Online retailers are particularly smart at this, and have given many established brick and mortar competitors a hard time with their ability to analyze consumer sentiment, take suitable action, and elicit positive recommendations from their enormous online audience.

FORBES: Now that data's going really big, what's next?

We can aggregate and analyze data to better understand consumer trends, and then apply those insights to our go-to-market campaigns.

FORBES: Study: Most CEOs Think CMOs Lack Business Credibility

If we analyze by annualizing that 203% growth in the consumer market, GDP per capita will have to grow at a rate of 6% and consumer spending will grow at 7.8% between now and 2020, outpacing GDP growth by nearly 2%, consistently for the next 8 years.

FORBES: China's Crisis of Confidence