Believe it or not, whether an eCommerce store will be successful or not depends upon the quality of products and services that it has to offer. And, for this, nowadays, data-driven stores rely on data.
Though even a small eCommerce store captures data (about products, customers, market trends, suppliers, etc.) through forms and user journeys, the challenge is organizing and using the same in relevant areas. In this article, we will learn why to integrate big data into an eCommerce business.
To Improve Product and Customer Databases
The process starts with product information (with the client’s permission). The first step in achieving an efficient Big Data strategy in an eCommerce store is organizing catalog data. It will bring clarity to the internal work and to all the distribution and sales channels that will be used.
Here, it is essential to have software that organizes scattered sources of information in a centralized and automated way. This will keep your data updated in real-time, and that too, without occupying much space. The centralization will make data accessible to multiple people from anywhere.
To Improve Logistics
Stock management is a nightmare for an eCommerce store. Improper information about stock and inventory data can result in economic and goodwill loss. However, with big data in action, all these things can be kept under control. Using big data algorithms, an inventory manager can carry out a predictive analysis.
This allows him to distinguish the periods of greatest demand and have the stock always ready. For example, using proper product and order information, an inventory manager can predict which products customers are going to order near Diwali or Christmas. And, accordingly, he can schedule the transportation from the warehouse to avoid last-minute delays.
To Improve User Experience
To an extent, customers seek personalized online user experiences. Customers are always willing to buy more if the store offers it. However, personalizing the user experience is very complicated if you do not have information about your visitors.
With the proper use of big data, a business can improve the user experience. After learning about a customer’s previous purchases, his usage preferences or wishlists on your website or app, and what products or categories they often visit or share on social networks, a business can surely improve sales.
Using available data, businesses can develop predictive purchasing patterns and make recommendations tailored to the buyer’s needs. Besides, with big data in action, it becomes easier for a business to know about new, old, or returning customers, and take many valuable actions like –
- Show personalized ads.
- Offer discounts and deals to retain new and old visitors.
- Retarget (emails to remember an abandoned shopping cart, newsletters with content adapted by user segments).
- Identify time slots of greater intensity of purchase to promote less popular products or temporary offers.
To Improve Customer Support
It is not only about offering products, discounts, and user experiences. If a purchase is not closed at the first instance, there are heavy chances that the said deal will never close. To avoid this, a business should use big data to respond quickly and efficiently to all customer queries, doubts, complaints, and problems.
With big data in action, it becomes easier for a business to organize all queries and associated solutions in one place, known as a knowledge base. Through this database, customer support executives will always be ready with the answers that they are supposed to give about a specific product, stock, or catalog.
For any eCommerce business, speed is the most valuable factor after quality. With an appropriate big data strategy, your eCommerce customer service team can always locate the data as soon as possible and provide agile responses in a matter of minutes.
To Improve Pricing Policy
Price continues to be the dominant factor in users’ purchasing decisions. However, the question is, how do you know if you’re getting the right prices on your eCommerce channels? The best way to find out this is by comparing your prices with your competitors’ prices.
It becomes easier to adjust your prices when you know the prices of your competitors. You can readjust your prices continuously through a dynamic pricing policy that adjusts to the offer, demand, and differences in each purchase channel and territory.
For example, in marketplaces like Amazon, the price battle is always much fiercer, and you will be able to analyze and apply price variations more often than in a channel where you are interested in maintaining more stable prices and pursuing more profit.
Big Data also allows you to be prepared for emerging trends and times when prices are going to fluctuate much more and you need a competitive advantage, such as Christmas, Festival Season, or Black Friday.
To Improve Marketing Strategies
Finally, we cannot forget about marketing. All the big data about your products, customers, sales channels, and markets are going to be essential to create an adequate marketing strategy with advertising and promotion actions.
Big Data has made marketing decisions in e-commerce very easy. With the use of data insights, one can now learn about several user actions, like when they open an email, how often they visit social networks and the integration of purchase options across different channels.
So, now that you know why you should integrate big data into an eCommerce business, it is time to learn about the advantages and challenges of applying it. In our next reading, we will talk about the same.
If you are running an eCommerce store and looking for big data integration, you can feel free to contact us. Our big data experts will be more than happy to analyze and assist.