Analytics Magazine Analytics Magazine, July/August 2014 | Page 10

EXE CU TIVE E D G E In the race to utilize the online space, marketers may be focusing more on advertising and less on analysis of the data that could potentially increase sales. has created for marketers to lay their hands on for analysis. Despite that, in the race to utilize the online space, marketers may be focusing more on advertising and less on analysis of the data that could potentially increase sales. In our opinion, understanding the customer behavior becomes more complex in business-toconsumer companies and more so in a 24/7 e-commerce business that sells technology products in an increasingly commoditized industry. A strong analytics foundation may make e-commerce a thriving and successful channel of sales. Businesses, therefore, are increasingly creating customizable campaigns for their installed base customers and improving sales effectiveness through e-commerce. For example, pricing and merchandising decisions need to be taken in real time, and the need to have real-time insights is ever-increasing. To make these decisions faster and better, marketers would need to quickly analyze their digital marketing strategies by mining data exhaustively and cost effectively through advanced analytics. KEY DRIVERS OF INCREASED REVENUES An organization’s ability to achieve its goal of increased revenues and margins would depend heavily on its ability to improve three key drivers: 1) volume of customer traffic to the online store (number of visits); 2) customer conversion (percentage of conversion); and 3) basket size (revenue per average order size). Analytics has a very important role to play in this value chain. So while organizations may have the best talent with an analytical mindset and eagerness to apply it, we need to equip data 10 | A N A LY T I C S - M A G A Z I N E . O R G W W W. I N F O R M S . O R G