Nowadays, daily sales are not enough to ensure longevity of a business. Markets are beginning to realize the necessity of predicting future sales. They are tapping into the business trends and applying machine learning algorithms on big data to allow businesses to maximize their efforts in the most profitable areas. By knowing ahead of time, what a customer will buy, profits can be maximized and businesses can be tailored accordingly. Predictive Analytics allows us to segment customers, find patterns in their behavior and take preemptive measures to reduce churn. Analytics can be used to identify correlations and also to find causation. It can allow us to predict an individual's purchase behavior once we understand the causation underlying a pattern. Read more at: http://www.computerworld.com/article/2934086/business-intelligence/marketers-are-betting-big-on-predictive-analytics.html