Whitaker Ideas Forum – Data-driven Innovation in Shopper Marketing: A Business Analytics Approach for Visit Segmentation in the Retail Industry

The abundance of data reflecting customer behavior and the continuous changes in modern shopper behavior revives segmentation literature in contemporary retail. Motivated by this fact, this research proposes a visit segmentation approach that reveals the shopping intentions/ missions that induced consumers’ visits. By examining shopper behavioral data, in visit level we identify the underlying needs that boosted a customer to visit a store e.g. to procure materials to renovate the bathroom, to buy professional clothes, to prepare a dinner etc.. We applied and evaluated the proposed approach in three heterogeneous retailers with different sale channels and product types. During the application of the approach, we identified several shopper, retailer and data-related factors that affect the segmentation. Thus, this research also provides a set of factors that managers in the retail industry, as well as marketeers and data scientists should consider when designing segmentation systems and approaches. These factors not only affect the segmentation process, but also the shopper marketing decisions that our approach enables. Hence, we further present data-driven innovations in shopper marketing that the resulting visit segments could support ranging from marketing campaigns per visit segment and redesign of a store’s layout to cross-selling strategies and product recommendations.

This is one of a series of seminars in the Whitaker Ideas Forum. Anastasia will be representing the Agile and Open Innovation (LERO) research cluster.

The Whitaker Ideas Forum is a weekly seminar, running Wednesday’s throughout the semester from 1:00pm-2:00pm in CA110. It provides the opportunity for members of the Institute to showcase their research. The result are presentations that highlight the diversity of the research being undertaken, while allowing for an opportunity to engage in discussions and, sometimes, collaboration with attendees. Below, you will find a list of this semester’s seminars, please click the title for more information on that seminar.