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Monday, December 02, 2013

Real time Cloud Retail Data Analysis

This site was recently brought to my attention.  I am currently in the process of helping a retail marketing operation better understand how well it is doing when doing promotions under varying conditions.  IBM Digital Analytics Benchmark Hub: Your source for real-time cloud-based online retail data and analysis.  As they describe it further:

IBM Digital Analytics Benchmark
View performance benchmarks for your peers and competitors to help you uncover opportunities to grow your digital marketing and web properties. ... 

In general, the small to medium size business has a more difficult time in getting the data to understand how their business is operating.   In the enterprise we had  many sources of data and expertise. In the small to medium sized firms you track your own sales, but suppose you are trying to understand how well your promotional activities are working.  What promotions should you use in the future, what are your competitors doing, what are the demographics of your buyers? All key questions to ask.  New analytics exist to measure each of this questions, and the site includes tools and articles about them.   They point me to a study:

Read the study: How Marketing is Taking Charge: Leading the Customer Experience
Learn what leading marketers are doing to differentiate themselves in a perpetually shifting omnichannel world. .... 

Which highlights the fact that we are heading toward a very multi channel world.  Also a world where it is not about which channel we use, but how many channels we use to support a purchase and even what order we use them in.

This is all about leveraging data and analytics.   In rapidly changing conditions.   Benchmarking the results against your business sector, and helping you plan for the future.

An interesting place to start.  I plan to give it a try.

This post was written as part of the IBM for Midsize Business program, which provides midsize businesses with the tools, expertise and solutions they need to become engines of a smarter planet. I’ve been compensated to contribute to this program, but the opinions expressed in this post are my own and don't necessarily represent IBM's positions, strategies or opinions.  #MidsizeIBM

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