The practice of examining large pre-existing databases in order to generate new information. ‘For example, one Midwest grocery chain used the data mining capacity of Oracle software to analyse local buying patterns. They discovered that when men bought diapers on Thursdays and Saturdays, they also tended to buy beer. Further analysis showed that these shoppers typically did their weekly grocery shopping on Saturdays. On Thursdays, however, they only bought a few items. The retailer concluded that they purchased the beer to have it available for the upcoming weekend. The grocery chain could use this newly discovered information in various ways to increase revenue. For example, they could move the beer display closer to the diaper display. And, they could make sure beer and diapers were sold at full price on Thursdays.’

Source: http://www.anderson.ucla.edu/faculty/jason.frand/teacher/technologies/palace/datamining.htm , cited by EU OD