How Big Data is Influencing ECommerce
ECommerce in recent years has been quite popular amongst the public. People prefer the idea of choosing their desired products from the comfort of their homes. The massive success of the eCommerce industry could be attributed to the large amounts of data that is available today. Big data analysis, in particular, has been crucial in helping the retail sector keep up with the growing trends and mindsets of the consumers. The modern day consumer is truly a remarkable creature with a myriad of needs and expectation along with a constantly changing taste pallet influenced by the media. In today’s market, it is hard to remain relevant without staying up-to-date with the constantly turning tide of the consumer demographic mindset. This is patently obvious with the various products that have a total lifetime of just a few months in the market after which a newer, more improved product takes over. Long gone are the days of time-tested products serving a loyal customer base for decades often bought from the same dealer. So, e-commerce and the use of the various tools that support is more of a mandate today rather than a choice. In India alone, it is expected that the e-commerce industry is set to cross the $100 billion mark in revenue by 2020. Now, let us have a look at the technology that influences e-commerce the most.
Data Analysis and Actionable Insights
As we have witnessed with everything today, data always plays a huge role. E-commerce in particular relies almost entirely on data for many processes. And there is a colossal amount of it online and analyzing it is by no means an easy task. It is here that big data makes a huge difference for all professionals within the e-commerce industry to make the best out of the data available to them. Deriving actionable insights that will help them with various processes from planning marketing strategies to campaigns, product placement, inventory, budget management etc. Professionals are now able to understand where their business strategies are taking a hit and plan contingencies that could be used to rectify them. Choosing the most effective marketing channel, the right platform to place the product are just a few of the perks that data analytics offers.
Demand Prediction
Prediction services are one of the largest benefits of big data. Given the vast resource of information available through big data, it is now possible for a retailer to predict the sales prospects of a product and how it will fair in the market. All this is based on historical data of the products’ performance in your business as well as that of other retailers. Services like Amazon Web Service (AWS) analyze customers’ shopping habits and their browsing habits to achieve this.
Personalized Business
Using behavior tracking services retailers are able to understand the personal preferences and purchase patterns. This data is further leveraged to customize ad placements and products displayed by retailers on e-commerce websites. Personalized stores display all the products that customers are more likely to buy and in most cases have been looking forward to buying. Such data is acquired by monitoring the customers’ web searches, the topics they are researching and so on. Automated recommendation for the product they are searching for is displayed on their browsers and on most websites they visit. Sometimes a cue for such a process is given when a customer first clicks on a particular product while just window shopping. In some cases, personalized offers are given to customers based on the various sites they are visiting to get the best deal. This prompts the retailer to offer a better deal for that customer. This also works quite well while scaling. The idea here is to always stay ahead of the curve. Coupons and promotional codes are also passed on to customers as part of this process.
Customer Service Optimization
The 21st-century business world relies a lot on customer service and support. A bad experience with customer service and support could lead to your business or product getting a bad reputation. Besides customer service today is also a marketing opportunity for selling accessories and additional supplies. Big data offers a clear view of the customers by providing vital information that could be used to enhance the customer service experience. Furthermore, with online transactions, mistakes occur often and some of them could cost dearly for both parties. Using big data a customer care professional will have access to all the information leading up to his/her interaction with the customer. This miscommunication can be minimized and a solution can be provided speedily.
