It's no secret that data is a vital business tool, especially when running an online store.
Data drives decision-making at various levels within a company by showing what works and what does not. When you have control over the 4Vs of big data, volume, velocity, variety, and value, you can make decisions to propel your eCommerce business forward.
However, how can you ensure you have access to data, especially if you're a non-technical user? Do you need a data scientist to address your data needs in a small business? How can you ensure that all teams in your eCommerce business have access to data for fast decision-making without an IT department or your involvement?
Data democratization allows you to answer these questions.
What Is Data Democratization?
Data democratization is the process of making data available to all operational teams in your business, including non-technical users, without involving an IT expert, and in a form that's easy to understand to expedite decision-making.
Democratizing data removes all bottlenecks and gate-keepers to data, which ensures that your teams have a competitive advantage.
Old World Vs. New World of eCommerce Data
XaaS, which is a general term to refer to everything-as-a-service, is a vital agility-booster for many businesses. It covers all aspects of cloud computing that allow businesses to enjoy the benefits of tech over the cloud. You can access storage, software, desktop, and data services all over the internet. This is simultaneously aligned with eliminating gatekeepers and frustrating siloes that many commerce companies built when trying to contain the rapid rise of data.
This new trend allows eCommerce businesses to store and analyze data without having to worry about the high overhead costs of establishing on-premise services. You no longer need to purchase licenses and pay annual subscriptions for services you could require for a month, or purchase servers for your business. What's more, the cost of ensuring the safety of your data, hiring IT experts, and being in-line with relevant data regulations is mostly transferred to the vendor.
This shift to cloud computing has primarily contributed to the democratization of data. For instance, you can allow all your employees to access a platform with data analytics, dashboards for visualization , collaboration, sharable insights, metrics, updates, and document sharing, all from different geographical locations.
Gartner predicts that by 2024, 75% of enterprises will shift to utilizing AI techniques to enhance learning, data distribution, and analytics. Technologies such as machine learning and natural language processing are improving the speed and efficiency of computers in absorbing and analyzing data for the non-technical user.
What eCommerce Areas Stand To Improve From Data Democratization?
Omnichannel Sales
73% of consumers use multiple channels to access e-commerce services. How can you ensure that your customers have access to the same quality of services, whether shopping on mobile, a laptop, or any online device?
Data democratization ensures that all teams, whether managing technical, marketing, or sales aspects of your eCommerce store, make decisions together for the benefit of the consumer. By sharing data, analytics, and views, you can ensure that consumers have a similar experience across all channels.
Product Improvements
Another major benefit of data democratization is the ability to drive product quality or assortment improvements. At many retailers, data on product sell-through may be siloed within the Merchandising or Finance departments, while customer feedback may be siloed within Customer Support teams. Bringing this data together and sharing it across the organization is crucial for understanding customers’ needs and where product quality may be falling short.
Paid Acquisition
Data democratization helps your team access the information on any paid traffic endeavors you undertake. Whether you choose to take up Google Ads to improve your brand visibility and promote sales, or social media ads such as Facebook Ads to attract potential clients, data democratization helps you manage the results while keeping the whole team in the loop.
Your marketing efforts and data don't become the sole property of the marketing department. Sure, not all departments will understand the technicalities of marketing, but they'll see the efforts and understand the results of a paid ad.
What's more, they'll respond accordingly. The customer service department can gear up for quick and effective responses, the sales team can step in with the right promotions and sales, and you can ensure that everything runs smoothly.
The Four Results of Democratized Data
Alignment
How can you ensure that all employees and teams in your eCommerce business are playing the same symphony? That each beat drops, and each player moves their strings at the right moment? Data democratization helps you align different teams in your business by providing reliable, updated, and similar information. You can make decisions based on the most current data and in communication with other teams.
For example, your marketing team can organize campaigns that achieve the sales team's goals, and data from the sales department can help the marketing team create personalized ads for consumers at various points of the sale's funnel. The finance department can also ensure that they fund the marketing department based on reliable metrics to prevent delays.
Confidence
Information boosts your confidence because it helps you make decisions based on the latest facts and analysis of your business. You'll feel more confident setting goals and objectives for your business when you're aware of your current position, growth rate, and possible achievements.
What's more, your employees also feel more confident when making decisions based on accurate data. They can also back-up their decisions with reliable facts.
Speed
Access to data helps you and all employees make swift decisions. You can trust your delegates to make decisions for daily operations without consulting the management, as long as it's within their jurisdiction. Fast decisions at the employee level reduce bureaucracy and save critical time.
Outcomes
Data-driven decision making ensures that you make unbiased decisions for the improvement of your business. Relying on your intuition may be excellent for certain circumstances, but data helps you measure your decision against an outcome. You can measure the impact of several business decisions and see how changing one aspect could impact several parts of your eCommerce store.
With accurate analytics, you can look into cost savings, consumer responses to product launches, sales patterns based on various prices, and also analyze customer reviews for improved customer services. There's no need to play guessing games when you can measure the impact of each decision and also collect data on competitors to boost your business.
Conclusion
At Yaguara , we take the guessing out of decision-making and ensure that every team member has access to fast and reliable data. Our platform helps you share analyzed data for every worker to draw insights, make decisions, and contribute to team projects. What's more, our dashboard and features make visualization easier for you and your team.
Talk to Yaguara today.
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