When it comes to sales data, it's usually about the quantities sold and the locations where the purchase happened.

Financial data is about how much was deposited, withdrawn or transferred from a given account.

Practically all our data systems are built around transactions, making things easy to track or account for.

But there's very little around choice and how we arrive at it.

That evidence is still circumstantial

Social media and search will try to co-relate the time you saw an ad or communication and tie it down to purchase a few days or weeks later.

We all know how effective or ineffective that is, even with all the data available.

Look at click through rates.

They’re less than 1% on most sites.

So, what is the truth? That customers on websites are even less attentive than customers reading newspapers and magazines?

How is that progress?

There was no way of measuring responses earlier, except from the call to action. Phone calls or form fills.

Even with so-called intent marketing, profiling and data gathering, we're discovering fresh knots in customer equations.

The data disconnect around purchase patterns

Discounts work. That's established.

But does it get new customers in?

Or attract a set of customers who only look for deals.

We've had a billion dollar company grow spectacularly and then flame out in a matter of years.

Groupon built its entire business around discounts.

It seemed like the ultimate tastemaker.

A company that would attract new consumers to try out multiple products and services

At least that was the assumption.

The reality was a bit off. The best deals built a flood of traffic but not long-term business revenue.

Everything was tracked. The number of deals redeemed.

The new business generated.

Definite purchase patterns but not with long-term leverage.

The traffic to the site was unbelievable. It still is. Over 18 million visitors a year.

Groupon has become a place where permanent clearance sales happen.

Brands that may have miscalculated potential sales 

Huge segment but not necessarily the one that keeps up a steady flow for the future.

There's no shortage of data. But does it show how the discount market should be grown and managed?

The share price of Groupon has plunged from over $400 in 2011 to $21 per share now.

Got your answer?

The data disconnect. Stats and coaching

How did data based coaching improve the performance of baseball players?

Most statistical models for sport rely on past records, age, comparable players from the past to project potential.

But a few players were beating projections.

And by rates that made it look almost suspicious.

What they had in common were coaches who relied on technology

The coaches were using high speed cameras to slow down the action and find out where the players were going wrong.

It's another story that the company which developed these cameras for research purposes found that their biggest customers were baseball teams.

The coach who began this trend started with little league players.

He asked questions that had never been asked before

How many pitches should a player throw during practice?

And what's the best way to pitch them?

Do you see the similarities between cricket and baseball?

We have detailed statistics on matches played, boundaries hit, no balls bowled and so on.

But nothing to show a player precisely what he should be doing to improve his bowling action

Or how a batsman could change one critical aspect and improve his strike rate dramatically.

That's where data can help.

And where the future of the sport will change

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