Why Big Data Matters

The interesting thing about big data is that the concept has been around for a couple of decades, ever since the introduction of the first shopper loyalty programs in the late 1980s. Loyalty programs are a misnomer for what's essentially a data-gathering device, and many retailers have been building massive data warehouses for years using shopper behavior gathered through card usage. But very few have done anything meaningful with the data collected. Most shoppers have key tags for multiple stores, which is a sign of anything but loyalty.