A new strategic alliance between Microsoft and measurement and data analytics company Nielsen brings together a wealth of data on fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) retail sales, allowing integration across data sources and countries.
The idea is that firms will be able to easily access data sets via APIs and connectors, allowing them to extract the data they need to provide valuable insights into their market.
Running on the Microsoft Azure cloud platform, Nielsen Connect includes media and consumer measurement (including retail point-of-sale data, consumer panel, e-commerce, fresh food and cross-platform media data), as well as data provided directly by clients and from Nielsen Connect Partners.
According to Forbes, the new service will allow retailers and brands to identify which products in a given sector are winning and losing – and why. Previously that kind of research might have taken months.
Retailers and brands will be able to respond to, and even forecast, demand and trends much faster than they were able to before.
“The first critical step toward digital transformation, especially among retailers, is breaking down the barriers between customer and operational data to fuel insights for the business,” commented Judson Althoff, executive vice president of Microsoft’s Worldwide Commercial Business.
According to Nielsen, through advanced analytics and artificial intelligence services built on Azure, Nielsen Connect is already helping companies integrate data assets to more easily spot emerging trends, diagnose performance gaps, and act faster on opportunities to grow.
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Tags: Next generation connectivity, digital retail, consumer data
