Big data in eCommerce is necessary if businesses want to scale.
It helps identify trends and customers’ interests and streamlines automation. Data needs analytics to achieve this.
However, as data pools grow larger, costs can quickly pile up. The solution? Proper data management.
Applying data management and best practices can keep costs low and data organized. However, to fully grasp these strategies, we need to learn the main types of data we need to manage.
Data Management Types in eCommerce
eCommerce data management primarily comes in two forms. Product data management and customer data management. Both are required for the holistic growth of online stores.
Product Data Management
PDM, or Product Data Management, allows eCommerce stores to manage all data related to their products. This data can then be used as valuable information that can improve:
- Customer experience
- Product data management
- Productivity of workers
- Team collaboration
- Product innovation
There are several types of product data for eCommerce stores. Here are some famous examples:
- Product Characteristics
- Product Descriptions and Specifications
- Quantity/Stock
- Ads Data
- Vendor/Supplier Data
- Sales/Commercial Data
- Product Origin Data
Customer Data Management
Gathering customer data helps eCommerce stores gain valuable insight that can help them improve conversions, sales, traffic, and more. Every action a customer does can be tracked.
Customer data management helps organize and run data from each trackable action through analytics. The analyzed result allows organizations to build strategies to improve critical metrics.
Under GDPR laws, sites must ask for consent to collect data through cookies. When a customer allows cookies to be collected, your site consents to track their actions.
Data Management Best Practices for eCommerce
Well-managed data helps eCommerce identify trends in customer demand based on their activities. To help optimize the process, apply the following best practices for data management:
Determine Business Goals
The amount of data gathered from your customers can be overwhelming. Your team needs to identify what key metrics to focus on and create a strategy around them.
For example, your goal for the first quarter of 2023 is to increase site traffic by 30%-40%. If this is your objective, you must look at data from traffic sources coming to your site.
Is traffic coming primarily from organic sources like Google Search? Are they coming from social media? Which avenues should your organization focus on to improve traffic?
A clear and actionable goal can serve as the foundation of your strategy. From here, you can then determine the critical metrics and tools required to achieve your goal.
Start Processing Data
Once you’ve determined your goals, it’s time to process the data. As a rule of thumb, the process of data analytics includes collecting data, storing data, and analyzing data.
To efficiently manage and transform this data, many eCommerce businesses leverage ETL tools, which automate the process of moving data between systems and ensure that it’s properly structured for analysis.
Determine how you’d like to collect data. Will it be solely through site activity? Will you use CTA forms to collect personal information?
eCommerce sites have several options for data storage, including cloud data warehouses and physical data warehouse servers. Remember to consider security protocols.
Finally, analyzing data depends on the type of data required to achieve your business goals. If the goal is increasing site traffic, you can do so with tools like Google Analytics.
But if it’s a more complex goal, then using powerful omnichannel analytics tools might be for you. Also, consider the team responsible for translating the data into useful information.
Build a Great Data Management Team
Establishing an excellent data management team is critical to the growth of any eCommerce store. Your team needs to be knowledgeable, dedicated, and flexible.
For starters, they need to be experts in the eCommerce platform you’re using, whether Shopify, Magento, or Squarespace. They should also be knowledgeable about automation.
It’s up to you whether you use an in-house or remote team. The important thing is that you equip your team with the right tools to help them access, monitor, and analyze data.
Use the Right Technology
Manual data gathering and processing become a nightmare as your eCommerce business scales. You’ll quickly see Excel sheets freezing while trying to load all the data.
There are several options regarding data management tools. But as a rule of thumb, you want software that can:
- Scalable
- Fast
- Easy to deploy
- Can be integrated with existing tools
- Supports the data you need to store
Cost is another critical consideration. Does the cost of the data management tool justify business needs? Are there flexible pricing options? Is the cost within budget?
Establish Governance Standards, Security, and Data Compliance
Governance standards are your business’s standard operating procedure for data management. This standardizes when to take action and who’s responsible.
Data management can cover different departments. It’s essential to ensure the entire company is on the same page.
Establishing governance standards helps create a foundation for sustainable data management strategies. It also encourages responsibility and accountability.
These standards should also apply to data quality. Creating a standardized process ensures that data is clean from extraction, transformation, and loading (ETL).
The next thing that needs consideration is security and privacy. GDPR and similar laws are becoming more strict. More customers are also being mindful of their data online.
Identity Threat Detection & Response (ITDR) is an important part of data security. ITDR helps protect your company’s digital identities from cyber attacks. It watches for unusual activity and responds quickly to keep your data safe. By using ITDR, you can spot and stop identity-based threats before they cause harm. This adds an extra layer of protection to your data governance plan.
According to Shopify, 40% of customers refused to buy products from brands due to concerns about personal data use.
Key Takeaways
Data management is critical to any eCommerce shop’s success. Proper organization and use of data help businesses identify what they need to do to grow holistically.
If you want to improve your eCommerce data management, consider the following:
- There are two primary data types you need to manage—customer and product data.
- Business goals help identify the type of data that needs to be focused on.
- Data analysis starts with gathering data, storing data, and ends with processing data.
- To help your business scale, you need an excellent data management team.
- Your team should have the tools to streamline and optimize their work.
