big data

Executive Summary
Today we have entered an era of big data, this data-driven world has the potential to improve the efficiencies of enterprises and improve the quality of our lives; however, there are a number of challenges that must be addressed to allow us to exploit the full potential of big data. This paper focuses on challenges faced by online retailers when making use of big data. With the provided examples of online retailers Amazon and eBay, this paper addressed the key challenges of big data analytics including data capture and storage, data analysis and data visualization.

Contents
1. Introduction -------------------------------------------------------------------------- p.3
2. Challenges
2.1 Data capture and storage ----------------------------------------------- p.3-4
2.2 Data analysis --------------------------------------------------------------- p.4-5
2.3 Data visualization --------------------------------------------------------- p.5-6
3. Conclusion ------------------------------------------------------------------------ p.7
4. Reference ------------------------------------------------------------------------- p.8

1. Introduction
In this year and age, the rapid development of technology and the growth of digital communication have made the world become more connected and networked, which has typically led to the use of big data analytics. “Big data are high-volume, high-velocity, and/or high-variety information assets that require new forms of processing to enable enhanced decision making, insight discovery and optimization” (Gartner, 2011). Such big data analysis now affects the operation of different industries, including mobile services, retail, manufacturing and financial services. This essay focuses on the use of big data in online retailing industry and the challenges they face when making use of such large scale of data.

2. Challenges
With the growth of big data, the process of extracting value from such large amount of data can be very