Abstract

Retail business models have evolved over the years to create a value chain that combines multiple channels to interact with customers and suppliers. At the same time, technological advances have enabled the collection of various forms of data which can be used to support managerial decisions. This chapter provides a constructive framework to understand the practice of retail analytics—the data-driven approach to support decisions based on models and quantitative methods—through the dynamic evolution of various channels of what is now referred to as omnichannel retail. This framework is supported with several research examples that illustrate the differences in terms of data, decisions, and methods used in various retail channels, and also show more recent examples of convergence and integration across channels.