This week, IBM and MasterCard announced a new partnership, one meant to offer smaller merchants real-time, analytics-based market insights on revenue, market share, customer demographics and competitors in a particular location and across multiple locations.
According to a joint press statement, the solution integrates IBM Watson Analytics with insights based on aggregated and anonymized MasterCard transaction data through MasterCard Advisors Local Market Intelligence (LMI).
Per MasterCard’s latest research, more than 7 out of 10 smaller businesses in Asia Pacific expect higher business costs in 2016.
With this enhanced analytical platform powered by MasterCard Advisors and IBM, merchants will hence be better equipped to make informed decisions that lower costs based on a deeper knowledge of their business’ financial strengths and pitfalls.
Starting mid-2016, merchants who accept MasterCard will be able to access this new offering upon subscription, the companies announced.
“There is an increasing wealth of data today that merchants can leverage to better understand their market and consumers. However, smaller merchants often don’t have the resources to maximize the insights,” says Eric Schneider, Senior Vice President of MasterCard Advisors. “That’s the value of this platform turning Big Data into smarter data that is easily accessible and actionable.”
