Think the term “Big Data” is just another over-used term for 2014? Think again. The buzz surrounding Big Data is not unwarranted. In fact, eCommerce is on the verge of a big shift driven by the availability of Big Data. Not only does it allow retailers to gain deeper insights into their customer’s demographic, purchase history and social data, it also affords the opportunity to make more accurate decisions to improve just about every aspect of their store’s marketing, merchandising, customer service and operations plans.
Below are four reasons that explains the impact of Big Data for online merchants and how this over-used term is creating a shift towards efficiency, personalization, and an automated approach towards the customer journey.
1. The Availability of Data
The biggest challenge for most eCommerce stores, especially the smaller ones, is to collect, store and organize all the data that is available. There’s certainly a lot of data waiting to be analyzed and making sense of it all is an overwhelming task for just about every online merchant. Most small and medium online merchants think that Big Data analysis is only for larger companies, like the Amazons and Targets of the world. In fact, having access to data is very important for the little guys, especially as they attempt to compete with the larger stores.
2. Customer Service
Excellent customer service is critical to the success of an eCommerce site. But Big Data has made customer service a challenge – requiring just about every interaction with a shopper to be used for serving that specific shopper to improve upon the customer experience. To continue to excel at customer service, online retailers need to overcome this challenge, and understanding and utilizing your store’s data is certainly a great way to accomplish this.
3. Data-Driven Decisions
Perhaps the most powerful impact that Big Data has made on the world of eCommerce, is that it allows merchants to make more informed “data-driven” decisions. For instance, one of our customers that sells apparel and accessories online increased their site traffic by 912% after leveraging their data to create more tactical results-driven marketing campaigns. Another Springbot customer was able to increase their online sales by 3x within a six month period after using their store data to create personalized and automated emails.
4. Personalization
Big Data also lets eCommerce merchants create more personalized marketing campaigns and offers because it enables them to track each customer’s behavior and connect the dots to determine the most effective ways to convert browsers and one-time customers into repeat buyers. The reason it works is that Big Data allows eCommerce stores the ability to offer their customers a personalized experience, including content and promotions, by tracking their data in real-time.
Get Started with Big Data!
If you are in the dark about your store’s data or want to know how you can leverage your data to create personalized marketing campaigns, schedule a short demo with our team of eCommerce marketing experts. You can also check out FreeDemographicSnapshot.com to get a sample report of your store’s demographic data. It’s really easy to use and gives you a powerful ‘snapshot’ that includes information about the age, gender, and households of your customers for free.