Retail marketers have never had more data at their fingertips, whether it’s web, app, store, loyalty, social, retail media or third-party datasets, they all now pour into dashboards on a daily basis.

In spite of this, many marketing leaders admit that they are flying blind, with the abundance of data creating noise, misalignment and slower decision-making.

The problem is not accessing information, but rather deciding what information matters.

With pressure to trade week by week while still investing for long-term brand growth, retail marketers are being forced to simplify. Increasingly, the focus is on a small, decisive set of metrics that drive action and a willingness to stop reporting what does not.

So, what does cutting through the data chaos look like in practice?

We asked retail marketing leaders and experts how they have streamlined metrics, aligned teams without perfect tech-stacks and resisted the temptation to “use everything at once”.

What retailers have stopped measuring and why 

The first step towards clarity for Giulio Beltramo, head of marketing at multinational retailer and brand owner One Retail Group, was deprioritising platform-led performance metrics, such as revenue and orders.

“Of course, it is good to see on a platform level what it says it’s bringing in, however without fail, and over the past four to five companies I have been at, if I tally up how much money my ad platforms say they are bringing in and look at that against our gross revenue figure, there is always a hyped-inflated figure,” he says.

“Be it proportionally, or in some cases the ad figure surpass that gross revenue figure.”

This does not mean platform data is useless, but Beltramo is clear that it cannot be treated as truth. Without a grounded, business-level view, it distorts confidence and encourages over-spend.

Phil McMahon, retail and engagement strategist at Really Good Culture, agrees that any data source that does not actively change behaviour should be questioned.

“It’s tempting to believe you need every available dataset, but that mindset will become overwhelming. You don’t need all the data, you need useful data. Decision-makers have got to ask themselves ‘when was the last time this data changed any of our plans?’,” he says.

For Fran Bridgewater, marketing director at Drinks Network, which works with a host of wine retailers, the biggest culprits are heavily modelled third-party datasets, vanity social metrics, and overly granular attribution reports that slow decisions rather than sharpen them.

“If a data source can’t influence action within a trading week, its relevance should be questioned,” she says. 

 The metrics that now drive decisions 

Beltramo says he has has narrowed weekly decision-making down to a small set of commercial fundamentals.

The first is total advertising cost of sale (TACOS) calculated by tallying total weekly media spend against net revenue.

“It gives us a real understanding of how spend influences the bottom line and allows us to invest confidently with profit in mind,” he explains.

The second is traffic. “We’re an ecommerce brand – if people aren’t online, we can’t hit sales targets,” Beltramo says. But it is not about raw growth for the marketer. “It’s about how qualified that traffic is and what users actually do once they arrive.”

The third is online share of voice (OSOV). While more subjective, Beltramo combines organic search rankings, marketplace visibility, search demand, impressions and media mentions to create a benchmark on where the company is amongst its peers, competitors and generally in the market at large.

“This on a monthly basis truly shows the impact of our marketing beyond sales,” he adds. “It gives us a clearer steer on bigger brand decisions and investments that ultimately impact all core metrics.”

McMahon takes a similar view.

For live trading, he feels there should be a focus on store and website traffic, conversion rate and average transaction value.

“For future planning, I recommend focusing on identifying emerging long-term consumer trends, how shopping behaviours are evolving, and predictive data that enables product discovery.”

Bridgewater also advocates for fewer, commercially aligned KPIs: sell-through versus plan, repeat purchase rate, average order value, margin by channel, and a simple pulse on customer sentiment such as loyalty engagement or NPS.

“While not perfect,” she says, “they sit closest to commercial outcomes and can be acted on quickly – even without a flawless tech stack – provided teams share a single ‘decision view’ of the customer.”

Aligning teams without a perfect tech stack

Creating a single view of truth remains one of retail marketing’s hardest challenges – especially when data lives across disconnected systems.

Beltramo admits that handling data is still a work in progress at One Retail Group, but believes the solution lies in standardisation.

“Amongst your team, senior leadership, your execs, you have to all align and set a standard for the way in which you interpret the data.

“And that framework has to be consistent with all departments in the organisation. We know that it’s always going to be a tricky challenge, however, if you’re all singing off the same hymn sheet you have set a standard and benchmark to work off.”

McMahon emphasises team involvement over a perfect tech infrastructure. “By involving people in defining what the ‘single view’ needs to be, teams understand, believe in, are empowered by, and feel ownership of the data the business uses to make decisions.”

Bridgewater agrees, noting that a shared ‘decision view’ of the customer – not a flawless dashboard – is what matters most. “Clarity beats complexity,” she says. “As long as teams agree on what the numbers are for, progress follows.”

The danger of trying to use everything

For most marketers, the biggest mistake is the same: attempting to use all available data at once. 

“You just get overwhelmed,” Beltramo says. “Too much data is dangerous as you move away from that gut intuition which ultimately gets you places. Of course, data is integral, but so is human intervention and feeling.

“I feel as marketers that gut feeling is what gives us the gumption to make bold decisions or take risks. Losing that comes at a massive cost to true development and growth.”

McMahon frames it as a discipline issue.

“Don’t just get distracted from focusing on the things that actually matter. If a data source does not directly impact the business priorities in a meaningful way, then you’ve got to ask why you’re looking at it at all,” he says.

“Again, this is not a data issue. It’s a discipline issue. You’ll never know everything, no matter how much data you have access to. The retailers that clearly understand which data has the biggest impact on their business specifically are the ones who maintain focus.”

For Bridgewater, the conclusion is simple: insight does not come from volume.

“Complexity can be seductive. But clarity drives action.”

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