Big Data Bias Syndrome: Don’t Be a Victim!

If the pundits are to be believed, big data is the retailer's nirvana, telling you the exact profile that will buy a specific product at a specific time of day through a specific channel at a specific price. There is, to be sure, more than a grain of truth in that, but the path from data collection to customer fulfillment is fraught with potential pitfalls. As anyone who has had experience with Google's AdWords’ algorithms can attest, one wrong assumption can easily send you wide enough of the target to lose tens of thousands of dollars in sales, which would be a huge setback for most retailers.