Retail sales have always provided loads of information that a savvy retailer could use to improve sales numbers. But harnessing that information and making sense of it has, for the most part, been easier said than done.
With the advent of the Internet, however, information acquisition and interpretation has finally turned a corner. Anyone can now be a savvy retailer. In fact, the sheer amount of data rendered every moment online would make Don Draper's head explode—and make his job seem so much easier.
Whoa! Big Data
All of this rendered data is the result of big data analytics, a process by which the enormous amount of data being generated in the digital realm is captured, sifted through and sorted in order to communicate the meaningful patterns that emerge.
For many retailers—who are struggling just to keep up with near-constant shifts in technology— analytics can seem like little more than one more digital to-do among a sea of tasks that need handled. But the goals and promise of analytics are much more far-reaching and important than that.
As Andrew McAfee charmingly points out—with math, if the amount of digital data that existed in the world in 2007 were the Atlantic Ocean, then the amount of digital data generated since 2007 would cover the entire earth to a depth ten times as high as Mt. Everest.
In other words, big data is BIG in a way we've never experienced BIG before, and it holds invaluable information.
Regardless of whether you've been dragging your feet about the analytics revolution because it overwhelms you, or because the whole thing seems downright Orwellian, it is time to rethink your hesitation.
The Answered Question
What if you could discover the patterns in shopping cart abandonment so you could address them? What if you were privy to your customers’ social media chatter about your brand? With big data analytics, every question you have about how to improve your business's performance has an answer, and you have access to it.
But how do you embrace such a big thing? And how could you possibly leverage the information in a proactive way?
Wrangling the Beast
In order to wrangle the beast of big data, retailers can turn to an eCommerce merchandising solution that places the information and insight generated by analytics directly into their hands. With a eCommerce management solution that overlays in-depth analytics right on top of your store's catalog and product views, you can see at a glance everything from page views and conversion rates to social media mentions and product searches.
With information that up-to-date, easy-to-see and applicable, you can then make simple and appropriate adjustments regarding store layout, product forecasting, keywords, inventory needs and scores of other options. Instead of being terrorized by the beast, you can tame it. Instead of wondering what your customers are up to, you can know.
So, dive a little deeper. With the help of the right software, you'll find everything you're looking for and more. Smart Merchandiser provides a visual layer over your eCommerce catalog to offer inventory, analytics, attribute and color management capabilities.
To find out how much extra revenue you could be capturing, be sure to check out the Smart Merchandiser calculator.
