Growth and data go hand in hand in today’s e-commerce landscape. When companies are considering how to execute a successful e-commerce growth strategy, data should be their first port of call — and their last.
With accurate, high-quality data, decision makers can quickly and effectively analyze the current state of their businesses. They can answer questions in real time, such as “What are our strengths right now?” and “Where can this resource be most productively used?” Data connects leaders to the digital heartbeats of their organizations, helping them boost sales, minimize operational errors, and even discover opportunities to innovate ahead of competitors.
The quality of data is vital to these goals, as is the organization and management of that data. Good data quality management allows users to be more confident in the data and its authority. If they can trust the areas of improvement showing up in the data, they can take action with confidence and in a timely way.
What Business Levers Should E-Commerce Companies Examine From Q1?
A lever is an element of business that can be moved or shifted to create a larger change. It’s an action that produces leverage, helping organizations make greater impacts on their objectives.
Access to organized data enables a company to identify which business levers to examine further by providing a clear and comprehensive view of its business performance. Organized data helps highlight trends, correlations and outliers that might go unnoticed. A well-structured data infrastructure also allows for the seamless integration of different data sources and systems, facilitating the identification of the most relevant levers to focus on for growth and improvement.
But which levers will be most helpful for e-commerce companies looking to learn from Q1? How can businesses use the recent past to do better in the near future?
Key business levers in Q1 include customer acquisition costs, customer lifetime value, conversion rates, and the total sales-to-media investment relationship. These levers are important to review because they can provide insights into the business’s overall health; they can also identify potential growth opportunities. By understanding these metrics, companies can make strategic, data-driven decisions on marketing, pricing, product offerings and other factors directly impacting the bottom line.
Levers might also be unique to a company’s set of products, its processes, and its industry. Business functions can be levers, too. An organization can examine Q1 data for human resources, for example, and get a clear picture of how candidates are being discovered and onboarded.
How Can Companies Use Q1 Data to Power Q2 and Beyond?
Tapping into e-commerce data analytics can help companies make better decisions for the rest of the year and beyond. Learn quickly, adapt your strategy, and then learn again from each following quarter. Here are a few ways you can use the data from Q1 to fuel an e-commerce growth strategy in Q2 and beyond:
1. For targeted, personalized marketing.
By analyzing customer data in the first quarter of the business year, you can make accurate assessments of how customers are behaving and make informed judgments on what kinds of prompts and incentives they might respond to. Use data to develop targeted marketing campaigns for the second quarter, catering to specific segments and helping to increase engagement and conversions.
2. For making operations healthier.
Looking closely at Q1’s data insights can power e-commerce success metrics and streamline the operational flow of your organization. You can quickly locate errors and dips in productivity, troubleshoot the causes of blips, and remedy them before they cause any long-term effects.
3. For enhancing an omnichannel experience.
According to research by McKinsey & Company, the B2B companies that are outperforming their competition by using e-commerce data analytics are excelling in a few key ways. One of those is activating an omnichannel journey for customers. These “growth champions” have been able to take data from Q1 and use it to plan campaigns across channels and touchpoints in ways that seamlessly present end users with delightful, memorable and actionable journeys.
When it comes to crafting an e-commerce growth strategy, data is the rhyme and the reason. Collecting high-quality data and analyzing customer behaviors and preferences can ultimately fuel a smarter and more successful approach, identify gaps in the business, and uncover a new range of opportunities to offer to customers.
Benjamin Weyrich is co-founder and managing director of Finc3 Technology, a fast-growing tech company offering e-commerce BI solutions.
