The retail industry is changing dramatically as consumers shop in new ways. With the growing popularity of online shopping and mobile commerce, consumers are using more retail channels than ever before to research products, compare prices, search for promotions, make purchases and provide feedback. Social media has become one of the key channels. Consumers are using social media – and the leading e-commerce platforms that integrate with social media – to find product recommendations, lavish praise, voice complaints, capitalize on product offers and engage in ongoing dialogs with their favorite brands. The multiplication of retail channels and the increasing use of social media are empowering consumers. With a wealth of information readily available online, consumers are now better able to compare products, services and prices – even as they shop in physical stores. When consumers interact with companies publically through social media, they have greater power to influence other customers or damage a brand. These and other changes in the retail industry are creating important opportunities for retailers. But to capitalize on those opportunities, retailers need ways to collect, manage and analyze a tremendous volume, variety and velocity of data. When point-of-sale (POS) systems were first commercialized, retailers were able to collect large amounts of potentially valuable information, but most of that information remained untapped. The emergence of social media and other consumer-oriented technologies is now introducing even more data to the retail ecosystem. Retailers must handle not only the growing volume of information but also an increasing variety – including both structured and unstructured data. They must also find ways to accommodate the changing nature of this data and the velocity at which is being produced and collected. If retailers succeed in addressing the challenges of “big data,” they can use this data to generate valuable insights for personalizing marketing and improving the effectiveness of marketing campaigns, optimizing assortment and merchandising decisions, and removing inefficiencies in distribution and operations. Adopting solutions designed to capitalize on this big data allows companies to navigate the shifting retail landscape and drive a positive transformation for the business…. Capitalizing on the power of big data for retail