This is a news I heard on the radio during my vacations this summer. Orange, and other cell phone companies propose big data solutions based on the geolocation information of their customers. How does it work? As the cell phone provider has information on where a specific customers is thanks to its connection to the network, it can therefore provide information on how many people are located at a specific point.
This information can be very valuable, for example to better understand the rush hour period of a store, or for example in leisure places, where traffic may vary a lot depending on the period of the year, or of the day.
By leveraging those information, companies can make yield management decisions, and therefore improve their operational efficiency: setting up the best employee schedule to meet customer's expectations, understanding better how customers get to your store and so on.
I believe this technology could probably be very benefitial for the retail business, especially for the real estate & mall business, and will have a bright future in the next few years.
