Tableau Pulse Helps John Lewis Partnership Reduce Returns with Data and AI-Driven Insights

John Lewis Partnership (JLP), the U.K.’s largest employee-owned business and parent company of major retail brands John Lewis and Waitrose, is optimizing its returns program with AI-driven insights from Tableau Pulse. With these insights, JLP is driving better decision-making and efficiency for both employees and customers.

Why it’s relevant: Eighty-three percent of global retailers have seen operational efficiency improvements with AI. And the majority of senior IT leaders believe generative AI has the potential to help them better serve their customers, take advantage of data, and operate more efficiently.

At-a-glance: Employees in JLP’s returns program needed trusted, accessible, and real-time insights on the company’s retail supply chain to help them understand where they need to focus their efforts. To get there, JLP needed to migrate a high volume of disparate legacy data onto a single platform where the company could visualize and act on this data, quickly. 

A deeper look: With AI-driven insights from Tableau Pulse, employees have been able to improve internal processes and drive better decision-making around key metrics like inventory management and product availability. Ultimately, this ensures that there are products available for customers to purchase when they want them. Tableau Pulse has helped JLP:

• Provide shop staff with insights into which items are most commonly returned by shoppers, allowing for better control over inventory and shop-floor items. Now, for example, an inventory worker knows which items have the highest and lowest rate of return, helping them make more informed decisions to avoid over- or under-restocking.
• Reduce the volume of returned items by proactively identifying common trends, such as people buying the same article of clothing in two sizes.
• Detect data outliers automatically and summarize insights in plain language, preventing problems by enabling teams to understand where potential issues may arise. For example, a retail manager can proactively receive alerts when a product is under-selling and make timely decisions to improve its performance. 
• Uncover key insights to improve its ecommerce website and enhance the online customer experience, for example, by improving its sizing guidelines.

Customer perspective: “Tableau Pulse has been a game-changer for our returns program. Its intuitive and predictive generative AI-driven insights have empowered our buyers, enabling them to make informed decisions quickly. This has not only enhanced our operational efficiency but also translated into significant financial benefits. We’re excited about the future possibilities with Tableau Pulse.” – Barry Hostead, Director of Data Management, John Lewis Partnership

Salesforce perspective: “We’re excited to work with JLP as they use trusted AI and data across their businesses and transform their returns program. We will continue to deepen our collaboration as they scale Tableau Pulse and look forward to helping their employees make better and faster decisions and drive better experiences for their customers.” – Ryan Aytay, CEO, Tableau 

We will continue to deepen our collaboration as they scale Tableau Pulse and look forward to helping their employees make better and faster decisions and drive better experiences for their customers.

Ryan Aytay, CEO, Tableau 

More information: Learn more about Tableau Pulse