The primary users of our software are consumer goods manufacturers; however, there are applications for and benefits to retailers as well.
We would be happy to discuss the possibility of using our retail analytics software.
We provide our software and services to many consumer-facing industries. Our primary focus is Consumer Goods companies and chain-based retailers. Our industry-specific configurations include Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG), Food & Beverage (F&B), Home & Personal Care (HPC), and Apparel & Fashion (A&F) subsegments, whether they are in Retail or Consumer Goods.
No. We do not sell POS systems. POS systems vendors typically partner with us to gain access to our unique capabilities to cleanse, harmonize, and normalize daily data at a store or chain level. Our products automatically collect and integrate retailer POS and inventory data from individual retailers through 600+ retail data adaptors for analysis by consumer goods manufacturers.
We have an extremely selective process, as not everyone can represent our products. Our Preferred Partner Program requires not only certifications in the VELOCITY® product and services but also a proven value-add for the client.
Some of our partners provide functional process consulting, industry-specific data analytics, technology strategy, demand forecasting, trade promotion expertise, customer insights, artificial intelligence technology or machine learning.
At this time, Retail Velocity believes the data is each respective company's data. Therefore, we will never resell a retailer's data nor allow anyone but the retailer to access its data.
We understand the challenges of finding terrific talent, especially in data, analytics, or insights. Being cloud-based allows your internal IT staff(s) to focus on your overall needs while we provide the expertise for the technical and administrative needs of the VELOCITY® platform, including our Demand Signal Repository, 600+ global retail data adaptors, importing third-party data, and integration into common external systems (e.g., ERP, demand planning, trade promotion management, and business intelligence).
No. The industry needs have evolved, and on-premises configurations require a large amount of internal staff and expertise, while cloud-based solutions shift those burdens onto the partner.
Both VELOCITY® Pro and VELOCITY® Essential are cloud-based analytics platforms built on Microsoft Azure.
We have implemented more than 625 international retailer and distributor data adaptors for our clients. How many adaptors we implement for a client depends on their POS, demand, and supply data requirements and business requirements. Our adaptors cover both physical stores and e-commerce data feeds.
New retail data adaptors are usually built within a few weeks to ensure your business continues running efficiently and profitably.
Yes. We can implement multiple retail data adaptors for a retailer. Many major retailers have separate data feeds for their brick-and-mortar stores versus online stores. One very large retailer offers over 1,500 fields across eight separate North American data feeds.
Seldom does a client need all 1,500 fields, let alone the thousands of attribute permutations. But they will need from our experts the specific fields and attributes across multiple data feeds to provide successful insights for remedying their demand and supply chain business problems.
A Demand Signal Repository, also known as a DSR, is a centralized, scalable data warehouse that aggregates, cleanses, harmonizes, normalizes, and stores large volumes of demand data (including retail POS data) that can be easily shared and leveraged by multiple business groups and decision support applications to achieve optimal retail performance.
Major versions (x.0) of VELOCITY® are released every one to two years . Minor versions or "patches" are released as often as needed for the availability of data within VELOCITY®.
No. However, the accurate POS and inventory sell-through data inputs we provide serve as a foundational platform for, and entry point into, machine learning and greater AI capabilities for consumer goods manufacturers and their business intelligence needs.
VELOCITY® automatically and seamlessly collects, integrates, cleanses, harmonizes, and normalizes retail POS, inventory, forecast, order, and shipment data with your internal/ERP and external data to provide a single source of accurate information to perform deeper retail sales analytics and generate actionable insights.
No. We also collect retailer inventory, forecast, order, and shipment data. We cleanse, harmonize, and normalize this data with your internal/ERP and external data to provide a single source of accurate information to perform deeper retail sales analytics and generate actionable insights.
Yes. We collect both physical store and online/e-commerce retail sales data at the SKU and store level daily.
We collect retailer POS and inventory data from retailers and distributors through more than 625 international retail data adaptors we have implemented over the last 25+ years.
Our retail data adaptors include Walmart Retail Link®, Target Partners Online Portal, Kroger, and Amazon, and CVS.
The frequency of POS data collection depends on your requirements, but we can collect and process large volumes of demand and supply data at the SKU and store level on a daily basis, providing you the most accurate and up-to-date data in near real time.
No. We do not sell or provide retail POS data to non-clients or third parties. We work with our manufacturing and retailing clients on providing the best cleansed, harmonized, and normalized data related to their business, allowing for immediate reporting and POS data analysis.
No. We do not sell or provide retail POS data to non-clients or third parties. We work with our manufacturing and retailing clients on providing the best cleansed, harmonized, and normalized data related to their business, allowing for immediate reporting and POS data analysis.
It depends on the retailer’s market coverage. For instance, some retailers segregate their data by country, while some include a code within their files to separate.
Yes. We prefer Microsoft Azure (Gold Partner), but we also have capabilities with every major cloud platform (Google, AWS, Snowflake, IBM DB2, etc.).
Yes. We have capabilities with every major cloud platform (Google, AWS, Snowflake, IBM DB2, etc.).
VELOCITY® collects POS and inventory data at the most granular level—daily item (SKU)-level and store-level data—and stores it in its Demand Signal Repository. Although we encourage companies to load store-level and item-level data whenever possible, many retailers do not provide data at those levels; however, VELOCITY® will import whatever data they send.
VELOCITY® collects POS and inventory data at the most granular level—daily item (SKU)-level and store-level data—and stores it in its Demand Signal Repository. Although we encourage companies to load store-level and item-level data whenever possible, many retailers do not provide data at those levels; however, VELOCITY® will import whatever data they send.
Data processing can take a couple minutes for a small number of items; for store-level data with thousands of SKUs for the world’s largest retailer, processing can take an hour or more.
With timely receipt of the data and optimal processing, yesterday’s data is available at the start of the next business today. While processing POS data, VELOCITY® is still available to users for reporting on the rest of the data.
We use and prefer Microsoft Azure for many reasons, but especially because of it’s scalability and security. Properly utilizing Microsoft Azure with VELOCITY® allows today’s data to be cleansed, harmonized, and normalized for analysis the next morning.
The data can be imported as soon as it is received by VELOCITY®. VELOCITY®’s processing is not date or time dependent.
Yes. All VELOCITY® reports can be exported into Excel in several formats. Alternatively, the data can be staged into Excel and be made accessible via pivot tables and charts. Once the template is built within Excel, VELOCITY® will automatically refresh the spreadsheet as new data is loaded.
Yes. All VELOCITY® reports can be exported in PDF, TXT, RTF, XLS or HTML formats.
Many of our clients not only want to use VELOCITY® to import their data but to export the freshly cleansed, harmonized, and normalized data back into their “systems of record” or to their data warehouses.
Yes. VELOCITY® can handle a different calendar for every retailer, as well as your own corporate calendar. You can also identify the ending day of week, fiscal year type, and last fiscal month of the year. VELOCITY® will calculate the fiscal day, week, and month numbers within a year and match them to prior years to do year over year comparisons.
Yes. With VELOCITY®, you can generate reports on a specific schedule and distribute them based on specific store attributes. For instance, merchandising regions can be established, and specific out-of-stock reports can be easily distributed for each merchandising region.
Exception conditions can be built into reports so you can receive only what needs attention and then alert users. Event-driven alerts, such as the arrival of new data or a problem condition, can be distributed via email or text message.
Reports can support specific business processes such as out-of-stock alerts (both proactive and “real-time”), high/low sales trend exceptions, no sales with inventory alerts, promotional/ad effectiveness analysis, Store Specific Order recommendations, and numerous decks of sales, logistics, and marketing-based reports.
VELOCITY®’s Report Manager provides standard and ad hoc report writing capabilities. It provides an intuitive, user-friendly interface for all levels of users without sacrificing the needed sophistication demanded by power users. All reports are exportable to .xls, .pdf, .html, and .txt formats.
We also recommend making the data in VELOCITY® available through third-party reporting tools Microsoft Power BI.
Yes. Reports can be published as PDF, Word, Excel, or HTML. They can be posted to websites, e-mailed to users, or linked from the dashboards.
Yes. VELOCITY®'s Report Manager can package up report libraries that can be shared across the user community. These libraries contain report templates and reports that include hierarchies, filters, and any other setting(s) associated with the report.
Weekly or monthly data is directional at best. Performing retail sales analyses and basing business decisions on enriched point-of-sale and inventory data you can trust every day—versus weeks-old or monthly syndicated data that’s 40%-60% accurate—provides a much more accurate view of your sales performance at an item and store level.
Yes. VELOCITY®’s Dashboard Builder tools are based on familiar Excel features, and any experienced Excel user can easily create their own charts, graphs, and reports, which will then be automatically refreshed by VELOCITY® as data is updated.
We often receive enhancement requests, which you can submit to the account or project manager assigned to your account or to our technical support staff.
We offer 24/7 support services for all VELOCITY® Pro clients.
We provide electronic (PDF) versions of all manuals which are delivered with the software and then updated with each new release and product update. Online help is also provided from all programs for every screen, menu pick, and field.
Our standard training classes are administrator training (business-oriented administration) and general user training. We can also provide custom-designed training to meet your needs for both users and IT staff.
Our clients have used both onsite and remote training.
We ask that any company interested in becoming a reseller complete our Partnership Inquiry Form. Once submitted, we will review the inquiry and respond within approximately 30 business days.
Please note, only VELOCITY® Essential is available for resale.
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Interested in learning more about Retail Velocity, our solutions, or how we can help you turn data into a powerful asset? Get in touch.