This article is the brief overview of typically how machine learning applications can be useful for the retailers/advertisers and marketing folks and target the relevant customers for their business based on the location, marketing needs and social media influence. Following retail/marketing use cases also describes about how to target the retail customers in an algorithmic way.
https://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/53544.azure-machine-learning-applications-in-retail-marketing.aspx