3 Detours to Avoid in Retail's Race to Win With Big Data

Much like search, simple correlations and patterns in a user's network will get you a lot further — and with a lot less work — than trying to understand a shopper's true feelings about your brand or products. If you want to know what a customer is going to buy next or if they're about to unsubscribe, look at what their "friends" are actually doing, what products they own, etc. Simple aggregation of this available data can tell you which products or brands are most popular with a peer group. This data can be very helpful in determining the likely next actions of related users.