How Big Data can help you boost your eCommerce sales?

General, Price-monitoring, Big-data · 12 May 2020

We all still very well remember the Facebook–Cambridge Analytica data scandal from 2018 when the massive amounts of data were harvested from 87 million users without their consent and used for political advertising. This may have been the first time the general public realized what a powerful weapon big data can be.

However, businesses seem to get hold of this somewhat earlier. Jeff Bezos, the CEO of Amazon, and the world’s richest person, managed to make Amazon the first company to anticipate the potential of big data. Amazon was one of the first e-commerce businesses to use innovative techniques to improve sales, such as product recommendation, drone delivery programs, etc.

As you can see, big data can either doom you, or skyrocket you. It allows you to utilize information to tell you whatever you want it to, which can be great for juicy headlines, but when it comes to businesses, things are a bit more complicated.

If you want to use only one word to describe the e-commerce environment, then the most accurate would be unpredictableness. There is definitely something about the excitement when investigating your audience, finding new ways to succeed, and even predicting the marketing trends. Well, probably appearing in front of the Senate as Zuckerberg did, is not the kind of popularity that you would want for your business, but you get our point.

So, what exactly big data will bring to your e-commerce business? Let’s dig into it a little bit more.

What is Big Data and Why do You Need it?

The public just loves buzz words, don’t they? Especially if they aren’t completely sure what they mean, but they do sound smart. One of those words is big data. In the business world, it refers to massive amounts of online available data that can be used for a better understanding of patterns in people’s behavior. Or to call it ‘behavioral data’ if you are such a fan of those fancy words.

Since one of the constant pain points for online businesses is customer experience and retention, it’s a no-brainer why having the right information about the customers is important. One of the main advantages that e-commerce stores have over traditional brick-and-mortar stores is the ability to be a part of the global market. But, that comes with problems of its own. Online businesses often tend to bite more than they can chew, and they are working without having a deeper market understanding. The product/service that you are offering can’t perform great in all possible markets - you need to analyze which market contains the majority of your potential customers. In order to recognize who your customers are, you need to look for relevant information about them. And what a better way than to use big data?

Now, you might think that all this sounds nice but that collecting this amount of information is not only hard but expensive as well. Many businesses think this way too, but contrary to popular belief, big data isn’t only for enterprises. Ecommerce tools such as i.e. Price2Spy can help you with understanding not only your customers but maybe even more important - your competition. Ecommerce quickly became a fierce competition environment, where everyone’s trying to get a piece of the cake called profit. Many competitors base their strategy on lowering the price only, and it’s vital that you’re aware of these occurrences.

Someone who for sure uses smart words not just because they sound smart is MIT. According to their report, “by 2020, each of the 7.7 million people in the world is expected to produce 1.7 megabytes of new information every second of every day, and currently, only 0,5% is ever analyzed and used”

Just in case you think it’s a typo, let’s emphasize it once more - only 0,5% is EVER analyzed and used. We sincerely hope you do realize what potential is being wasted and how much information goes unnoticed by your company.

The Advantages of Using Big Data in Ecommerce

We know that the majority of pricing experts or company directors are often too busy to look around for fresh research that’s appearing on a daily basis. That’s why we’re going to present you some of the newest Big Data Statistics Facts and Figures. Here are just some of the most interesting findings that we would like to point out from this research:

“Data-driven organizations are 23 times more likely to acquire customers than their peers.
By 2021, insight-driven businesses are predicted to take $1.8 trillion annually from their less-informed peers.
The amount of global data sphere subject to data analysis will grow to 5.2 zettabytes by 2025.
More than two-thirds of enterprises trying out big data initiatives have seen a decrease in operational expenses”

As you can see, big data is becoming an essential part of e-commerce success.

Now, let’s devote a few lines to explain how your e-commerce business will succeed by using big data.

Make E-commerce Success Possible with Big Data

From what we’ve said so far, it’s clear that big data can help you with customer analysis. But, there are other aspects of your business that might need a slight push as well. When you are clear with who your customers are, you can try to find similar audiences and target them in order to acquire new shoppers. Also, with big data, you don’t only know who your customers are, but as well what kind of people they are - their likes and dislikes, expectations, motivation, etc. This kind of insight is valuable since it is going to help you to personalize the customer experience.

Personalization is something that’ll set your business apart from the competition. Why is that the case?

Well, one of the biggest flaws that e-commerce has is the lack of personal interaction which is present in brick-and-mortar stores. With personalization, customers will feel as if they are interacting with a real person, who knows exactly what they are looking for. In 2017, Annex Cloud published a white paper about customer retention explaining that 86% of consumers say personalization plays an essential role in their buying journey.

This makes it more clear why Amazon boosted their sales by introducing product recommendations, right?

Besides creating a personalized experience on the website, you can also do it by sending your visitors an email with recommended products. This wouldn’t be available if there weren’t big data.

Another obstacle for e-commerce shoppers is the security of online payments. Here big data comes very handily as well. You can always integrate different paying methods which will enable you to keep an eye on the trends. You’ll see what payment options your customers usually go for, and which ones are maybe not so good solutions.

One more important part of e-commerce success is customer service. It’s no secret that customers are impatient. When we say impatient we actually mean that 71% of online customers expect to be able to access help online within 5 minutes. Not the same understanding of the word ‘impatience’ that you had in mind probably. Big data can help you to measure how fast your response is.

Big businesses often fall into the trap of thinking that investing time into an unsatisfied customer is almost worthless - there’s always someone else who’ll like their product/service. Executives, we’re sorry for bringing bad news, but according to the research conducted by Linkedin, your approach might not be as brilliant as you think. If customers aren’t satisfied, 13% of them will share that information with 15 people or more. If their experience was positive, 72% of them will share it with 6 or more people. Bad news spreads fast.

Final word

Big data is changing the business world at a very fast pace. Even though it can be a double-edged sword, the benefits of using it are countless. Therefore, if you’re still having second thought about embarking on the big data journey, this might be your last chance to catch up with competitors. You never know if you don’t try - Price2Spy is offering a 30 day free trial period, so make sure to check it out as well. Maybe it’s just the solution that you’re looking for to put you ahead of the competition!

We hope that this article will help you gain a better understanding of big data. Please feel free to share your thoughts regarding this subject in the comment section below!