Retailers urged to do better on big data

Retailers such as Myer and Woolworths have been urged to quiz customers when they leave stores empty-handed and grill shoppers who spend money at rival chains, to achieve better returns on their investment in big data.

Spending on data analytics is rising by 30 percent a year and is forecast to reach USD114 billion by 2018, according to global consulting firm AT Kearney, but only one in 12 companies is achieving a satisfactory return on its investment.

“There’s massive investment in analytics, everybody says it’s a strategic imperative, everybody believes it’s something they need to do in order to be competitive, but between 75 percent and 90 percent of people are dissatisfied with the returns they’re getting,” AT Kearney principal and analytics expert Ian St-Maurice said.