6 Ways to Market Your Store Using Big Data Insights

August 20, 2015

Big data encompasses everything from POS records and inventory to online customer behaviors. Looking at the overall big picture, retail businesses use this information to develop new marketing campaigns and improve their sales. Learn the basic steps to harness data and build an effective marketing campaign.

Analyzing Web Data

Website analytics show a great deal about customer behavior and how your customers learn about your brand. These systems track where your customers come from, so you can determine what sites drive the most traffic between social media, company sites, or blog posts. They also show you what your customers do once they arrive. If your analytics show that twitter posts and video sharing drive the most customers, you can refocus your marketing campaign to suit.

Social Media Analytics

Similar to website analytics, social media data analytics let you track your followers’ behavior before and after interacting with you. You can track what they are talking about and sharing with each other. If everyone starts suddenly talking about a new product brand or item, stock up on it and offer coupons! Getting negative feedback about a certain product? Find out why and fix or get rid of it. Social media is a great place to harvest genuine feedback data to improve marketing and sales.

POS and Inventory Data

Using the data your POS and inventory management systems provide, you can create new marketing campaigns with genuine insights. For example, looking at POS sales receipts can tell you your busiest days of the week, so you can build promotional opportunities to get people in on the not-so-busy days. Comparing inventory data with customer shopping preferences will tell you what is selling the most and to whom, so you can target a marketing campaign with preferred products and discounts.

Building Customer Loyalty

POS systems are now CRM enabled, which means you can collect and manage customer data at the front terminal in real-time. The system collects basic customer info during the first transaction and builds upon it with ongoing data collection from subsequent interactions. This allows you to keep an accurate and detailed customer record for each individual, and you can use it to target loyalty programs, much like you would a marketing campaign. CRM-enabled POS systems also increase the likelihood of getting your customers to join loyalty programs in the first place, as they no longer have to fill out registration forms.

E-mail Analytics

Many people will tell you e-mail marketing is dead, but that is not the case. E-mail automation systems, when used correctly, are powerful tools that let you create successful targeted e-mail campaigns easily. All it takes is a little exploration of what the data collected from these systems means.

Analytics will tell you which subject lines get the most opens, what type of content is the most favored, what type of promotional offers garner the most interest, and what time of the week/day your e-mail is most likely to be read. By adding more favorable content, ditching stuff that doesn’t work, and tweaking your e-mail delivery schedule, you can build an e-mail campaign that actually works.

Multiple Platforms for Market Research

At the heart of every good campaign is a big bundle of market research. Traditionally, retail stores would have to physically stock and sell a product in order to test its potential. Now, using multiple automation platforms and channels, marketers can conduct market research digitally.

Are you thinking of selling a new brand of shirt? Post photos or host polls on social media to see what gets the most shares and clicks. Or, test out a new product by alerting loyal customers with a sneak peek e-mail and see if it generates any interest. If it does, be sure to advertise related promotional items and give out coupons or discounts.