You’d be surprised at how many of those things you think are random would actually emerge as a pattern in long enough purchase history data.
For example, it might be that there’s a seasonality to your being in the mood. Or other things you’d have brought a week before, etc.
Over a decade ago a model looking only at purchase history for Target was able to tell a teenage girl was pregnant before her family knew just by things like switching from scented candles to unscented.
There’s more modeled in that data than simply what’s on the receipt.
You’d be surprised at how many of those things you think are random would actually emerge as a pattern in long enough purchase history data.
For example, it might be that there’s a seasonality to your being in the mood. Or other things you’d have brought a week before, etc.
Over a decade ago a model looking only at purchase history for Target was able to tell a teenage girl was pregnant before her family knew just by things like switching from scented candles to unscented.
There’s more modeled in that data than simply what’s on the receipt.