You may have heard of “big data” — the buzzword that has spread through the business world like wildfire. Big data refers to enormous volumes of data and information that are aggregated, analyzed and interpreted to reveal hidden patterns, trends and insights in all areas of business, which can aid businesses in identifying and addressing issues in their business model. In processing this data, emerging technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) are also often developed and leveraged.
It is a common misconception that only big businesses can benefit from big data. In fact, even start-ups can use big data to their advantage, as they will have generated enough engagement data that can be analyzed and learned from.
To understand how beneficial big data is to businesses of all sizes, keep reading.
Big Data and AI
Big data and AI are instrumental for the success of modern businesses. AI has the ability to continually aggregate vast amounts of public data from a multitude of platforms and channels at high speed, and deliver it to businesses as digestible actionable insights.
With insights generated by analyzing data (using AI) aggregated at massive scale from online sources, businesses can analyze their business performance, marketing efficacy, as well as achieve a realistic and relevant comparison with their competitors to gain a competitive advantage. With this knowledge, businesses can achieve their goals, beat their competition and remain relevant within the marketplace. For example, location-based data can be turned into stunning maps and visualizations with the help of map creation software.
According to Forbes, by the end of 2018, 70% of enterprises will be harnessing artificial Intelligence. This number is 19% higher than 2017, proving just how quickly the business world is adopting big data and AI.
Two big benefits of big data and AI for businesses include:
Understanding Customer Behavior
Customers are, after all, the most important factor of any business, so it is imperative that a business knows their customers, inside-out.
AI and big data can give valuable insights into the behaviors of a business’ target audience, including their likes and dislikes, so that business models and marketing strategies can be better tailored and targeted, and provide a better buying experience.
Increased Business Intelligence
Before AI, business intelligence across all functions was somewhat limited. However, with a more evolved big data system and AI, there are no limits to the amount of information that can be collected and processed around a business, which results in better decision-making and businesses practices, both internal and external.
Ecommerce Businesses and Big Data
More and more ecommerce businesses of all sizes are relying on artificial intelligence to drive sales and keep up-to-date with ever-evolving customer behavior. Cloud-based AI-enabled tools like DataWeave can aggregate large amounts of public data at rapid speed and provide businesses with insights regarding pricing intelligence, product assortment intelligence and promotional insights.
Pricing Intelligence
It doesn’t matter how big or small your retail business is; price is still the determining factor for consumers when it comes to purchasing your products. With the online retail space being so saturated, what your products cost is more important than ever before. This is because if a consumer can find your product on another website for less money, they will buy it there, regardless of whether they have been loyal to you in the past.
It isn’t easy to track the price points of all your competitors. Ecommerce giant Amazon, for example, may change the price of each of their 562,382,292 products (as of 10th January 2018, reportedly) multiple times in just one week, and this isn’t humanly possible to track.
In order to keep abreast of all the price fluctuations in your market — as well as other fluctuations surrounding products, including stock levels, ratings and shipping costs — AI and big data is needed, and this is where pricing intelligence comes in.
Pricing Intelligence offers data that is always up-to-date, meaning you can get real-time intelligence and notifications so that you can ensure your pricing is always matching — if not beating — your competitors.
With this tool you will never lose out to your competitors, and this is something that is not exclusive to larger companies.
Product Assortment Intelligence
Similar to the insights offered by pricing intelligence, product assortment intelligence offers businesses real-time information about the product catalogues of their competitors. With this information, businesses can remain knowledgeable of any emerging trends in the industry. For example, if a competitor’s product(s) is peaking in popularity, AI intelligence can inform the business early on, so that they can adjust their own catalogue accordingly to capitalize on the trend.
Additionally, product assortment intelligence can reveal gaps in a business’ product assortment, or that of a competitors’, which can inform future strategy.
Learn More About Your Customers
Retail intelligence tools can also unearth feedback from customers around a brand, products and services, so that a business can address any persisting issues and create the best buying experience possible.
Even small businesses can benefit from this, because although they may have a small online presence — maybe a website with a correlating Instagram and Facebook page — it is not always possible to track and locate customer reviews, especially when they appear on customers’ social media pages.
The more information you can get about your customers — who they are, what they look like and what they’re looking for — the stronger your business model will be. In turn, your conversion rates will increase and your profit margins will soar.
Why Businesses of All Sizes Can Benefit from Big Data
A business doesn’t need to be large in size to have generated enough data in which insights on customers can be extracted and analysed.
The general rule is this: if your business has an online presence, you are able to harvest and use big data. This is because the online space can capture data from anyone that comes into contact with your business — whether they are a customer or not. In fact, collecting data from those who don’t invest in your business is just as insightful, and it can help to indicate why they didn’t convert so that you can alter your marketing strategies.
What’s more, it is now ineffective to “buy” contact lists of prospective buyers. Instead, big data allows you to target real customers who have expressed a real interest in your brand and services. This approach, of course, it more effective to your marketing endeavors and will result in more conversions.
Businesses are discovering that a rinse and repeat approach to marketing is no longer feasible. What worked before won’t always work again. This is because the world in which we live in is rapidly evolving, and the business realm — especially online — is in a constant state of flux, meaning it is unpredictable and near impossible to monitor data, without artificial intelligence.
Conclusion
In summary, it is never too early for a small business to begin leveraging and benefitting from big data. If they do, they will be attuned to their customers needs, and will therefore develop leaps and bounds ahead of their competitors.
The sooner a business revamps their marketing approach and gets onboard with big data and AI, the better they will succeed.
