Today’s best big data strategies begin to take action in real time. The results are amazing.
The most recent advances in the area of big data do not cease to amaze us: optimization of industrial processes, efficient decision-making in government, and an unprecedented level of insight into consumer shopping habits. Department stores such as Macy’s, Kohls, and Target are using real-time analytics models to predict and monitor their customers’ buying habits.
This monitoring extends from social networks to visits to points of sale. For example, Kohls piloted several of its stores, where she sent personalized offers using text messages and emails . customers who were inside the store, with excellent results. It is clear that this type of promotion stimulates the purchase at the moment in which the consumer is at the point of sale. Macy’s also has a real-time strategy whereby it sends coupons and promotions to its customers who decide not to execute a purchase at the end of their website visit. In this way, the consumer is invited by the store to see the product physically and thus stimulate and close the purchase. On the other hand, Target uses the analysis of “Emotional data in social networks” to understand the reactions of its consumers to new products and predict their success.
One of the most important tennis tournaments, the Wimbledon Grand Slam, together with IBM, developed a real-time monitoring system that analyzes everything from the speed of the ball to the comparison of historical data for each match, as well as comments on social networks and observations of sports experts. In this way, although the tournament is attended by a few hundred people, the more than 800 million followers of the Grand Slam receive enriched information in real time via the Internet and television. According to IBM, more than 850,000 data points including 600 matches are analyzed during the tournament and interpreted by a team of 48 data analysts.
