ABSTRACT
Predictive analytics is changing the customer-seller relationship, improving sales while increasing shopper satisfaction at the same time. This is all possible because of business’s new superpower – data. Business analytics gives supply chain manager the ability to see and predict everything – every interaction with customers, every moving part in their supply chain, and every financial transaction anywhere in the world. In the retail industry, predictive analytics provides sellers a new advantage, one that more than compensates for the Internet’s ever-expanding array of choices. Predictive analytics help supply chain manager know what might happen, prepare a response ahead of time, and get ahead of risks. It’s like looking ahead with a telescope, not glancing through the rear-view mirror. This chapter details seven ways that a firm can use the technology to take customer service and sales to the next level. They are: hyper-personalized marketing, virtual concierges, customer needs forecasting, customer churn reduction, resources management, internal team support, and smooth shipping.
