How Superdry offers a smarter fit with Looker

Computing talks to Superdry’s business intelligence manager Brad Woodward about its BI-led fight-back against online rivals and budget stores

Few sectors are as under siege as retail.

Customers are disloyal and demand low-friction shopping online, on their phones, and in store. Mobile and ecommerce platforms are affecting the high street by offering a world of choice, personalisation, next-day delivery, and easy returns - yet customers are still frustrated when omni-channel experiences fail to join up.

Supply chains are under pressure to be smart, responsive, efficient, green, and sustainable, while digital natives offer seamless links between retail, fulfillment, distribution, delivery, and customer loyalty.

Even buying habits are changing.

Seasonal spikes dictate trends, as do the burgeoning numbers of consumer tribes. The poorly differentiated middle market is being pulled apart by the polar forces of budget stores and high-end outlets - it's speed/cost versus depth/added value - while consumers demand that brands source their goods ethically and responsibly.

Part of the challenge for a technical person in a fashion business is that a lot of the creative and fashion people aren't necessarily thinking in a data-driven way

So the risk is high that traditional retailers can become 'Zs' when pitted against the 'As' of Amazon and Aldi. After years of believing that they know their customers, some may find they have precious little data to support that belief. So who would be in retail today?

Superdry, for one: the fast-fashion outlet with the memorable name and knack for designing snappy shirts, jackets, and jeans. Brad Woodward is the business intelligence (BI) manager at the centre of the brand's moves to be better informed.

He says: "One of our ways of overcoming all these challenges is through the effective and intelligent use of data. Understanding how our customer is interacting with our brand and making sure that the way we communicate with them is relevant, and that the kind of services and products we're offering them are tailored to their needs.

"Part of the challenge for a technical person in a fashion business is that a lot of the creative and fashion people aren't necessarily thinking in a data-driven way. It's a continual adjustment to get them thinking and acting more on data than on their own perceptions."

Superdry sits across both the manufacturing and selling side of retail, which are being transformed by an industry-wide need for shorter, faster, more responsive product runs and fewer unsold items on the racks.

We have started to move more into the data science, which for us has a focus on understanding our consumer, how they interact with our offerings, and how we can tailor what we do

"We need to be more flexible and responsive to customer demands," admits Woodward. "I think data has a massive part to play in smaller cycles, because we need to be looking at, OK, we've done eight or nine of these smaller drops, so which was successful and which wasn't?

"What can we learn about what was received well by the consumer? What do we need to do differently? How can we iterate over those small collections, use the data and the reporting to learn, then put that back into design to be more successful next time?"

Superdry is using BI and big data analytics tool Looker to help guide its decisions across multiple parts of the business. Woodward explains, "Looker is a tool that has allowed us to put data into the hands of our business users, and give them access to the information that they need to do their jobs successfully.

"It's great for the person in merchandising who is focusing on, Do we have enough stock and the right stock in stores? What stores do I need to worry about? That information is at their fingertips and they can interrogate it daily to understand what the world looks like from their focus and the actions they need to take.

"In the last six to 12 months, we have started to move more into the data science, which for us has a focus on understanding our consumer, how they interact with our offerings, and how we can tailor what we do from a personalisation viewpoint."

Superdry offers a diverse product range - online there might be up to 8,000 different products, he says, which can almost be a barrier to purchasing. "It's about using data to get the things in front of people that they're going to like."

Yet the introduction of the data warehouse and the BI reporting tool through Looker was also driven by a need for greater operational efficiency, he says: "Again it was putting the data in the hands of the business users to to enable them to be more effective.

We need to use data to inform where we are as a business and where we want to go, but ultimately we are a fashion business and very fashion led

"Where before it may have been a mishmash of spreadsheets and competing information that wasn't traceable, putting in a single source of reporting truth gives everybody access to the same numbers. It makes people more efficient at their jobs, because they don't have to go hunting for those numbers."

But retail is a journey, not a destination, and Woodward acknowledges that Superdry is still learning the right steps to take towards a single view of the customer. "We are some of the way there. For example, we have electronic receipts, which enable us to capture an email address from a customer in store, then offer them the opportunity to opt into marketing, and we can tie transactional information together."

But is there a risk with all this technology that a fashion brand could almost listen too much to its customers, rather than tell them what they ought to be wearing?

"That's an interesting point and it's valid. It's about finding a balance; using the data that we collect can tell us a lot about our business. But being data driven doesn't necessarily mean that data drives everything at the expense of a human opinion or human feel.

"We need to use data to inform where we are as a business and where we want to go, but ultimately we are a fashion business and very fashion led, and there will always be those competing influences. Data analytics and business intelligence have a place alongside that creative vision."

This same principle applies within the organisation, in terms of the culture change needed to deploy BI tools effectively. "Communication and engagement with staff is a key driver for success," says Woodward.

"You can get all the tech set up and your data integrated, but if you don't engage with people and the problems they're trying to solve - and what they know about the business themselves - you won't succeed."