IBM has announced the IBM Netezza Customer Intelligence Appliance, a new analytics appliance that analyzes up to petabytes of big data including consumer sales data and online shopping trends to help retailers gain actionable insight on buying patterns.
The new appliance can help retailers better understand buying patterns across multiple channels, and build stronger, more profitable customer relationships. Clients can now run complex, real-time analytics in a matter of seconds to improve the customer experience, shift marketing campaigns on the fly and boost sales, the company says.
According to IBM, 70% of a customer's first interaction with a product or service takes place online, placing more importance on the digital consumer experience. Through its Smarter Commerce initiative, IBM says it is defining a new market that it estimates will grow to a $20 billion opportunity in software alone by 2012, driven by the demands of shifting customer buying patterns. The new appliance is a part of IBM's Smarter Commerce initiative because it can help retailers deepen relationships with consumers and create a sense of brand intimacy.
The new IBM Netezza Customer Intelligence Appliance provides retailers with big data analytics that allows them to analyze all customer interactions within their brand. As a combined offering from IBM and business partner Aginity, and Cognos software, retailers can gain a single view of the customer spanning all channels and sales touch points including mobile, online and in store shopping, enabling them to can gain insight on the fly, better predict and target products and promotions, as well as improve store design and pricing.
Using the new appliance, retail clients can now also expand their predictive analytics capabilities with SPSS Predictive Analytics and IBM's Global Business Services, allowing them to go deeper in customer segmentation and business analytics.
For more information about IBM Netezza, go here.