Retail in the emerging markets : a study based on association rules

Dissertation presented as the partial requirement for obtaining a Master's degree in Information Management, specialization in Knowledge Management and Business IntelligenceBuying patterns and habits of consumers in the developed countries are fairly well known. There is plenty of information, ranging from market data collected by companies like Nielsen, to data collected at the Point-Of-Sale (POS) by retailers. This data provides a detailed image of the buying habits of consumers in developed countries. In emerging countries however, our knowledge of the habits and behaviors is limited since this kind of data is scarce. With the expansion of modern retail companies to emerging countries, and their data collecting technologies, new opportunities emerge to understand these customers. This work is interested in contrasting habits and behaviors of customers in developed and emerging countries. The project seeks to understand the main differences between these consumers through the exploration of POS data using Association Rules. POS data and Association Rules provide a very rich and powerful way to understand the main traits of commerce and consumers. The ability to explore very big databases and extract significant facts and regularities in day-to-day transactions can help shed some light in buying patterns. As a result, it was possible to identify significant differences in the habits and behaviors that should support the operational setting of retail companies in emerging countrie