“Big Data: A Game Changer in The Retail Sector”

“Big Data: A Game Changer in The Retail Sector”

            It is a known fact that technology improves every day and as technology improves, companies take full advantage of it. An article in Forbes written by Bernard Marr, “Big Data: A Game Changer in The Retail Sector”, tells readers how Big Data helps enhance how retailers continue to find ways to learn about their customers wants and needs through forecasting and research, which generates sales and increases their profits.

            This article demonstrates several strong points. For example, from personal experience, I know that I add items to the cart but do not complete the check out process due to laziness and not getting up to go get my credit card. Klarna a Swedish E-Commerce company allows its customers to pay after they receive the product. Another strong point was finding a way to optimize pricing of items during a season. Surprisingly, the article stated that instead of decreasing the prices at the end of the season it is better to slowly decrease the price during the season. A third strong point this article tells us is its ability to identify customer wants and needs has become even easier with forecasting. Amazon can predict what people will buy based on geographical locations and demographics which increase the time of delivery.

            After reading this article, I am left with some lingering questions and thoughts. It is extremely beneficial that Big Data can identify their customers’ wants better than before, but isn’t it ultimately an invasion of privacy? Several years ago, in a Forbes article by Kashmir Hill, “How Target Figured out a Teen girl was Pregnant Before her Father Did,” a girl’s father saw Target send his daughter baby coupons and was furious. It turned out his daughter was pregnant and based off of her purchases, demographic information, and guest ID activity, Target knew before her father. In my opinion, this seems intrusive, as Target knew the girl was pregnant based on their data. Also, how can companies keep up with the cost of technology and resources to maintain the updated data? Blockbuster was a brick and mortar business before Netflix and other online movie websites became popular. Do you think that if Big Data was used years ago, Blockbuster would still be around? Big Data is extremely popular and I am intrigued to see how it becomes more prevalent in retail and which companies will be able to succeed.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/bernardmarr/2015/11/10/big-data-a-game-changer-in-the-retail-sector/2/#45fab8c5bfec

http://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2012/02/16/how-target-figured-out-a-teen-girl-was-pregnant-before-her-father-did/#5a99515334c6