Billions of people around the world use and interact with e-commerce sites every day. In the process, data is accumulated at levels never before possible. Through collection and analysis of this large-scale data, often referred to as big data, you can transform your bottom line.
In combination with Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies, you can use big data in your e-commerce site to generate activity you never before thought possible. Using personalized product recommendations and targeted marketing strategies, you can efficiently drive revenues up.
Here’s what you need to know about big data and your bottom line.
How Big Data is Improving E-commerce
Every day, the e-commerce industry is being improved by the accumulation and effective usage of big data. With the ability to understand customers like never before, online retailers are able to adapt recommendations to customer preferences, drive engagement, and transform their marketing strategies for ultimate success.
Personalized Recommendations
Any site you visit where you see recommendations based on previous activity—be it purchases on Amazon or viewing on Netflix—an AI algorithm is behind the scenes, offering suggestions based on the compiled data generated by you and other customers in order to tailor content to what likely are your preferences.
A McKinsey report found that 35% of the sales generated by Amazon are based on their product recommendations crafted by user activity. This is a significant portion of sales that e-commerce retailers should not miss out on. AI tools that integrate big data to form these recommendations can mean drastic improvements for your bottom line.
Sales Strategy
Big data allows for the analysis of large-scale customer behavior data, giving you the tools to craft your e-commerce sales, specials, and marketing strategies to gain interest from a broader consumer base than you might ever have had access to before.
Social media tools — even the crafting of social media posts — can be formulated and automated based on the conclusions gathered from big data. Say for example you’ve learned that more people will search and interact with ads for your product at a certain time of day through the information gained from big data. Now, you can craft those ads to appear at the right time to generate interest and clicks, building your bottom line and benefiting your business.
The implementation of AI processes through big data is already revolutionizing all kinds of industries — will your e-commerce business be next?
Big Data in Marketing
Through big data marketing, your e-commerce business has much to gain. The importance of data collection and usage in marketing cannot be overstated. In fact, 83% of marketing professionals surveyed in 2016 said data made marketing products and services more profitable.
By using big data in marketing strategies, you can craft content to a certain audience, generating a wealth of leads and tailored services that will keep and build customer interest. Use big data to:
- Analyze of click-through rates and conversion metrics.
- Understand transactional data for marketing success strategies.
- Gauge the effectiveness of messaging.
- Test and experiment with communication and advertising.
- Review loyalty metrics and customer satisfaction.
In short, big data gives you the ability to see the big picture for your e-commerce business. You can evaluate the metrics of your current success, and tie that success to working strategies. Then, you can experiment with messaging to find the best wording, timing, platforms, and strategies to build customer engagement.
Big data gives you the potential to constantly monitor and upgrade your marketing tools to grow your bottom line with an effective e-commerce business. Without it, it would be difficult to really know the extent to which your marketing was effective. Big data takes the guesswork out of e-commerce.
A Better Customer Experience
There are many good reasons why marketing is headed in the big data direction: not only does it build your revenues, it provides a better customer experience. This has a cyclical effect, as the more customers are satisfied, the more they return to your online store.
Understanding market data is key in bringing effective ads to the spaces your customers congregate online every day, like social media. It also helps in personalizing the sales funnel to draw interaction through customized deals, offers, and messaging that potential customers will see and respond to. They will feel understood and will be enticed to buy, while you add to your resources of customer interaction data.
Additionally, customer service tools like chatbots can be implemented on your site for ease of use and quick answers to customer questions. Customer education ensures both their and your success, so tools like these are extremely valuable.
It is indisputable that big data analytics and tools improve the customer experience. Now, your e-commerce business just needs to apply those tools towards customized consumer recommendations and effective sales strategies that will generate leads and expand your bottom line. The future of marketing is big data, so make use of it in your digital store today.
