Dive Summary:

• With consumers increasingly engaging in more online purchasing, and more recently the practice of showrooming, retailers are focusing their efforts on developing a more ‘compelling’ in-store experience.
• More and more retailers are turning to predictive analytics in order to better meet consumer wants and needs by utilizing predictive analytics which analyze customer satisfaction and provide a forecast of what in-store changes will be successful.
• “With consumers having so much choice and [easily] knowing what competitive prices are … the challenges that retailers face to survive and thrive today are far greater than they’ve ever been,” said Larry Freed, CEO of ForeSee analytics.

From the article:

Predictive analytics stands in stark contrast to how retailers typically test changes to their business: by trial and error. But trial and error is not only costly and time consuming, it’s also an unreliable way to evaluate the success or failure of an in-store change, Freed said.