Importance of Informatics and Financial Applications in Retail Industry

The report provides an overview of the informatics and the specific applications that would aid in the process of financial reporting, analysis and in the process of effective decision making. The industry that has been selected in this case is the retail industry. The first part discusses about the social media. Social media is an important platform that business organization uses for different purposes. In retail industry, the main problem include selection of the target market. Hence, the organization needs to develop effective strategy for establishing the connection with the customers and creating loyalty in the market. Social media also encourages two way communication which is essential for the business. The next part discusses about the importance of the data in the business. This section provides an overview of the importance of the data in the market.

INFORMATICS AND FINANCIAL APPLICATIONSASSIGNMENT 1
INFORMATICS AND FINANCIAL APPLICATIONS
ASSIGNMENT 1
NAME
STUDENT NUMBER
A PICTURE ILLUSTRATING YOUR REPORTS
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Executive Summary
The present report provided an overview of the importance of the informatics in the
business. The industry that has been selected in this case is the retail industry. The first
part discusses about the social media. Social media is an important platform that business
organization uses for different purposes. In retail industry, the main problem include
selection of the target market. Hence, the organization needs to develop effective strategy
for establishing the connection with the customers and creating loyalty in the market.
Social media also encourages two way communication which is essential for the
business. The next part discusses about the importance of the data in the business. This
section provides an overview of the importance of the data in the market.
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Table of Contents
Executive Summary............................................................................................................2
Introduction.........................................................................................................................4
Social Media and Business.................................................................................................4
Data and Business...............................................................................................................5
References...........................................................................................................................8
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Table of Figure
Figure 1: Importance of Social Media................................................................................6
Chart 1: Favourite Brands of Shampoo...............................................................................8
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Introduction
The report provides an overview of the informatics and the specific applications that
would aid in the process of financial reporting, analysis and in the process of effective
decision making. The industry that has been selected in this case is the retail industry.
Pomerantz (2017) commented that informatics include the practice of the information
processing and the engineering of information system. The present report would evaluate
the different aspects of the information processing with special references to retail
industry. In the first part, the report would discuss about the usage and the impact of the
social media in the modern business. The second section of the report would shed light
on the data that it would bring on the industry. The report would analyse the role of the
social media and the data on the business.
Social Media and Business
Saravanakumar and Sugantha Lakshmi (2012) defined social media as the computer-
mediated technologies that allows the development and the sharing of the information,
ideas and career interests through the different communities and the networks. Social
media offers a platform of social networking that enable the people to develop social
network with different people and possess same personal ideas. The 21st century has seen
a rapid growth in social networking. Initially, it was meant for people to communicate
easily through chat or share personal moments. However, the modern day social
networking is not limited to only between general users, but has taken the form of a
platform for business like as Facebook Market place.
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Figure 1: Importance of Social Media
(Source: Saravanakumar and SuganthaLakshmi, 2012)
The different usage of the social media in the modern business is listed below:
1. Increasing brand awareness and loyalty: Social media helps to increase the reach
of the business and share the valuable information. This would help to create brand
awareness and enhance the loyalty of the customers due to the increased transparency
(De Vries et al. 2012). For example, a brand if provides its followers with latest
information on its product and services, consumers get updated on products and services
all the time. It helps in creating brand awareness.
2. Connecting with the target audience: Social media acts as two-way communication
channel between the business organization and the customers. Through social media like
Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube the customers can better connect with the
customers that helps the business to better understand the needs and the wants of the
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customers (Kim and Ko, 2012). In this way, a brand is able to reach customers which are
not possible through the offline medium.
3. Improving Retention of Client: Social media improves the communication with the
clients and extend those chances to better connect and manage the relationship with the
clients. The communication and the convenience of the social media helps to create
strong relationship with the clients and obtain feedback to improve the relationship.
4. Keeping a track of the competitors: Social media helps to obtain information about
the activity of the competitors that helps the business to develop plans accordingly so
that the objectives of the business can be fulfilled (Kim and Ko, 2012). The knowledge
of the competitors can be used for improving the business.
The main issues that are encountered by the retail organizations are:
1. Selecting the target market for the business
2. Identification of the strategies of competitors for applying them in the business.
3. Creation of the brand name and increasing the loyalty of the customers.
The different supermarkets like Woolworth, Coles, Woolworths, Primark and others have
created an online presence to better connect with the customers. All the supermarket has
established an online presence through the social media that help them to acquire information
from the customers about their needs, wants and also a review of the products that help in
selecting the products that would be kept in the market or creation of the strategies. The
above figure also makes it evident about the fact that social media help in publishing and
developing the e-commerce. For instance, Woolworths has created a social media presence
because it needs to create brand awareness. The presence of Woolworth has been created not
only in Australia but also in different parts of the world. Social media has created the
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transparency of the brand and has helped to attract a lot of customers and thereby increase the
sales of the company. Social media is indeed, an important platform that helps to enhance the
business activities of the organisation.
Data and Business
Big data has brought huge changes in the business environment. With the increase
accessibility of the data collection, analysis and the interpretation, it will create far
reaching impact on the business in different possible ways. In the recent days, big data
and its implication affects very business in different ways. Different types of data about
the business help to carry out different types of decisions and strategies for the business
organization (Turban et al. 2013). Data plays an important role in the process of the
identification of the customer behaviour, discovering the shopping patterns and at the
same time improving the quality of the customer service and create customer retention.
Witten et al. (2016) commented that data mining is essential in the retail industry that
helps to increase the goods consumption ratio, design more effective goods and create
distribution channels and reduce the cost of the production.
Ramageri and Desai (2013) commented that the retail organizations are encountering
competitive environment that increases the globalization. The retailers need to collect
large amount of customer data and transaction details. In this case, an example can be
used to evaluate the importance of data in the business organization. For instance,
suppose an analysis is done on the brands that the customers spend money on, then he
data collected can be used by retail to stock more products.
Q. Which brand you prefer the most in case of purchasing shampoo?
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o Dove
o L’Oreal
o Matrix
o Pantene
o Head & Shoulder
o Tresemme
Bra
nd
Freq
uenc
y
Perc
enta
ge
T
o
t
a
l
Dov
e 11 26.3 4
1
L’O
real 6 14.3 4
1
Mat
rix 8 19.1 4
1
Pant
ene 4 9.6 4
1
Hea
d &
Sho
ulde
r
7 17.7 4
1
Tres
em
me
5 12.2 4
1
Table 1: Favourite Brands of Shampoo
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Dove L’Oreal Matrix Pantene Head &
Shoulder
Tresemme
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
26.3
14.3
19.1
9.6
17.7
12.2
Percentage
Chart 1: Favourite Brands of Shampoo
In the above graph, it is evident that majority of the customers likes Dove (26.3%) and
then Matrix (19.5%). This would help to create an understanding about the brands that
are mostly used by the people and this would help the retail organizations to stock the
products. In this way the data are essential part of the business that helps to make
important decisions about the business.
Data covers different activities for constructing the final data set from the initial raw
data. While carrying out the data mining, the different modelling techniques are selected
and applied and the parameters that aid in the optimal values. At this stage, model is
thoroughly evaluated and reviewed. Hence data and business are related with each other.
For understanding the importance of the data in the business, an example has been made
that about the shampoo brands that are mostly preferred by the customers in Australia.
Exploring the internet, rough data have been collected as an example that would help in
the process of understanding the usage of the data. First, the options have been selected,
and for this, the mostly used shampoo brands are selected. Then the frequency is used for
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each of the products. However, for each of the products, the frequency is converted into a
percentage. The frequencies are converted into percentage because it would help in better
presentation and the understanding of the data. After this, the data is converted into
graphs which illustrate the products which are most preferred by the customers in
Australia. Pie chart has been selected for this reason. The different shampoos are selected
which are represented with different colours and then a key has been used to identify the
colours for each of the products. The x-axis is marked with the names of the shampoo
brands, and the Y-axis is marked with the percentage of the responses. The above graph
makes it evident that the importance of the data in the business.
Conclusion
The present report provided an overview of the importance and the impact of the social
media on the business. The report also analysed the importance of the data on the
business.The importance of the social media in the retail business has been explored. In
addition to this, the data and its importance on the business have also been evaluated.
The business organisation needs to collect different types of data related to the business.
With the increased competition, the retailers need to collect a significant amount of
customer data and transaction details. These data are stored and analysed for undertaking
different types of business decisions for the organisation. The current presentation helped
to analyse the critical data in the business. The business organisation collects different
types of data which are used for undertaking decisions and the strategies for the business.
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References
De Vries, L., Gensler, S. and Leeflang, P.S., (2012). Popularity of brand posts on brand
fan pages: An investigation of the effects of social media marketing. Journal of
interactive marketing, 26(2), pp.83-91.
Kim, A.J. and Ko, E., (2012). Do social media marketing activities enhance customer
equity? An empirical study of luxury fashion brand. Journal of Business
Research, 65(10), pp.1480-1486.
Pomerantz, J.R., (2017). Perceptual organization in information processing.
In Perceptual organization (pp. 141-180). London: Routledge.
Ramageri, B.M. and Desai, B.L., (2013). Role of data mining in retail
sector. International Journal on Computer Science and Engineering, 5(1), p.47.
Saravanakumar, M. and SuganthaLakshmi, T., (2012). Social media marketing. Life
Science Journal, 9(4), pp.4444-4451.
Turban, E., King, D., Sharda, R. and Delen, D., (2013). Business intelligence: a
managerial perspective on analytics. Prentice Hall, New York.
Witten, I.H., Frank, E., Hall, M.A. and Pal, C.J., (2016). Data Mining: Practical machine
learning tools and techniques. Morgan Kaufmann.
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Appendix 1
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