Retail Industry is characterized by extremely high level of competition and low margins thus keeping organization always on their toes. It is imperative for companies to find newer channels to reach customers while adopting ways to continuously improve operating efficiency. The constant drive from competitors have led to Retail industry being front runner in technology adoption.

It is no surprise that the industry is the fastest to adapt some of recent technology advancement in social media, mobile device communication and data mining. The proliferation of digital, social, and mobile technologies coupled with increasing consumer adoption of these technologies, continues to change the way consumers shop. Therefore, to capture these consumers at the start of their shopping journey, retailers must ensure they continue to invest across technology platforms apart from merely providing an engaging in-store experience. 

The advent of social media has given a window to industry players to directly reach out and listen to the consumer preferences. Organizations are able to carry out data mining using tremendous amount of unstructured data generated because of this interaction.

Effective and relevant data mining is a growth opportunity for retailers. The retailers that stand to gain will be those that can effectively sort through the vast amount of available data, and then zero in on the information that can be used to enhance customer service.