Street Fight’s Local Data Summit in Denver
February 26, 2014 | Contributed by: Kevin Kalinowski
I got the chance to attend Street Fight’s Local Data Summit in Denver and it was a great event. In addition to making connections and networking with the savvy local experts, I learned all about the exploding developments in big data that are helping local marketers deliver stronger ROI.
I really enjoyed the panel titled, “The Quantified Shelf and the Promise of Real-Time Inventory,” moderated by Perry Evans, CEO at Closely and featuring Jeremy Geiger, CEO at Retailigence; Mike Wilson, CEO at Goodzer; and Sherry Thomas-Zon, VP of Shopping at Local Corp. Here are some of the highlights from the session:
- Large retailers have a ton of data and have some technical expertise and resources, but they still need help in developing insights and targeting strategies.
- SMBs are getting involved in the data game but, compared to the national brands, they don’t have the data sets or resources needed to really leverage this information.
- The retail space was the primary consumer of data but data providers are becoming more flexible in order to support more industries.
- Ecommerce is only 10-15% of the retail space. At the end of the day the experience of going and talking with someone is driving sales.
- Online scheduling is an extremely important development in the local space because it is the equivalent to closing the loop between online and offline.
- The primary goal of big data is guiding and measuring the path to purchase.
