Toshiba, SAS Bringing Predictive Analytics To POS

The consumer shopping experience is becoming ever more customized, soon to predict purchases in real-time.

Toshiba Global Commerce Solutions announced yesterday (May 4) that it is teaming up with analytics company SAS to create technology that will apply advanced predictive analytics at various points of consumer-retailer interaction — in-store, online, and mobile.

“Toshiba is committed to delivering a seamless and interactive shopping experience for shoppers everywhere,” stated Patricia Pepper, Vice President of Worldwide Services, Toshiba Global Commerce Solutions, in a press release. “Through our collaboration with SAS, well-known as an industry leader for powerful analytic solutions, Toshiba is further empowering its retail customers to more effectively curate both a personalized and real-time shopping journey for each customer that transcends a multitude of channels.”

As the press release explains, the alliance between Toshiba and SAS will allow retailers to better leverage consumer insights in an omnichannel fashion, as well as help them connect with customers (and potential ones) on social networks.

“Customers will now have more ways than ever before to reap the benefits of SAS’ market-leading advanced analytics,” commented Russ Cobb, SAS Vice President of Global Alliances and Channels. “With SAS Analytics embedded within the Toshiba loyalty management systems they are already purchasing, customers will have an easily accessible, comprehensive solution giving them the long-term option to apply analytics that may have been previously out of their reach.”

The release points to research findings that have shown consumers to be 55 percent more likely to share personal information in return for a more customized shopping experience or some type of reward, but alleges that many retailers aren’t utilizing this information properly. Toshiba attests that the integration of SAS’ predictive analytics into its systems can help change that.

“To be successful today, it’s important that retailers keep in tune with their shopper’s unique preferences and behaviors,” added Fernando Yamada, president of Y. Yamada from Brazil, in the release. “The combination of Toshiba and SAS coming together to bring visualization and predictive analytics to the retail industry is sure to better empower retailers around the world to optimize interactions with their customers across all channels and in a meaningful way.”