According to the 2013 Retail Industry Outlook Survey by consultant KPMG, 50% said that operational excellence represented the best use of data and analytics in driving actionable insights while 36% said acquiring customers represented the best use of the metrics.

In addition, 72% of executives said they used customer insight data and analytics to help support strategic decision making with 67% using brand and product management data.

However, despite acknowledging the opportunities available through leveraging data and analytics, only 12% of retailers thought there was a high level of analytics literacy within their organisation and while 33% said they were rapidly moving toward high analytical literacy, 43% said their company was average when it came to utilising analytics.

Writing in the report, KPMG partner and global retail leader Mark Larson said: “Investing in technology to harness the vast amounts of structured data that reside in a company, as well as the unstructured data online and in social media, is proving to be integral to achieving success in the new retail environment. “