Data has long been a part of retailers’ and brands’ businesses. But as data science continues to evolve and improve, companies can tap into data in new and better ways to ensure optimal margins at a time of squeezing market pressures.

Barbara Connors, VP of strategy and acceleration at Kroger’s data arm, 84.51°, emphasized the ways that data science can reveal important nuances of what works best to influence consumer behavior in a market defined by macro influencers like inflation, COVID and hybrid shopping. “There is an increased emphasis on a couple of things,” Connors told Progressive Grocer in a recent interview. “First, there is the democratization of insights. It’s about taking insights out of a constrained, contained team and into the business in a way that can be consumed by people with different levels of expertise in data and insights.” What this democratization of data can do, she said, is to engage more people in what insights mean and open up customer-centric innovation.

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