How Can Online Stores Benefit From Better Data Analytics?
Data analysis and other similar practices have become buzzwords lately as companies have grown more aware than ever about the significant potential of this activity when it comes to growing a business venture.
Even though most people currently imagine data analysis as something one would do in an MS Excel spreadsheet, the truth is that many developers are working hard to improve how online stores gather, organize, and analyze the data that comes from different sources to help owners in making more informed decisions.
One example of this is Blyp, an application that processes all the data generated by Shopify online stores to produce user-friendly dashboards that can be employed to make timely adjustments that help the business in achieving its goals.
In this article, we discuss the benefits of advanced data analytics and how it can help online stores in achieving their short-term and long-term objectives.
What kind of data can be analyzed by an online store?
The success of e-commerce nowadays relies heavily on collecting data points from consumers every time they visit a website or interact with a certain application. The idea behind this practice is to customize the kind of content that is displayed to those consumers to tailor the offerings that they will be presented with.
This increases the likelihood of a conversion and that is the reason why most paid online advertising platforms have been so successful.
That said, what can a company do aside from marketing with the bulk of the data they obtain from consumers and from the business itself?
The truth is: the possibilities are endless.
The main goal of processing and analyzing the data that flows through an online store is to produce information that can be turned into “business intelligence”.
Business intelligence (BI) is understood as the insightful conclusions that can be made about a certain aspect of a business that could help managers in making more informed and effective decisions.
One example of this would be related to sales – a crucial function to the success of an online business.
Tons of data about what customers want, need, and prefer is processed daily by online stores and that data can be turned into information if it is appropriately analyzed. For example, a business could use the data to identify the top-selling items among a certain age group or gender.
That kind of information can be turned into intelligence if the management decides to focus its advertising efforts on those particular items to target that specific audience.
This is just a tiny but illustrative example of the power that data analytics has in the process of developing business intelligence for an online store.
Is producing relevant data analytics expensive?
In the past, processing and analyzing tons of data was difficult, expensive, and mostly done manually as data sets were not compatible with the available software back then.
However, with the rise of cloud computing and the progressive standardization of database coding languages, the cost of producing relevant data analytics has gone down dramatically.
Meanwhile, e-commerce platforms such as Shopify have facilitated this process as they now allow store owners to export data sets or integrate applications such as Blyp to their interfaces so these programs can do all the heavy lifting.
Hiring a full-time data scientist is something that most small online stores cannot afford. Therefore, these solutions will likely become the go-to applications for owners who understand the power of data analytics to push their ventures to the next level.
Bottom line
The internet nowadays is a bit like an unexploited oil field. Research shows that what lies beneath the ground is valuable and exists, but not many are willing to do the drilling.
Data analytics is the equivalent of drilling and refining what lies underground by using the multiple sources that currently collect data points from consumers and the business itself.
Applications like Blyp are changing the way online stores see data analytics as they have brought the cost of this activity down so owners can tap on the power of this practice to strengthen their value proposition and improve their financial results.
Mustafa Al Mahmud is the Founder of Gizmo Concept and also a professional Blogger, SEO Professional as well as Entrepreneur. He loves to travel and enjoy his free moment with family members and friends.