3 Reasons Why You Need To...

3 Reasons Why You Need To Get Your E-Commerce Data Under Control

Oct 10, 2019
3 Reasons Why You Need To Get Your E-Commerce Data Under Control

Data unlocks many possibilities for the smart retailer. It can help you make more informed logistics decisions, drive customer loyalty and even help you save time and money on your customer service operations.

WBR Insights and Adverity recently put together a white paper on the state of data-driven decision making in e-commerce and marketing and we’d like to share some of their key findings. Additionally, we’ll show you how aggregating and standardizing disparate data can make drastic improvements in your logistics operations. 

1. Aggregating marketing and logistics data across multiple sources saves organizations much needed time and resources. 

“Only 14% of Heads of Marketing surveyed have a single data platform to aggregate disconnected data. The remainder is stuck using multiple free tools that come with each platform or plugging data into spreadsheets to try to decode it. This probably plays a part in explaining why decision-making is a drawn-out process for 60% of respondents”.

It’s crucial to have all your data in a single platform – that’s the first step you need to take in order to make sense of all the data. Once standardized, you have your ‘one source of truth’ that speeds up decision making, simplifies the process of analyzing data and reduces reporting friction to key stakeholders.

Takeaway: It’s important to make data-driven decisions but time and speed are of the essence. Investing in suitable software to help streamline data analysis within your organization will be of great value. In fact, decision-makers plan to increase their investment in analytics next year; with 28% of respondents earmarking improving their data ownership strategy as a ‘the most important priority’ in the next six months.

Did you know the same complexity could be said of logistics data? 

Consider these statistics on your logistics partners: 

  • If you handle international deliveries across multiple trade routes, you’ll be working with multiple logistics carriers. Each of these carriers delivers data in different formats and come in different languages.

  • Each carrier can cover up to 425 different events and over 3,500 different locations per carrier. 

2. Companies spend more than 10 hours a week preparing and updating reports for stakeholders 

Aggregating and making sense of multiple sources of data is one of the organization’s biggest challenges. 

“Instead of spending hours cobbling together the most important information from multiple tools and spreadsheets, marketers with access to a data aggregating platform can provide data quickly and accurately with all the relevant information in one place.”

Marketers and e-commerce managers today have a wealth of data sources to analyze and consider in their decision-making process. With multiple digital marketing channels in use – social media, display advertising, website analytics, and SEO, how do organizations turn all this data into actionable insights? 

The majority of the Heads of Marketing we surveyed source marketing data from at least six sources, and 13% use more than 15.

Takeaway: Aggregating analytics and data from multiple sources for reporting and analytical purposes can easily get overwhelming or take too much time. This issue also lies in logistics performance. Did you know companies spend more than 10 hours a week preparing and updating reports for stakeholders? 

If you spend multiple hours a week building reports, you aren’t alone. Perhaps it’s time to re-evaluate your data collection and analysis processes. Instead of spending all that time pulling together reports, why not allocate your time in more productive ventures like finding ways to further grow the business? 

But if you’re confused about how to collate all of your analytics quickly, it may be time to start from scratch. The data-collecting process is still important, so instead of throwing it out entirely, learn more about strategies you can use to reduce time spent on it. If you have advanced website analytics explained to you in a different way, you can easily see how valuable it can be in effectively gauging the success of your business.

3. Data flexibility is key in making sound, time-sensitive decisions.

In today’s business landscape, the number of key decisions that executives need to make in a shorter span of time has expanded significantly. How do I allocate my customer service manpower efficiently to cope with high traffic? Which ad creative should I use? How should I structure my product pages for the best visibility? 

Takeaway: Without sound data and the ability to draw out insights from data, you’ll be making decisions based only on opinion. Therefore, a flexible infrastructure and processes around data is key to make quick and well-informed business decisions – both in your e-commerce store and logistics processes. 

Having full transparency on your data and the ability to quickly pull reports together is essential for business performance.

All the above present a sound case for data-driven decisions in e-commerce, but we also urge retailers to apply this data mindset to your logistics and supply chain. 

Do you have transparency on your supply chain to understand which carriers are performing best during high-volume periods? Which trade routes are most affected by delivery issues and why? All these are questions that can be answered by data.

For more exclusive reports, insights, and interviews on the latest updates in e-commerce and logistics, follow us on LinkedIn or join our community as a member.

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