When weatherman Phil Connors, played by Bill Murray, labels himself a god in the mid-90s classic, Groundhog Day, it's as much a declaration about how much he knows as it is about his apparent immortality.
"Maybe God isn't omnipotent," he posits, after rattling off intimate details about seemingly perfect strangers in a diner, "Maybe he's just been around so long, he knows everything."
Knowing everything about shopping habits and customers’ preferences has long been a retailer's dream. But until big data analytics came on the scene, that "everything" was elusive.
And even with the mass volume of data at our fingertips, until all that collected and analyzed data could be parsed and conveyed in a quick and easy-to-understand format, the potential knowledge it offered didn't much matter either.
Knowing Everything
An IBM WebSphere Commerce visual add-on tool can assist online merchandisers in visually laying out and prioritizing products and catalogs alongside some serious analytics muscle that's integrated right into the interface.
Analytics data — from social media mentions and inventory stats, to abandonment rates and pageviews — is distilled down into easy-to-read numbers laid out in plain view on top of every product thumbnail in your catalog via an unobtrusive image overlay.
Of course, knowing everything is only helpful if you have the ability to leverage that knowledge in a meaningful and productive way. (Something, ironically, that Bill Murray's character finally discovers and internalizes in Groundhog Day.)
For instance, did you know that 74% of consumers rely on their social networks when making purchasing decisions? If you knew enough about your customers’ social media interactions, could you leverage that knowledge in a way that capitalizes on that 74%?
Social Media Awareness
By incorporating a social media awareness feature into your eCommerce toolset, you can have immediate access to consumer perceptions, product (and brand) mentions, as well as trends that are surfacing across various social channels so that you’re able to make on-the-fly decisions regarding your catalog layout.
And with a visual add-on tool, you get access to all of this actionable insight with a simple glance at a discrete image overlay accompanying each product's thumbnail.
With Smart Merchandiser, eCommerce professionals can stop wasting time bouncing between Facebook pages and Twitter and Instagram feeds to try and uncover product and brand mentions and social sentiment.
With a built-in social awareness layer, digital merchandisers can drag-and-drop trending and recommended products to prime positions in the storefront. This ensures you’ll never miss out on capitalizing on viral social posts that boost a product into the “15 minutes of fame” hall of fame.
Social media, for all its storied promise regarding marketing and advertising, has yet to prove itself as the center of the online universe when it comes to actual sales.
That being said, when you're actually armed with actionable data across the various social media channels, and when that data is understandable and easily accessed, leveraging your product for better sales can be as easy as dragging and dropping it into place.
Download The Digital Merchandiser’s Guide to Maximizing Margins with Visualized Data eBook today to learn how you can turn knowing everything into an actionable eCommerce merchandising strategy!
