Large corporations have long utilized big data, but now it's at everyone's fingertips. In fact, you're probably already using big data in several areas of your life without realizing it! If you're using a Fitbit with friends and family you're tapping into big data and using it to make your life better (by tracking you and your friends' activity levels, sleep quality, and quantity and more).
Here's what big data can teach you about your online shopping practices:
Use E-Commerce and Online Retail Data to Analyze Your Own Spending Habits
If you do all or most of your shopping online, you've likely accumulated a lengthy order history. Amazon and other big online retail sites have long used the data contained in this to identify your shopping habits, but you may not realize how easy and beneficial it is to do so yourself!
For example, many know to budget money for their personal expenditures and even groceries, but if you've been ordering products online you'll realize just how easy it is to add up your total expenditures for each month and find an average to use for you budgeting!
You can also identify trends by analyzing when you do your shopping the most. You may find that you make a lot of big purchases in October, and with that information, you'll know to wait until November when deals are better in order to make your big purchases.
Speaking of deals...
Bargain Hunters Can Finally Find the Real Deals and Coupons for Popular Products
One of the most time-consuming parts of shopping is the time it takes to find and verify coupons, sales, and deals. Even with coupon sites popping up a few years ago, it was hard to know if a sale or coupon was still available or even legitimate. Now, thankfully, there are better options.
Sites like bestdeals.today use big data to comb through listings in real time and deliver an always up to date list of the best deals on a wide variety of product categories. Bestdeals.today combines products from Amazon, Jet, eBay, Walmart and more to help you find the best deals on popular products.
Another great site for bargain hunters is retailmenot, which has coupons and their success rates on a wide variety of sites including several very niche websites! You could also just go the old fashioned route and google the online store + coupons. E.g. "Chesapeake bay candle coupons".
Use Big Data to Identify Trends before They Happen
Maybe spending habits and bargain hunting isn't your thing. You might be more focused on the latest and greatest trends. Luckily, if you know what you're doing, you'll be able to always know what trends are on the way in and which are on their way out. Plus, you won't have to comb through blog posts, news stories, and Instagram feeds to find out!
All it takes is a quick use of Google Trends. With Google Trends, you'll be able to analyze how often (or how little) people are searching for a particular term. For example, if you were to analyze the popularity of hammer pants (blue), sweat pants (red), and track pants (yellow), you may be able to see a steady rise in popularity of track pants.
This could indicate a return of track pants as a popular clothing option, and if the rise continues in the next month you'll know to pick up a pair as to be ahead of the trend.
Big Data Has a Promising Future for Consumers and Businesses Alike
Businesses have already known that big data is the key to an advantage in the future, but now it may be our turn as consumers to gain the same advantages! Right now you can save some cash, learn about your spending habits, and keep ahead of the trends, but who knows what you'll be able to do in the future!