The Disruptive Impact of Big Data on Retail

The retail shopping experience has changed dramatically since its inception in the early 1900s. Competition is fiercer than ever with a growing array of brick-and-mortar and online sellers for a .consumer to choose from.

Todays retailers are learning to embrace the changes brought by technology rather than lose customers to the convenience of online shopping. Encouraged by a 2014 study that reported 90 percent of shoppers prefer to buy in person, brick-and-mortar retailers have increased their reliance on big data to ensure that they remain relevant. Here are a few of the many new technological changes that retailers have implemented over the past few years:

• Touch Screens: Customers interested in a particular product can learn more about it with a quick touch of a screen. The kiosk programs are interactive based on a customers responses.
• Mobile Point of Sale: Sales clerks can travel throughout the store to ring up a customers purchase so he or she does not have to walk to the counter or wait in a long line.
• Beacons: This technology picks up signals from mobile devices to allow retailers to send shoppers a coupon, direct them to a specific location, and track shoppers movements to understand their buying habits.
• Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags: RFID tags help retailers determine the typical demographics of customers who buy a specific product. It makes it easier to track inventory in addition to allowing customers to purchase an item online and pick it up in the store.

How Etsy Used A/B Testing to Improve the Customer Experience

Big Data is not just limited to brick-and-mortar establishments however.

Etsy, an online shop where people can buy and sell handmade and vintage products, uses information obtained from Big Data and analytics to change codes on its website several times each day. Some of this code makes it possible to conduct A/B testing, which means that half of the people who visit the Etsy website see new tweaks while the other half doesnt see any changes.

After collecting data for a specific time, Etsy management analyzes it to gain a better understanding of customer behavior. This enables them to implement changes that ultimately improve sales. The experience proved so beneficial that Etsy built an A/B analyzer of its own to automate the ability to visualize and aggregate the data it produced.

A New Way to Experience the Retail Fitting Room

In the fall of 2015, a former eBay executive introduced the Oak Fitting Room. This technology features a full-length mirror and a touchable screen that enables direct interaction with the customer. With the use of RFID tags, Oak Fitting Room recognizes items that customers bring with them into the dressing room. The system uses this information to synchronize with the stores point-of-sale and inventory systems.

The data obtained via this process helps retail management figure out why certain items may rarely sell despite multiple people bringing them into the fitting room. It enables them to change the way they display the merchandise so customers can better visualize how the item would look paired with a variety of accessories or other clothing items.

Both online and brick-and-mortar retailers have vast quantities of customer waiting to be unlocked through Big Data. The ability to adapt to remain relevant is essential in an increasingly competitive marketplace. Big Data and analytics help them do just that.