#217 Data & AI at Tesco with Venkat Raghavan, Director of Analytics and Science at Tesco

Loyalty schemes are a hallmark of established retailers—not only do they build consumer trust, they are intelligent and constantly evolving, and Tesco’s Clubcard is the UK’s favorite retail loyalty program. The effects of these discounts are far-reaching, especially for families who rely on getting the best deals to make the most of their money. As Tesco’s tagline goes, every little helps. In turn, the identification and specific details of discounted products can have a profound impact on how consumers view the largest supermarket retailer in the United Kingdom, as well as the operational costs and profits that shareholders are concerned with. How do data and AI inform these offers, what goes into the enterprise-scale analytics that keeps Tesco’s Clubcard the UK’s favorite?

Venkat Raghavan is Director of Analytics and Science at Tesco. Venkat’s area of expertise is customer analytics, having been very heavily involved with the Tesco Clubcard loyalty program. Venkat also set up an analytics center of excellence to help break down data silos between teams. Previously, he was a Director of Analytics at Boston Consulting Group and Senior Director for Advanced Analytics & AI for Manthan and a Cross Industry Delivery Leader at Mu Sigma.

In the episode, Richie and Venkat explore Tesco’s use of data, the introduction of the clubcard scheme, Tesco’s data-driven innovations in online food retail, understanding customer behavior through loyalty programs and in-app interactions, improving customer experience at Tesco, operating a cohesive data intelligence platform that leverages multiple data sources, communication between data and business teams, pricing and cost management, the challenges of data science at scale, the future of data and much more. 

Links Mentioned in the Show:

• Tesco Clubcard
• McKinsey: State of Grocery Europe 2024
• [Course] Data Science for Business
• Related Episode: Scaling Enterprise Analytics with Libby Duane Adams, Chief Advocacy Officer and Co-Founder of Alteryx
• Sign up to RADAR: AI Edition

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