Big data boosts physical retailers

While big data analytics has been presented as one of the reasons for Amazon and other digital retailers' recent successes, the technology could also have value for brick and mortar retailers. Tech sector CMO Tim Callan wrote for ZDNet that companies armed with unstructured data can significantly improve the physical retail experience for customers.

Callan stated that while the amount of links on any one page of an online store is limited, the in-person retail experience gives shoppers an unlimited amount of possibilities. He noted that the sales floor holds numerous ways to collect information on shopper habits, from their purchases at the point of sale to movement through the store recorded on security cameras. This mass of unstructured data is ripe for analysis.

The value that can be taken from shopper data is, according to Callan, varied and significant. Stores could, in the near future, measure shopper interest by location and by demographic, even monitoring buyers' moods.

Other insiders have corroborated Callan's views. Software marketer Byron Banks wrote for Forbes that new sources of data combined with point of sale data will help retailers cut down on shoppers evaluating products instead of actually purchasing them. He also found big data being used to maximize supply chain procedures.