Big Data Success Story: Selling More Pop-Tarts
Everyone loves pop-tarts, especially the strawberry kind. And Walmart decided to take this to the next level with a little help from Big Data.
As you may have heard, Walmart tirelessly collects data on each of its customers, then crunches it to arrive at individual and group preferences. This process recently unearthed the fact that when a hurricane is imminent, shoppers tended to stock up on Kellogg’s’ strawberry pop tarts, ostensibly to tide over being marooned during the hurricane (and perhaps to give them extra sugary energy to board up their windows and doors).
Based on this business intelligence, whenever a hurricane was forecast, Walmart store managers were instructed to order more of the pop tarts and place them near the entrance to their stores. So when the water flowed in, so did the money!!
