How e-commerce data solutions can help brand growth

The global e-commerce market is set to exceed 5 trillion dollars this year and increase to over 7 trillion dollars by 2025. This is in part due to the growth of next-generation artificial intelligence and machine learning analytics tools, along with software-assisted supply chain management. Next-generation e-commerce data analytics stand to have a major impact on e-commerce brands. It’s no longer enough for companies to have an online store, companies who want to succeed in the digital age must have a deep understanding of their customer's needs and shopping behavior.

Companies, like Conjura, are spearheading e-commerce data analytics. Most e-commerce companies use multiple cloud-based software to store data nowadays. What Conjura does is take the data out of all the various cloud software to help run businesses in a more data-driven way. More retailers are turning to data analytics to figure out how to run online businesses.

The reality of the situation is most e-commerce companies don’t have full visibility of what’s going on with every aspect of their sales. As companies work to figure out how to scale their businesses. It’s actually much easier for businesses to acquire lifetime customers from their first transaction than most would probably think.

Customer behavior can be tracked across other platforms, like e-mail, to see what they’re more inclined to buy. Something as standard as fulfillment and how issues are handled post-transaction (i.e., package delays, customer service, etc.) can all affect whether a consumer will return.

The initial component of using e-commerce data analytics to drive solution-based results is marketing. Tracking marketing data is one of the easiest ways to figure out how consumers are shopping. If they are clicking on an ad on a third-party website to buy something, that’s easily trackable data that can tell people what consumers are inclined to buy.

Merchandising is also an obvious component of utilizing e-commerce data to get customers to shop more as well. Figuring out what products to show people first when they go to a website helps increase conversion rates. Optimization is key when it comes to analytics.

“At Conjura, we will look at all the different levers an online retailer has to pull,” said Fran Quilty, CEO and co-founder of Conjura, to FashionUnited. “E-commerce is, in a way, trying to work on a 1000 miniature positions, rather than one or two major things. We work with companies at different stages, and we have companies growing at various ranges across the board from 10 percent to 300 percent. What we do is centralize data and knit it together in different ways, so the challenge is standardizing data across different platforms from Facebook to Google.”

In the past, companies neglected certain operation aspects like supply chains and warehouse efficiencies. Now, more data is collected from those operations to see how they are affecting customer retention.

One of the most common sense approaches to utilizing e-commerce data that e-commerce retailers can take is measuring benchmarks year-over-year. Analytics for what arenas companies performed best in, whether it’s fulfillment or customer service, can help brands figure out where they need to improve to accelerate revenue. Companies can also use data to make business decisions based on forecasting outcomes.

“The more information you gather from a customer, the more indicators you have for future purchasing behavior,” Quilty said to FashionUnited. “Indicators could be what they buy, areas they live in, what products they look at, and how customers interact with the brand on social media.”

The future of e-commerce retail is data analytics. The days of brands just hoping to set up an e-commerce store and taking an “if you build it, they will come” approach to online retail is over. Data is king.