DATA MINING CUP 2016: Stemming the flood of returns in online trading

In search of new ideas: The task for the globally established DATA MINING CUP was announced today, marking the start of the 17th edition of the competition. This year, international teams compete to solve the problem of predicting returns in the online fashion trading. The winners will be recognized at the prudsys personalization summit 2016 in Berlin.

Return rates of up to 50 percent in the clothing industry pose a huge challenge for retailers. Despite the new Right of Revocation, which in many cases makes customers responsible for paying the return shipping, the flood of returns in Germany continues. Retailers are looking for new ways to reduce the cost of returns. Preventative measures based on predicting returns, such as limiting payment options and adjusting shipping costs, are promising strategies.

The DATA MINING CUP (DMC for short) is a world-renowned student competition in the field of intelligent data analysis. The topic of this year’s competition is the calculation of the probability of returns. Every spring up-and-coming international analysts test their skills in that competition to find solutions to the current year’s task. In the 17th edition the task is to measure the influence of discounts and coupons on the frequency of returns. Competitors take anonymized historical order data from a real online shop and use it to develop a model which will make it possible to predict new returns.

The teams have a total of six weeks to develop a model and submit their results. To date, more than 80 teams from 60 educational institutions in 24 countries have registered for the competition. Teams can register up until the deadline for submission of results on 18 May 2016.

The names of some of the best up-and-coming data miners will be announced during the prudsys personalization summit 2016. The two-day conference is the leading event for news and trends in the field of dynamic omni-channel personalization in retail. This year the prudsys personalization summit will take place from 28 to 29 June 2016 at the andel’s Hotel in Berlin. Conference attendees will hear presentations by Klingel, 1-2-3.tv, Würth, nu3, Dr. Eva Stüber (IFH Köln) and Adrian Hotz (e-commerce consulting).

More information about the prudsys personalization summit 2016 at summit.prudsys.de/en/