Web retailers could soon have an extra advantage in the fight for custom, reports today's Financial Times:
An Israeli scientist claims to have developed a technique enabling website retailers to predict which visitors to their websites are most likely to buy goods and services online.
Amit Fisher, a researcher at IBM's Haifa laboratory, said his method could predict the long-term value of web shoppers to retailers, making it simpler for them, for example, to give valued customers preferential treatment or to target special promotions and marketing campaigns accurately.
Actually, Mr Fisher says that his invention isn't just for the web, but can be applied to all shopping. Still, with the online retail market continuing to shoot up (American shoppers spent $23bn online at Christmas) this kind of 'gold card' system could prove useful to many sellers.
