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The Promise of Data Mining

The seemingly limitless possibilities for the application of consumer-provided preferences

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I’ve read enough to know that retailers continue to struggle with data mining, recognizing that the trouble does not lie with the collection, but rather, with the processing. I have heard wind of a few larger retailers investing in new positions and hiring data analysts to gain insight into the data that gets harvested. There are two tenets that come to mind when considering data collection and the interpretation thereof: One, garbage in, garbage out; and, two, beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

While the first tenet is self-evident, the second one may warrant some elaboration. Frankly, data interpretation is a reflection of the interpreter: their technical training, their intuition, their relevant industry experience, their understanding of human behavior and even the extent to which their personalities skew on the scale between cynical and naïvely trusting. I recall reading that these multi-faceted individuals are referred to as “unicorns,” since the combination of skill sets needed to come together are so diverse that finding the Holy Grail may actually be easier than finding the right data scientist for your business. (Data Scientist was at the top of Glassdoor’s “25 Best Jobs in America” for 2016.) Basically, its Scully and Mulder as one person.

The extent to which data can predict preferences relative to experiences, environment and products is relatively limitless, which puts pressure on analytics teams to create the right platform through which useful data can be collected. But while data can be skewed in the retailer’s advantage to build a responsive environment with the appropriate experiences and offering the desired products and services, customer data could also be made available to its other customers – much like a gift registry, but on a deeper level.

Think about it: How often have you struggled to purchase the perfect gift for a significant other, a relative, or even worse, a teenager? It would be so nice to be able to buy just the right gift without ever having to ask the person what they wanted, almost as if you could read their mind. Most people shy away from being direct about what it is they really want, usually because of price, or not wanting to inflict some other anticipated inconvenience required by the pursuit of the gift. But if the information was available for what people truly wanted, that leaves the purchaser free to decide among the options that work within their parameters, without any uncomfortable conversation ever needing to take place.

What would this entail? Certainly consumers would need to opt in for the release of some information, but I’m sure that could be tailored to a specific circle of friends much like WhatsApp or FindFriends works. But perhaps that, too, could be avoided if the retailer made the aggregated data available in the form of statistics on shopping trends. For example, I’m shopping for a birthday gift for a 15 year old boy. The retailer has collected data from parents’ and relatives’ information on gift purchases over the last 12 to 18 months for this age range. As part of the data collection, the customers rate the child’s satisfaction with the gift. The retailer can then offer a listing of the year’s top 10 trending gifts, possibly sorted by other filters like price range, age and gender. Another example, clothing retailers can rate products on the hanger with “likes” the way C&A's (Sneek, Netherlands) Brazil branch did a few years ago. Think of how that would make shopping for your teenage daughter so much easier – suddenly you could make your purchase with some level of confidence of it hitting the mark.

This would accomplish several different things: The retailer knows what to keep in stock, and it could cut down on returns, as well as personal consumer satisfaction of successful gift purchasing. All in all, if done right, it could prevent someone from getting battery-operated salt and pepper shakers for their milestone 50th birthday, when they don’t ever put salt or pepper on their food (ahem, yes this really happened). I personally would consider this a public service.

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Kathleen Jordan, AIA, CID, LEED AP, is a principal in Gensler’s New York office, and a leader of its retail practice with over 24 years of experience across the United States and internationally. Jordan has led a broad range of retail design projects as both an outside consultant and as an in-house designer. She has led projects from merchandising and design development all the way through construction documentation and administration, and many of her projects have earned national and international design awards. Contact her at kathleen_jordan@gensler.com.

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