability to combine data sources to delineate a trade area• Neighborhoods predict behavior for us; local dynamics, not regional• Grouping stores providing trends to measure performance

Who We Are

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1. T-Log data from front end point-of-sale

2. Import manually and reconfigure .dbf for geocoding in MapInfo

3. Accumulate store-level queries and data calculations using MS Access

4. Create maps in MapInfo

5. Adobe Report

Early Trade Area Development

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• Early Benefits• Remove multiple programs and incorporate one platform (cancelled

2 existing contracts)• POS data processing: 20 minutes per store to 10 seconds per

chain• Reduced software costs• Eliminated 3rd party Engineer who developed and maintained MS

Access DB

Evolution to Alteryx

• Early Days of Alteryx• Early experience level caused slower development and more

workflows• Interface tools now with improved functionality• Store-level mentality moved to chain-level

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• How could we improve?• Ability to run for all 1,300 stores• Reduce manual steps & analyst wait-time

• What would it take?• Batching!

Taking it to the next level

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Updated Alteryx process (clicks required)

Geocode customer data

Create trade areas

Generate reports

1 store at a time 1 store at a time

2 clicks per store 4 clicks per store

All stores at once

1,300 stores x

6 clicks / store

= 7,800 clicks

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Updated Alteryx process (clicks required)

Geocode customer data

Create trade areas

Generate reports

1 store at a time 1 store at a time

2 clicks per store 4 clicks per store

All stores at once

Geocode customer data

Create trade areas

Generate reports

2 clicks per banner 3 clicks per banner

All stores at once

1 bannerx

5 clicks / banner

= 5 clicksAll stores at once As many stores as

needed

1,300 stores x

6 clicks / store

= 7,800 clicks

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Updated Alteryx process (time required)

Geocode customer data

Create trade areas

Generate reports

1 store at a time 1 store at a time

5 minutes per store, 2 manual data entry

points

5 minutes per store, 4 manual data entry

points

All stores at once

1,300 stores x 10 mins / store

= over 5 weeks of labor

(and lots of analyst down-time)

Geocode customer data

Create trade areas

Generate reports

30 minutes, 2 manual data entry points

4 minutes per store, 3 manual data entry

points

All stores at once

(1,300 stores x 4 mins / store ) + 30 minutes

= under 2 weeks of labor

All stores at once As many stores as needed

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3 tools were the keys to improvement

Directory• Allows collection of

individual store files in one click (e.g., “search for all .yxdb files called *Trade Area.yxdb”)

Dynamic Input• Allows import of

many files at once (e.g., “import all 1,300 trade area files”)

Control Parameter• Allows running

workflow for a select group of stores (from 1 to 1,300)

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The original workflow…

A large workflow took multiple inputs and output a report for a single store

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A workflow was built around a batch macro…

As many stores as needed can be entered into the workflow for generating reports

Directory tools search for the necessary input files, no need for manual updating

The batch macro contains all tools related to generating a report

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Inside the macro….

The control parameter runs the

workflow from beginning to end for

each store number provided

The Dynamic Input tools import files from the directory tools corresponding to the store number coming through the control parameter

The macro input brings in file paths to data from the directory

tools

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Implications for our business

• Time savings• Manual entry requirements & analyst wait-time reduced

• Data availability & Analytical Accuracy • Trade areas and consumer reports available for entire banner• Reports can be generated quarterly, rather than once every few

years• Sharing with retail associates now possible

…all leading to taking fuller advantage of consumer data insights

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“Its incredible what people can do when they’re empowered with data.”

--Food Lion Central Division Regional Director

THANK YOU!

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