Big Data : what are the trends in the retail and insurance sectors ?

In partnership with Microsoft Europe (Brussels), the University of Louvain (Belgium) organized a conference on 13 May where I discussed the future impact of Big Data in the retail and insurance sectors.

I started by outlining the 4 sectors that are heavy data producers and users : banking, insurance, retail and telecom. I showed that Big Data is used for only two purposes in these sectors : reduce costs or generate revenues.

I then moved on to get deeper into the future Big Data in the retail and insurance settings.

The 3 major trends in the retail sector

I see 3 main structural trends in the retail sector :

1. Brands trying to bypass retailers
2. Retailers trying to get closer to consumers
3. Retailers and brands using Big Data to get detailed information about consumers’ total spending

You’ll find in the presentation videos illustrating each trend.

The future of Big Data in retail

Retailers are massively investing in Big Data and as the examples above suggest, this supports the inflation in data volume everyone is witnessing. Yet, while retailers are focusing on volume, they may also need to think about the meaningfulness of the data they collect.

Another prediction is that “cheap” real-time processing capabilities will change the customer experience in supermarkets. Rather than getting coupons after your purchases, real-time processing will make it possible to get coupons before you enter the store. This should boost coupons use rate.

Trends in the insurance sector

In the insurance sector the trend is “IoT”. Risk management requires to know more about the person or the object to insure. Advances in IoT make it possible to collect such information very cheaply.

I showed the examples of smart boxes and applications to monitor drivers’ behaviors, and hypothesized on the use of information from wearables.

The future of Big Data in the insurance sector

Based on the examples I gave, I predicted that smart boxes and behavior-based car insurance pricing would NOT be adopted in Belgium. As I explained in an earlier post, the market structure impedes the adoption of the technology and AG Insurance has already announced that it would not deploy it.

By Pierre-Nicolas Schwab Pierre-Nicolas est Docteur en Marketing et dirige l'agence d'études de marché IntoTheMinds. Ses domaines de prédilection sont le BigData l'e-commerce, le commerce de proximité, l'HoReCa et la logistique. Il est également chercheur en marketing à l'Université Libre de Bruxelles et sert de coach et formateur à plusieurs organisations et institutions publiques. Il peut être contacté par email, Linkedin ou par téléphone (+32 486 42 79 42)