3M Co. opened a new Consumer Data Science and Merchandising Lab at its Maplewood headquarters Tuesday to help retailers and 3M boost product sales, find efficiencies in the factory-to-delivery process and even test if the type on labels is the right size.
3M's Consumer Business Group spent two years developing the multimillion-dollar initiative and the better part of last year building out the large and sleek space that now sits inside Building 230, across from 3M's four-year-old Design Lab.
The new consumer-data lab includes a data science and analytics office, a visualization lab where interactive presentations will be conducted with customers and an ever-changing retail lab.
The latter is really a massive mock-up store. On Tuesday it showcased aisles and aisles of 3M products, but the set can be changed in an instant, depending on what the 3M customer would like to see, officials said.
The new 24,592-square-foot lab is run by dozens of 3M computer scientists, statisticians, mathematicians and other employees charged with improving 3M's $4.8 billion consumer business.
"This lab is all about our customers and consumers who are at the very core of everything we do," said Joaquin Delgado, executive vice president of 3M's Consumer Business Group. "We are applying artificial intelligence and machine learning in the retail landscape to create a better customer and consumer experience."
Analyzing the data will help 3M develop new algorithms that can improve how 3M goes to market.
3M's effort is the latest among many U.S. companies to deeply dive into consumer data to bolster sales, service, delivery times and efficiencies. Land O'Lakes, the Mall of America and Amazon are among companies relying on consumer trends and data science to stoke sales.