What Can Data Mining Be Used For?

Data mining is used for many purposes, depending on the company and its needs. Possible uses include:

1. Forecasting and Risk: Analyzing data to determine where something went wrong in the past
such as the number of online visitors that didn't purchase an item after looking at it, for
example- could help a retailer make better decisions about inventory to purchase in the future.
Similarly, seeing what time of day a system has been overloaded with web traffic in the past
could help a business prepare by assigning more resources or investing in server upgrades.
2. Grouping: Data provided by customers allows companies to group users together in a range of
ways, including demographically based on gender, age, income, where they live, and their
spending habits. This allows them to efficiently target the appropriate users for specific offers or
messages.
3. Analyzing Behavior: Examining data allows companies to understand the kind of stimuli
customers respond to. Do certain groups respond to specific offers or emails at a certain time of
day or on a certain day of the week, for example? Or maybe it provides clarity on why users visit
one website and not another or why they abandon sales at the last minute. Analysis helps them
determine what they can do to prevent negative consumer behaviors that hurt their company.