Data mining is going to be big business in the near future. To understand why, consider that the food retailer, The Schwan Food Company, has used data mining to bolster its revenue by 3 to4 percent.

That might not sound like a lot but in the retail industry, it’s huge.

According to this insightful article, Schwan’s did it by applying algorithms to gain new insights into customer purchasing habits. Among the things the company was able to identify were “genetic twins”–if many people liked one product for instance, they often could be incented into purchasing a “twin” product.

The company also was able to use algorithms to determine when customers began purchasing fewer products. Armed with this information, it was able to lower prices or offer coupons or other such deals to keep the customer from dropping out of their delivery program altogether.

Interested in some other future-related algorithm madness? Check out these older posts:

Preparing the Data Miner of the Future

The Canary in the Data Mine

Bet Against Yourself