Projects
Big Data
Big data is a growing level of interest in the business world. It is the use of large data sets to discover patterns, trends, and associations to what humans are doing. The use of big data allows for companies to look into their consumers and discover the products they are buying and the patterns in which they are buying those products. It can also help companies look at themselves to see how they can improve on internal functions. Big data can be very messy, and it only becomes useful when it is transformed into sets that are related to the business. That is where things such as data mining and data visualization come into play. Using tools such as SQL and R, allows a company to take large sets of data and narrow it down into useful information. In class, we were able to use these tools to make sense of such data sets. Big data is not about the quantity of the set, but rather, the quality. Having millions of sets of data is fine, but if that data cannot be transformed into something useful, then it is pointless.
One-way big data is transforming an industry is in retail. In the past, retail and selling was based on high ad campaigns. With the rise of big data, all that is changing. Companies are now using website and buying history to figure out what a customer is going to buy next. Using tools such as Google analytics, it allows a company to not only see which items were highly sold, but also which items were highly viewed. These analytics allow for companies to narrow down their segmented pools to make each customer shopping experience personal and direct toward their specific needs. In the end, customer acquisition will become more precise and easier to do, because the company is using data to cater to each individual’s need. (French, 2018).
Works Cited
- French, J. (2018, April 24). Why data science must stand at the forefront of customer acquisition. Retrieved April 28, 2018, from https://cio.com/article/3269213/datascience/why-data-science-must-stand-at-the-forefront-of-customer-acquisition.html
- What is Big Data and why it matters. (n.d.). Retrieved April 28, 2018, from https://www.sas.com/en_us/insights/big-data/what-is-big-data.html