'Stop Being Intimidated by 'Big' in Big Data': Bishop

Using big data to identify promotion items that grow category sales and store profits was identified as a top opportunity by 145 retail professionals in a new Big Data report from Barrington, Ill.-based Brick Meets Click.

“Discussions about big data and retail often bog down in the vastness of its potential, leaving retailers with only the vaguest guidance as they try to figure out where and how to invest in this powerful tool,” says Bill Bishop, chief architect of Brick Meets Click and lead author of the "Clear Direction on Using Big Data to Solve Retail Problems" report.

Today’s retailers are looking for guidance on where they can focus to generate the greatest benefit for the effort expended, explains Bishop. For this reason, Brick Meets Click embarked on its fourth Big Data survey in a practical direction to investigate which retail problems Big Data can help best solve today.

To that end, the survey asked retail professionals to evaluate 12 specific customer and merchandising opportunities relative to their potential impact on business results and degree of difficulty. The three opportunities that rated highest on business impact and lowest on degree of difficulty were:

• Identify profitable items to promote
• Refine assortment to drive higher store sales
• Increase spending by your best shoppers

“It’s time to stop being intimidated by the 'big' in Big Data, and ask where data analytics can best deliver specific, practical benefits to the bottom line and strengthen competitive position," according to Bishop, noting that the new report "is a good place to start or to refine existing projects."

Probing in detail nine ways to use big data, the report defines the problem, describes the opportunity and lays out actions to produce measurable results for each.

Access the free report at brickmeetsclick.com.