Retail is Major Arena for Analytics Success

In recent months, analytics and big data have begun to truly assert their dominance in the field of business technologies.

In recent months, analytics and big data have begun to truly assert their dominance in the field of business technologies. According to Information Management, recent findings by Ventana Research point out that analytics ranked as the most important priority of respondents. The other choices were social media, collaboration, mobile and cloud computing. Meanwhile, big data ranked fifth, but as it is largely tied to analytics in many ways, this ranking does not significantly diminish its importance.

Ventana stated that consumer analytics can provide a competitive advantage for businesses by using new sources of user information to give companies a greater base of knowledge about their customers – info that can power revenue-generating activities and initiatives. This is particularly true in the online retail sector, which continues to thrive, far beyond the expectations many had for it when sites like Amazon first came into being. Adobe is contributing to this due to its Marketing Cloud software, and is poised for continued success as a result.

Significant market share
According to VentureBeat, $7.20 – or 72 percent – of every $10 spent at the top 500 e-commerce websites in the U.S. is connected to Adobe Marketing Cloud in some fashion. As such, the firm predicted that upcoming holiday sales will be massive and most likely record-breaking, referring to Thanksgiving, Black Friday and Cyber Monday. 

Roots of sales strategies
To reap the benefits of truly reliable business and marketing initiatives that can boost a company’s bottom line, firms are more in need of advanced analytics than ever. Sales are, naturally, the primary driving force of retail, and the proper, actionable use of data collected from customers can lead companies to come up with sale efforts that lead to increased revenue and give customers something that benefits their wallets. It’s a perfect example of a case where retail businesses should – and can – be able to have their cake and eat it too. 

For example, considering that Thanksgiving and all of the winter holidays are just around the corner, it would be wise for companies to look at customer data regarding purchase histories from previous holiday seasons. Examining what sold and what did not will let retailers know what to emphasize in sales. In terms of new products, businesses should examine how they can be marketed alongside bestsellers from years past.