Big data…. Its a notion that has been increasingly thrown around the place over the past few years promising us an unfathomable well of information on theoretically anything.

And so far, depending on how one uses ones tools, it has enabled online retailers, banks, large companies, tech companies etc to learn an unprecedented amount of information on their current and potential customers. It enables them to create algorithms that can actively track a users purchasing patterns, even their “window shopping” habits, which the companies can then use to prompt said customers to buy other recommended items.

Let me quickly delve into what i call online window shopping. There’s two aspects to it. Firstly there’s the type where a buyer, say on Amazon, has finished his or her shopping and proceeds to the checkout phase. More often than not, it has been noted that people often click on multiple items to simply save them in their basket to decide once at checkout what they want to do with it. Secondly, there is the more traditional, “physical” way of window shopping whereby a person is looking at one of his or her aspirations, wants, desires, but knows that it is currently unattainable. (i.e me customizing a $300’000 Lamborghini on their website). Wishful thinking.

McAfee, A., & Brynjolfsson, E. (2012). Big data: the management revolution. Harvard business review, 90(10), 60-66.