Lee Peterson

NRF: Why Are Retailers Still Complaining About Big Data?

January 19, 2012

FROM RETAILWIRE:
We hear the complaints about all the data that is now being captured in retail leading to "a plethora of data but a dearth of wisdom." BrainTrust panelist Bill Bittner has come to the conclusion that there are plenty of viable solutions; the challenge for retailers is knowing what to want from the data. Why are retailers still complaining about the difficulty in extracting wisdom from Big Data?      [more...]

The problem is that the data so far outweighs intuition and 'innate retail intelligence' (i.e. gut) within retail orgs now that most people reading the data don't know what to do with it. As in any research, there's always a qualitative factor...why are the numbers saying that? What should I ask these numbers for? Etc. Who would know that now? The CEO that was a CFO?

Goes back to another retail dilemma; are we hiring the right people? Are we hiring too many scientists and too few merchants? I personally think, yes, the latter is true.