AS Watson hosted the first retail-themed Big Data Hackathon in Hong Kong. The 36-hour, non-stop event attracted over 110 tech and data science professionals.

“For retailers, big data is a game-changer. AS Watson Group is adopting a data-first strategy towards understanding customer shopping behavior, mapping them to our selection of products, shop floor space planning, marketing strategy and selection of store locations,” explained Malina Ngai, ASW Group Chief Operating Officer. “We organized this Hackathon to enable the local start-up communities, data scientist and programmers to bring their creative ideas to life, and provide solutions to enable retailers to become smarter and faster.”

For the two-day event, the participants were divided into 16 teams and challenged to detect health scenarios, develop algorithms for prediction, assortment planning, pricing and personalizing offers to customers. The winning team produced an algorithm dubbed Dr Watson, which integrates weather, search keyword and product information to provide a better customer experience.