How To Leverage Data To Accelerate Your eCommerce Business

June 15, 2021 by Patricia Bennett

In the world of eCommerce, every online retailer is working hard to stay ahead of the competition and find success.

If you run an #OnlineStore, you know that converting #visitors and accelerating your #business is always the number one priority. Click To Tweet

Unfortunately, only 1.94% of eCommerce website visits convert into a purchase, and if you want that number to be higher for your store, you need to take advantage of data.

ecommerce

Every website collects so much data every day that it’s a shame to let it go to waste, and that is why you need to leverage it. For everyone who plans to start or already runs an eCommerce business, data is a crucial element of the success equation as it can help you with customer relations, marketing, sales, and much more.

Use A Data Warehouse

To get the most out of your data, make sure it’s well-organized, readily accessible, and easy to store and manipulate. The best way to achieve that is to store your data in a warehouse.

A data warehouse is a data management system that allows you to store your data and, when you need to, retrieve it and analyze it for decision-making purposes. You can choose multiple solutions, but one many people opt for is Amazon’s Redshift data warehouse tools.

Here are some of its benefits.

  • Fast query speeds. Most large datasets have an issue with query speed, which often lags, but Redshift can process multiple nodes simultaneously while also reducing workloads.
  • Ease of use and accessibility. This tool comes with a query-based system and a platform that works similarly to MySQL, which means it’s easy to connect it with most business intelligence tools. This system allows for simple adoption and acclimation, some invaluable back-end tools, and an easy learning curve for end-users and administrators.
  • Fast scaling. Since Redshift is cloud-based and hosted on Amazon’s existing cloud infrastructure, which can scale as much as your storage demands need, you won’t have to worry about changing your data requirements, which is usually expensive and complex.
  • Robust security. Since you handle many sensitive and personal customer data, you need to make sure all of that data is safe from hackers. Luckily, Redshift comes with a variety of encryption and security features that allow ultimate warehouse protection.

Of course, Redshift isn’t the only option if you’re looking for a good and reliable data warehouse solution. If you would rather pick one of the Redshift alternatives, there is a wide selection of tools that offer similar features. You just have to take your pick and find the one that will satisfy your company’s needs.

Don’t Forget LinkedIn

LinkedIn currently has 722 million members, and while it’s not the most popular social network, it’s the perfect platform to build connections, raise awareness and sales, and monitor analytics. On LinkedIn, you can find the analytics for your company’s page.

LinkedIn

When you log into your company page, you can check analytics in multiple sections:

  • Analytics dashboard. This is the main area for monitoring page performance on LinkedIn, and it can show you data on the people who visit and follow your page. Here you can also see all engagement metrics for your LinkedIn posts.
  • Activity dashboard. This section will get insights into your LinkedIn presence and measure metrics such as likes, comments, shares, and mentions.
  • LinkedIn post analytics. If you want to get a comprehensive look at your post analytics, you can do so from the Updates dashboard or simply click Show stats in the bottom right corner of any post, and you will be able to see organic stats.

If you track the right analytics, you can be sure that your campaign is going in the direction it should be. And don’t forget that one of the main reasons to create a campaign on LinkedIn and follow analytics is to make worthwhile connections with other people in your industry.

To give yourself the best possible chances of making those connections and linking up with important people, try using the LinkedIn automation service. With this tool, you can grow your network automatically, auto-respond to messages, save contacts, and much more.

Know Which Data To Harvest

One of the best tools eCommerce store owners can use for data analysis is Google Analytics, specifically the eCommerce tracking option. It helps you connect the data you get from sales and website usage and understand some aspects of your website much better.

analytics

This tool is already equipped with all of the data you will ever need, but keep in mind that you don’t need to use everything it collects. The most important thing is to harness the data you need for your decision-making process, and only you know what type of data that is. This will depend on your overall strategy and what you’re trying to achieve.

Let’s say that you want to monitor purchasing habits and figure out what drives the buying decisions for your general audience. To do that, you should extract visitor data and study how the average customer interacts with your website and what element finally got them to convert. From there, you can figure out what your target audience’s general tendencies are and make better business decisions from then on. In case you gather data from third-party websites, you will surely need some data management solution that would handle the flow of data and transform it along the way in order for you to get some valuable intel. Choosing the right technique can be quite challenging and the ELT advantage opposed to ETL can really make a difference.

Deliver Personalized Experience To Your Customers

The key to success in any business nowadays is personalization. When you provide your website visitors with a personalized experience they want to see, you will be able to show them that you’re not just after their money but that you see them as real people.

And with data analytics, you can create that personal experience everyone is craving. Even if you utilize something as simple as someone’s purchase history on your website, you can offer tailor-made product recommendations that will keep them shopping for as long as possible.

When you have detailed individual customer reports, you can also use them to improve your customer service. Whenever a customer contacts your business, your agent will know their entire history with your company and provide personalized service with ease.

Final Thoughts

Data is the most powerful tool you have at your disposal, so don’t allow yourself to waste it. If you use the right tools to harvest and store data, know which data you need to improve your website and customer relations, you can bring your business to the next level, maybe even sooner than you expect.

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