When you think of the word analytics, you might think: “numbers I’ll surely gloss over”.

And although this might have been the case before you were running your own coffee shop, now things are different. Now, you want your business to be successful, and you’re willing to use all the resources you can get your hands on.

And analytics happens to be one of the best tools you’ll ever get.

The thing about analytical data is that it has the power to tie in the past and the present, to pave your path for the future: with analytics, you can easily note your strengths and weaknesses, and build on them to get the best results.

Of course, that’s just word of mouth – so let’s share some real tips on how to get tasteful results for your coffee shop, using smart analytics:

Sales

Most of all businesses have access to historical sales data, but few ever really focus on them. For your coffee shop, it is more than capable of skyrocketing you to success.

Sales data in general shows metrics like what product is selling the best, what is selling the worst, which times of the day are most active, and which are the most stagnant; such analytics also reveal the kind of factors that affect sales, such as seasons, timings, holidays, etc. All this data might seem all-over-the-place, but in reality, its letting you know which factors are your strengths, and which are your weak points. This way, you can organise yourself to sell the best product at the best time – every step of the way.

Inventory

From sales data, you learn which products you should be selling more – and which items you should keep more in stock. Since inventory capacity is always limited, you automatically learn how to invest more smartly in the products you want to sell, thereby stocking up products you know will sell well, and you know your customers will enjoy.

Furthermore, sales analytics give you exact numbers, which means you can be more specific in the number of items you want to keep in store in your inventory; this helps prevent problems like overstocking and low stocks from damaging your business.

Smart Marketing

Guess what else can sales analytics tell you? What your customers enjoy.

Believe it or not, sales data helps you get a first-hand glimpse on what your customers really want from your coffee shop – whether its their favourite latte, cup of coffee, or a slice of red velvet cake. Sales analytics gives a good picture of customer habits, showing you what they like buying, and at what times of the day (among other things). Tapping into this pool of knowledge has many benefits.

By knowing what your customers want, you automatically know what they expect from you. This way, your approach to marketing will become a lot more personalised, efficient, and impactful – meaning you won’t be shouting into the void anymore. In fact, you’ll get a decent turnover rate that’ll only increase in the future. For example, you can create meal bundles you know your target audience will interact with – and most probably, they will respond with smiles on their faces.


After all this discussion, you might be worrying over finding someone so good at mathematics that they can keep up with your sales. Well, for that, we have a better suggestion: invest in a POS system.

Oscar POS is one coffee shop POS system that has many management systems integrated into a single platform – inventory, accounting, and of course, analytics. It’s automated, simple to use, and keeps data synced in real-time, meaning all the numbers you’ll be getting are accurate, reliable and powerful enough to improve your business.

When you’re done with this article, we hope you won’t gloss over analytics anymore – because it is the kind of data that can transform your coffee shop.