The emergence of e-commerce powers like Amazon were said to be leading to the downfall of the traditional retail industry. Instead, they may have inspired brick and mortars to improve their operations.
One of the advantages e-commerce companies had over traditional retailers was their ability to transform customer interactions into actionable data that could be used for marketing and customer service initiatives. Digitized data generated by customers making online clicks is relatively easy to process and review. When a customer clicks on a certain product page, leaves a comment on an organization’s social media profile or searches for a specific solution through Google or any other search engine, online retailers can obtain that data and use it to their advantage.
Traditional retailers are now starting to embrace this concept and, by using data, they can gain a stronger sense of what their customers are looking for. They may not communicate exclusively online, but they can use the internet as well as digital point of sale systems to collect information. Even traditional practices are becoming less analog, so this information will be more available once retailers understand how to collect the data and transform it into a consistent, useful format.
A recent Bidness ETC article addressed this point. Nancy Kross, the article’s author, says that the emergence of big data technology can helped transform a number of business sectors. Although there are numerous opportunities in retail, companies are still trying to make it work.
“Like many other industries, retailers have also started taking advantage of this technology to refine their strategic decisions,” Kross writes. “As of now, only a few companies have taken this change very seriously to gain an edge over their peers. They have shifted their focus to data-centric decisions for purchases and inventory management, and customer engagement as well as personalized marketing. Though this trend has just begun, it is distinct and growing.”
The potential of big data in the traditional retail realm is virtually limitless. Companies that obtain the technologies needed to capture all relevant consumer data, drawing on both internal and external sources, can adjust their sales and marketing accordingly. This will allow retailers of all kinds to remain competitive in a changing marketplace.
Custom database development can help retailers build systems to collect and manage data obtained through both online and offline means. Data management solutions will give retailers the edge they need.