An IBM retail client wants to gather data on their customers' buying habits. Which cloud service can help support this request?

To support a retail client's request for gathering data on customers' buying habits, the most suitable cloud service is analytics. Analytics allows businesses to collect, process, and analyze large datasets to uncover patterns and insights regarding customer behavior. By employing analytics tools, the client can gain valuable insights into purchasing trends, customer preferences, and behaviors over time.

Using analytics, the IBM retail client can apply various techniques such as predictive modeling, customer segmentation, and market basket analysis. These techniques can help the client make data-driven decisions, enhance customer experience, and optimize inventory management based on actual consumer behavior.

While other options like cloud storage and data management are important components for storing and handling data, they do not provide the analytical capabilities necessary to extract actionable insights from customer data. Cloud hosting generally refers to the infrastructure that enables services to run but does not specifically address the needs for analyzing customer buying habits. Thus, analytics stands out as the most effective service for this purpose.