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Response 2 Week 3

The document discusses the importance of big data for retailers, highlighting its role in product assortment planning, customer understanding, and risk management. It references various studies and software tools that help retailers analyze data for better decision-making, trend prediction, and pricing optimization. Additionally, it notes the shift in consumer behavior towards faster delivery and the growing recognition among retailers of big data's competitive advantages.

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3 views

Response 2 Week 3

The document discusses the importance of big data for retailers, highlighting its role in product assortment planning, customer understanding, and risk management. It references various studies and software tools that help retailers analyze data for better decision-making, trend prediction, and pricing optimization. Additionally, it notes the shift in consumer behavior towards faster delivery and the growing recognition among retailers of big data's competitive advantages.

Uploaded by

ericopetu
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Discussion Week 3-Topic 2

Sarah Edwards

The video for review this week is Using Big Data to Help Retailers Improve Their

Business by Reliable Software Inc. (2019) speaks on the topic of retailers and the challenges

they face when it comes to data. It states that data lets retailers efficiently and effectively plan

their product assortment mix at the hyper-local level. At the store level data is used to

personalize the product and layout of the store. Big data is useful to help retailers with risk-

management. Big data is also useful to retailers to get to know their customers more, helping

them to pinpoint targeted sales. Big data can help retailer with:

 “Acquisition pattern analysis

 Collaborative filtering

 Customer-specific scorecards

 Real-time store sales modeling

 Determine optimal pricing” (mm. 01:27-01:40).

Reliable Software Inc. states that their software helps to analyze this data and help retailers

make predictions and suggestions to better their product and customer service to lower cost

and increase revenues (Reliable Software Inc., 2019).

Marr (2015) spoke on big data and explains that it helps retailers with predicting
trends, such as “must have” items. Data analysis software would pull these numbers from a

variety of locations, such as from actual sales throughout the stores, popular social media

posts, and what brands are currently trending. “Brands and marketers engage in “sentiment

analysis”, using sophisticated machine learning-based algorithms to determine the context

when a product is discussed, and this data can be used to accurately predict what the top

selling products in a category are likely to be” (p. 1). This same information can be used to

forecast future demand, so the retailer can supply appropriately. Big data analysis is very

helpful when it comes to optimizing pricing. Finding trends, especially the ones that go up,

help the retailer know when they can increase prices without customers losing interest in their

products. It also helps to analyze the pricing of the same products for sale on the market to

ensure the retailer is not setting their prices too high or too low (Marr, 2015).
Along with the increase of technological use in the world comes the demand by

customers for faster delivery of the products sold by retailers. Looking back at the last twenty

years can show how much the retail world has changed. From people having to physically go

into stores and purchase their products, to people now being able to order products from their

phones and a robot can move through a warehouse and deliver the items right to their front

door. Big data is information gathered from a number of sources and can be useful to retailers

to understand their customers better. Mercier, Richards, and Shockley (2013) ran a global

research study that showed an increase in retailers understanding that big data can help to

boost their competitive advantage. They listed out five key findings from their study that

reflect how organizations are approaching big data:

1. “Customer analytics are driving big data initiatives

2. Big data is dependent upon a scalable and extensible information foundation

3. Initial big data efforts are focused on gaining insights from existing sources of

internal data

4. Big data requires strong analytics capabilities

5. The current pattern of big data adoption highlights retailers’ hesitation, but confirms

interest too” (Mercier, Richards, & Shockley, 2013, p. 1).

Reference

Marr, B. (2015, November 10). Big Data: A Game Changer In The Retail

Sector. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/bernardmarr/2015/11/10/big-data-a-

game-changer-in-the-retail-sector/?sh=70ae34629f37.

Mercier, K., Richards, B., & Shockley, R. (2013). Analytics: The real-world use of big data

in retail. IBM Corporation. https://www.ibm.com/downloads/cas/VXOJQW1L.

Reliable Software Inc. (2019). Using Big Data to Help Retailers Improve Their

Business [Video]. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qwBS_IXw3JQ.

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