Big Data and Value for Retail

I have heard relatively few retail examples of big data value.  Here is a take on that.

" ... According to research by Wipro, 78 percent of retailers are collecting and storing location-based information on their shoppers, and 64 percent are gathering and studying data generated by social media. That's on top of the already voluminous amount of information that a POS system generates simply in the course of doing its job.

Most of the time, when we talk about big data, we're talking about its potential uses: How can it improve marketing, how can it improve the customer experience, how can it improve product availability. We view it as an asset to be manipulated and put to work for us. .. ."