Retailers take to big data to gauge what the customer likes

NEW DELHI: With big data analytics emerging as a key tool to generate business intelligence, retail majors, including Shoppers Stop and Trent, among others, are adopting the technology to give customers a more customised shopping experience.

Big data refers to extremely large data sets that may be analysed to reveal patterns, trends, and associations, especially relating to human behaviour and interactions

Shoppers Stop recently announced plans to go digital, changing its strategy for the third time in five years. The retail chain is looking to generate 15% revenue through digital touch-points by 2020, and plans to invest ` 60 crore over the next three years.

“Next year, we plan to invest in warehouse management systems to strengthen our supply chain, and subsequently in master data management to strengthen our omni-channel operations,” Shoppers Stop MD Govind Shrikhande said.

Similarly, Trent is also planning to tap the technology for better understanding of customers. The retailer is also looking at in-house analytics in the near future to better serve its customers.

“Currently we outsource analytics, but we are thinking of building an in-house analytics team,” said Vikram Idnani, IT head at Trent.

Consultancy firm PwC, however, said while big data adoption is the way forward, the pace of adoption is slow among retailers as of now. “While the adoption of big data analytics in the retail sector is happening, the speed is still slow given the volume of data that is generated and can be leveraged,” said Sandeep Ladda, PwC India partner and technology sector leader.

According to technology industry estimates, globally, over 95% of the data being generated across sectors has been done over the last two years, and less than 2% of this has been analysed so far.