ting Heterogeneous Customer Arrivals to a Large Retail store : A Bayesian Poisson model perspective

This paper considers a Bayesian Poisson model for multivariate count data using multiplicative rates. More specifically we compose the parameter for overall arrival rates by the product of two parameters, a common effect and an individual effect. The common effect is composed of autoregressive evolution of the parameter, which allows for analysis on seasonal effects on all multivariate time series. In addition, analysis on individual effects allows the researcher to differentiate the time series by whatevercharacterization of their choice. This type of model allows the researcher to specifically analyze two different forms of effects separately and produce a more robust result. We illustrate a simple MCMC generation combined with a Gibbs sampler step in estimating the posterior joint distribution of all parameters in the model. On the whole, the model presented in this study is an intuitive model which may handle complicated problems, and we highlight the properties and possible applications of the model with an example, analyzing real time series data involving customer arrivals to a large retail store.