New "Retail" Category Started in the EDM Blog

There are more than 500 retailers worldwide with revenues in excess of $1 billion.  Their use of predictive analytics, business rules, and decision automation varies widely.  Some of them - such as Best Buy - make extensive use of advanced decision making capabilities as the foundation for successful "Customer Centricity" initiatives which have driven significant same store sales growth.  Others are equipped with large amounts of data about their customers, their products, and millions of transactions, but are yet to grapple with the implications of using that information to its fullest within their businesses.

Even leading commentators on the retail industry predict that predictive analytics will come to the fore during 2007, so it seems that the time is right for James and I to start blogging formally about the many applications of EDM in stores, in online outlets, and anywhere goods are sold.

To this end, we have added a new "Retail" category to the list of existing categories in use on this blog, and we have even gone back and reclassified a number of our old posts that are relevant to this industry.  Some of our recent entries that fit the bill include:

• Hits and Niches
• One complaint about the Long Tail
• The secret of capitalizing on customer insights

As ever, we invite your comments and insights on our postings.  If you have any particular observations of note to the retail industry, please bring them to our attention.