Retail World (RW) is a major international retail chain, selling groceries, clothing, electronic items, toiletries and homeware items. It has grown rapidly across a number of different countries, offering a broad product range to suit a wide range of customer segments. Growth has been through the expansion of existing stores, the opening of new stores and on-line sales. The new finance director, whose background is in a non-retail environment, is keen to understand the sales trends of the organization, as well as the industry, in order to help develop a strategy which can take advantage of these trends in the future. A business analyst has provided summarised internal sales data for this purpose detailing the last three years of trading and detail the growth in the number of stores and average quarterly sales.The company’s IT systems are fully integrated and associated controls are rigorous, allowing the data to be manipulated in many ways. The number of stores has grown annually and the analyst believes that this is a better indicator of the expected future revenue than simply the passage of time. The average number of stores expected to be in operation in 2019 is 3,700 rising to 4,000 in 2020. The finance director was interested to receive the analysis; however, he also stated that it was not quite as useful as he would have hoped for, commenting, ‘I have been hearing a lot about big data at industry meetings I have attended. I think we should investigate the ways in which we could use this, and the benefits we might hope to obtain from it.’Required:Prepare a briefing note for the Finance Director which outlines ‘big data’ and how it could be used to enhance strategic development within RW

Subject: Briefing Note on Big Data and its Strategic Use in Retail World

Dear Finance Director,

I hope this note finds you well. I understand your interest in exploring the potential of big data to enhance strategic development within Retail World (RW). Here, I will outline what big data is and how it could be beneficial for our organization.

Big data refers to extremely large data sets that can be analyzed computically to reveal patterns, trends, and associations, especially relating to human behavior and interactions. In the context of RW, this could mean data collected from our sales, customer interactions, online traffic, social media, and more.

The use of big data can provide several strategic advantages:

1. Customer Insights: Big data can help us understand our customers better. By analyzing purchasing patterns, we can identify trends, preferences, and potential growth areas. This can help us tailor our product offerings and marketing strategies to meet customer needs more effectively.

2. Operational Efficiency: Big data can help us improve our operational efficiency. For example, by analyzing sales and inventory data, we can optimize our supply chain and reduce costs.

3. Predictive Analysis: Big data allows us to predict future trends. For instance, we can forecast sales trends based on historical data and market trends. This can help us plan our inventory and marketing strategies more effectively.

4. Personalization: Big data can enable us to offer personalized experiences to our customers. By understanding individual customer preferences, we can offer personalized recommendations, enhancing customer satisfaction and loyalty.

5. Competitive Advantage: By leveraging big data, we can gain a competitive edge. We can identify market trends before our competitors and make strategic decisions based on data-driven insights.

To leverage big data, we would need to invest in data analytics tools and potentially hire data scientists or analysts. However, the potential benefits could far outweigh the costs.

I hope this provides a clear understanding of big data and its potential benefits for RW. I look forward to discussing this further and exploring how we can leverage big data to drive our strategic development.

Best Regards,

[Your Name] [Your Position]