Contextual Analytics and Big Data in Retail Management

Walmart is in the process of creating the biggest private cloud in the world with the power to process 2.5 petabytes every hour. And why shouldn’t they? After all, the worldwide market for big data analytics may be worth almost $100 billion by 2020.

But this also means that big data has attained critical mass, and a revolution is underway when it comes to how businesses gather, store, retrieve, and process data.

The latest developments in processing speeds (Qualcomm 845, I’m looking at you), storage costs, and compression technology means that retail businesses now have the opportunity to combine everyday tasks with big data analytics.

Contextual data, especially the lack of it, has always proven to be a major hindrance to big data solutions. Video is the only media format that is capable of advancing these solutions, and retail executives and business managers are finally beginning to understand the same.

As a result, they are now attempting to mix big data analytics with context-rich video to get actionable insights into real-world business issues. For example, most retailers now enjoy access to various data search, visualization, and mining tools that enable them to recognize outliers and patterns in data.

This lets them safeguard their business and increase the bottom line by investing in innovative marketing campaigns and improving operations.

For example, ExtremeLocation is using contextual analytics and big data to engage in-store visitors, optimize the layout of their store, and improve revenue channels.

The program was inspired by the growing number of consumers who use smartphones during shopping in brick-and-mortar shops and added mobile touchpoints along the purchase journey.

Parent company Extreme Networks, Inc. wanted to provide retailers with a unique experience where they could identify, engage, and offer personalized guest experience to their in-store shoppers through mobile gadgets.

By gathering contextual analytics from both BLE beacon technology and WiFi, stores and retailers can better understand what the interests of their current crop of visitors are, what sort of behavior they can expect, along with their current in-store location.

As a result, store associates can directly engage customers in a better way, the workflow and store layout gets optimized, and sales are greatly increased.