US retailer Target has adapted techniques developed for the web, including extensive customer databases and analytics techniques, to identify whether their customers are pregnant.
According to the New York Times, the retailer maintains a large internal database in which each of its customers are assigned a unique “Guest ID” number.
Using analytics techniques originally developed for the web, the retailer assigns a “Pregnancy Prediction score” to each of its customers based on whether they purchased one of 25 key products.
Once the retailer’s systems identify a customer as being pregnant, other information in the database is used to identify the stage of the pregnancy, and products are marketed to the customer accordingly.
Target in the US is not affiliated to the discount department store chain in Australia, which is a subsidiary of Wesfarmers.
Patrick Stafford is a freelance journalist and a former deputy editor of SmartCompany.
