As 2011 becomes 2012, "big data" has become the buzzword for business intelligence insiders. The concept is simple - big data is information that is too big to be sorted meaningfully by traditional methods. It may be an uncountably large stream of numerical data from an automated monitoring device or, in the case of retail, it may be social media preferences.
“When we got behind social media, the entire company got behind it. The stores, online, everything,” Billy May, Abercrombie & Fitch's eCommerce VP told the National Retail Federation's blog. "And it's becoming increasingly complex. It's not something you venture into halfheartedly."
As industry insider Jeff Weidauer wrote for Chain Store Age, this data has the power to boost a retail chain in numerous ways. He compares the influx of social media data to the first stores that offered loyalty cards. The difference, he contends, is that this time businesses have the know-how to make sense of the information. Business intelligence software has grown quickly in the past few years.
Weidauer believes that customers want to be marketed to directly and communicated with, and that the only way to do that is to embrace the data that they give retailers. Big data can increase ROI for companies with the business intelligence software for the job and the awareness to know what to look for.
