OAKBROOK TERRACE, Ill. — William McKnight spoke of data as the world’s next natural resource, like oil, water or sunlight.

As I listened to him recently at a software users’ conference, the comparison seemed obvious. With parking spaces, garbage cans, cars, watches, clothes, even our own bodies potentially having sensors to track just about everything, data may prove to be the raw material needed to reinvent commerce, healthcare and all things manufactured and consumed.

As president of McKnight Consulting Group, Plano, Texas, the data-information specialist had keen insight into retail that he shared with attendees at The Pinnacle Corp.’s annual users’ summit in Southlake, Texas, last week.

Here are some of those thoughts:

• Real time. Gone are the batch days as companies with monthly uploads are moving to weekly, weekly to daily, daily to hourly, hourly to real time.
• Dynamic pricing. Retailers will be able to adjust pricing based on trending sales, maximizing goals be they margin or volume.
• Inventory optimization. Retailers can have more of what’s in demand in stock and less inventory that just sits.
• Couponing. Data can help retailers offer more relevant discounts to grow affinity, traffic or market basket.
• Selling data. Retailers can make money off of selling raw data to information companies who analyze the numbers and provide crucial results.
• Self-serve reporting. In time, key individuals within the company will have access to data to populate their own measuring tools.

Customer affinity information can come from combining data from third parties, McKnight said, a process he called “triangulation.” Retailers don’t have to analyze their store data in a vacuum. Information such as the kinds of magazines a customer buys or the search words he or she uses derived from third parties can let a retailer develop relevant coupon or loyalty offers.

Once refined, raw data can help retailers stock hot items, offer tantalizing incentives and bring people into the store. Understanding and acting on those opportunities may be the next gold rush.

Angel Abcede has written about convenience-store technology for more than 20 years and is senior editor atCSP magazine.