Has Social Media Killed the Mall? Part 1
Make Sense of Your Data … and Put it to Work
While social media monitoring can offer key customer insights, does your team know how to make sense of thousands of data points? This year, commit to embracing more technology and using analytics. Say your ideal customer has her eye on a new red sweater. She can easily buy it online, but happens to be running an errand for something else. You've mined your data and put it to work: You know that 65 percent of women are looking for red sweaters this year and have placed several in the display window to catch her eye, as well as offering a special in-store discount. That's putting your data to work, and reaping the fruits of your labor.
Greg Petro is founder and CEO of First Insight, a technology company transforming how leading retailers make product investment and pricing decisions.
Greg has a 25-year history in the retail industry with a career spanning merchandising, sales and management. But while at one of the world’s leading supply chain technology firms, he saw a need for retailers and brands to re-engage with consumers to determine which products would be top sellers well before costly investments are made to bring them to market. In 2007, Greg Petro founded First Insight Inc., a technology company that delivers what is now the world’s leading predictive analytics platform for consumer-testing new products. Through engaging consumers online and mining social data, the First Insight platform empowers retailers and brands to introduce the right products at the right price, and target them to the right customers. Today, he serves as its Chief Executive Officer and President. Greg is a member of the Board of Advisors of the Fashion Institute of Technology, as well as a frequent speaker at the graduate business schools of Columbia University and the University of Pittsburgh. Greg also speaks and at a number of industry conferences, where he educates his listeners on how retailers can use technology to identify and deliver what their customers really want. Mr. Petro holds both MBA and Bachelor’s Degrees from the University of Pittsburgh.
