Australian supermarket Woolworths has succeeded in using analytics to inform and redesign a number of processes core to its business in a short amount of time, as outlined in a session at the NRF 2023 Big Show. Do you agree with the claim that most retailers’ core processes need to be fundamentally reimagined using data?

Macy’s competitors have been forced to pack-and-hold large amounts of excess inventory, but the department store giant claims that it was able to avoid that scenario in many cases by paying close attention to its co-branded credit card data. Are some retail forecasting systems missing data important to projecting future consumer activity?

Gartner predicts that by 2023, 60 percent of CMOs will slash the size of their marketing analytics department in half because of “failed promised improvements.” The “root” cause of the shortfall was found to be cognitive biases and an old-school culture. Do you agree that marketing analytics investments will or should be scaled back due to continued shortfalls?

Fewer than four in 10 marketing leaders are extremely or very confident in their data, analytics and insights systems, according to a new study. The report outlines the data capabilities that remain “out of reach” for marketers. What’s causing the lag between data gathering and generating actionable insights?

The success of functions including sales, operations, procurement and shipping depends on retailers’ ability to apply analytics at scale towards developing better insights and responses to consumer demands. What do you think was the top supply chain innovation of 2021?

Organizations have instituted the position of chief data officer over the last decade to help make some sense out of the flood of big data. Yet less than half of large companies have a CDO. Do you see a strong need for a chief data officer for retailers and brands in addition to the CIO/CTO?

Although most of today’s retailers have at least a basic understanding of the need to collect and centralize their local data, there are those that either do not have the resources or have not invested in the technology to make it happen. How critical is having centralized data to the ongoing success of meeting customer demand?

A new university study highlights three big challenges to making omnichannel marketing work: data access and integration, marketing attribution and consumer privacy protection. What are the biggest challenges for driving consistent interactions across the customer journey?

According to KPMG’s “Thriving in an AI World” study, 53 percent of business leaders in retail said COVID-19 increased their pace of AI adoption, yet 49 percent believe adoption is moving faster than it should in their industry. Has the pandemic spurred the adoption of artificial intelligence technology at too fast a pace?

On its third-quarter conference call last week, Nike Inc. expounded on its recent acquisition of Datalogue, a data integration platform, and its overall push to tap insights that it can use to drive personalization at scale. How do you see Nike benefiting from enhanced customer analytics via its recent acquisitions?

Half of the marketing, information and marketing tech professionals surveyed in the UK and U.S. state that their organization’s data is not organized for easy consumption, making it the most common technical barrier to deriving meaningful insights. What do you see as the biggest barriers to using customer data effectively and creating a single customer view?

At a CES 2021 session featuring privacy experts from Amazon.com, Google and Twitter, panelists agreed that, while data transparency is critical, a “patchwork” of privacy rules across areas may increasingly undermine the benefits of the internet.  What’s the ideal outcome from the data privacy debate for retailers?

Privately owned companies, such as 23andMe and Ancestry.com, are accumulating massive databases since genetic testing kits first appeared on the market, and these genetic datasets are finding their way into marketing campaigns. Do you see more risks than potential benefits for retailers and brands in using genetic data for marketing purposes?

Google Shopping has introduced a number of price comparison and tracking tools to help shoppers find holiday deals.  Are Google’s price comparison and tracking tools more of a sales benefit or margin risk for retailers?

Nearly two-thirds of data teams have experienced employee resistance to the adoption of data-driven methods at their organizations, despite an overwhelming 73 percent believing that most employees are open to a data-driven approach. Are employees or c-level executives putting up greater resistance to creating data-driven cultures and organizations?

Amazon.com last week introduced Halo, a combination fitness tracker, app and subscription service, taking on Fitbit, Apple Watch and others while possibly building on Amazon’s ambitions in the healthcare space. Why do you think Amazon is moving into the fitness tracker space?

Despite dramatic growth in grocery deliveries due to the pandemic, grocers are not necessarily making higher profits. How critical will eliminating data silos be to driving grocery delivery profitability?

Using live data from three brands, the Auburn University RFID Lab has proven that a blockchain network can share item-level data encoded in RFID tags. How confident are you that combining blockchain and RFID tech will eventually enable retail trading partners to share granular, item-level data with one another?

There are many beneficial elements to e-commerce. At the recent 2020 Future Stores conference in Miami, a frequent theme was working out how retailers take these elements and leverage them in brick and mortar store environments. What are the best use cases for AI-enabled technology in-store?

Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), the parent of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), spent much of last week justifying why a potential acquisition of eBay would make sense, before abandoning the pursuit. Do you see synergies in a merger between Intercontinental Exchange and eBay?

“When you look at online advertising, it’s a monopoly, oligopoly — pick your word. The concentration is clear,” said Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella at a keynote session at the NRF Big Show last week. Is there a compelling argument for the need for retailers to heighten investments in their own online advertising platforms?

In light of rising security failures, more calls are being heard for businesses to tangibly pay customers for their data. Is paying consumers for their data a realistic goal?

Retailers are being taken for a ride by consultants and software companies who use the term artificial intelligence as a strategy to promote their products and charge higher fees. How can retailers best judge what AI solutions will and won’t help them improve the performance of their operations and make shopping more engaging for consumers?

Andrew Yang, one of the candidates among the large field running to be the Democratic Party’s presidential nominee in 2020, issued a new policy proposal this week that makes the case that digital data should be treated as a property right under law.  Do you agree that an individual’s data is their personal property and should not be used without their consent and compensation?

Most retailers still use Excel for data analysis. Many tried business intelligence software that promised to doing something more valuable than what is possible with a spreadsheet — make better decisions. Are retailers making improvements in their approaches to data analysis or are they still stuck using spreadsheets to manage their businesses?

The reason to “improve analytics maturity” is because it’s a fundamental part of any successful digital transformation. How should retailers and brands be looking to modernize their analytic infrastructure to reach higher levels of analytical maturity?

By mixing and matching data resources, Pfizer Consumer Healthcare has been able to target shoppers more effectively and identify growth opportunities for its retailer customers. What advice would you have for using multiple data sources for category and customer insights?

Customer experience is so much more than a single area of business. Do you think it’s possible to deliver a holistic CX considering information about the customer journey is often missing?

The NPS is a metric used by management to determine customer satisfaction or lack thereof with a company at a given point in time. But unlike traditional consumer surveys, the NPS process is intended to correlate to business growth. Are retailers using the Net Promoter Score metric properly or misusing it?

Fine-tuning data science solutions to optimize results has been the easy part. Taking advantage of the new insights is the more complicated task, said IT execs at the 2019 Retail Innovation Conference. How can retailers reduce the learning curve around machine learning or AI tools for marketing, merchandising and other departments?

Retailers and brands should not embark upon the use of AI without first understanding it. Why do retailers seem to have a hard time explaining their use of AI and fail to adequately employ testing and learning strategies around the technology?

The forecast error in retail is as high as 32 percent, according to some estimates. Will artificial intelligence (AI) technology do any better? Do you see AI significantly transforming demand forecasting for retailers?

Purchase history, email activity and website behavior remain the three primary data sources retailers are tapping in their personalization efforts, according to Monetate’s third-annual “Personalization Development Study.” Ideally, which data sources should guide personalization efforts for retailers?

Farmstead, which uses artificial intelligence to efficiently source and deliver food, announced a new delivery option that promises to bring prices below the average cost for the Bay area. What do you think of the potential for AI to optimize the sourcing of perishable food and grocery delivery routes?

Marketers have long used sentiment analysis to target offers in the digital domain, but a new generation of demand forecasting capabilities is extending its use into merchandise planning. Where do you see the opportunity and limits in using sentiment analysis to help gauge demand for future product assortments?

According to a survey conducted by Incisiv in collaboration with Microsoft for JDA Software, retail executives are hoping the cloud and artificial intelligence can guide the merging of online and offline experiences. Do you see AI and the cloud solving many of retail’s challenges around inventory visibility, unified commerce and underutilization of data?

Amazon.com is experimenting with free product samples as a paid advertising service for CPG brands. Does Amazon’s free samples program hold more benefits than risks for CPG brands?

When it comes to hyper-personalization, chatbots are at the bottom of the list of the most effective AI-powered applications, which includes predictive analytics, UX design and content curation. What do you think are the most effective AI-powered applications for driving hyper-personalization strategies?

New research by Accenture Strategy assigns a dollar value to trust among organizations and finds companies that experience a material decline in trust could miss six percent in potential sales, on average. What advice would you have for retailers seeking to use data to establish a “shelter of trust” with consumers?

A recent Wall Street Journal article pointed to some of the benefits and downsides that consumers may receive from the use of customer lifetime value scoring by retailers. Do you see customer lifetime value (CLV) scores facing hurdles with consumers as their use becomes better known?

Walmart is opening a laboratory inside a small Walmart in Levittown, NY to see how AI can be used to identify low stocks on shelves, when items are on the wrong shelf and spillages. Will artificial intelligence be a game changer for inventory optimization, labor scheduling or other aspects of in-store operations?

A strong case for customer lifetime value was made by Peter Fader, professor of marketing at The Wharton School, and Neil Hoyne, head of customer analytics for Google, during the recent Sourcing Journal Summit. What are the pros and cons of a customer lifetime value-centric approach for retailers and brands?

Three out of four online global shoppers worldwide fail to regularly see product recommendations that interest them, according to a survey sponsored by SAP. What’s holding back a higher level of online personalization from retailers?

Artificial Intelligence, which promises to eliminate the inefficiencies that come from subjective human assessments and assumptions, is facing heightened concerns that the technology includes hidden biases. How big a concern are latent biases embedded in artificial technology?

90 percent of sales of the large research houses fail to check off two or more items on this checklist. That is why they have little organic growth. Where do you see market research falling short in providing insights into digital behaviors?

Walmart has filed an application for a patent on shopping cart technology that uses sensors in the handles to track not only the speed of the cart but the heart rate and body temperature of the person pushing it along. If implemented, how would the data collected through shopping carts complement other information Walmart has on customers in its stores?

While machine learning software and artificial intelligence have arguably been used to reinvent marketing, a new survey shows that only one in three have incorporated AI capabilities into their supply chain management processes. Where do you see the greatest near-term and long-term benefits of AI in the supply chain for retailers?

A new book argues that, in a radical shift for the advertising world, the influence of traditional ad agencies is rapidly declining as former clients increasingly take more and more projects in-house. Do you see advertising work increasingly shifting in-house at traditional media institutions with changes brought on by Big Data?

While measuring clicks and other online data is bringing more personalized experiences to customer’s online, Art Peck, Gap Inc.’s CEO, argues that retail is far from taking advantage of in-store data. Do you agree that retail is “not talking about” the value and potential benefits of capturing in-store customer data?

A new book from MIT researchers offers a field-tested framework on how companies can digitally transform, based on a years-long study at the MIT Center for Information Systems Research. Do you approve of the author’s list of questions to help prepare for digital transformation?