USING MACHINE LEARNING TO PREDICT THE NEXT PURCHASE DATE FOR AN INDIVIDUAL RETAIL CUSTOMER

Targeted marketing has become more popular over the last few years, and knowing when a customer will require a product can be of enormous value to a company. However, predicting this is a difficult task. This paper reports on a study that investigates predicting when a customer will buy fast-moving retail products, by using machine learning techniques. This is done by analysing the purchase history of a customer at participating retailers. These predictions will be used to personalise discount offers to customers when they are about to purchase items. Such offers will be delivered on the mobile devices of participating customers and, ultimately, physical, general paper-based marketing will be reduced.