Big Data in e-Commerce – The concept of big data is increasingly being echoed along with technological developments. Now data is no longer an exclusive thing for those who are used to working in the exact field, but it is also starting to be studied by those who work in non-technical fields.

As online -based business ecosystems such as e-commerce grow,proper big data processing is one of the main highlights for analyzing needs and making the right decisions. It is believed that proper processing will provide high accuracy to predict market trends and how to look for opportunities to develop business.

In the world of e-commerce itself, big data plays an important role in analyzing consumers, operations, market potential, and product innovation. This data analysis can provide an overall framework regarding consumer profiles and what potential can be explored as a business development strategy.

One of its implementations, consumer data is collected from their interactions on e-commerce websites which are then analyzed to maximize sales conversion strategies.

Not only are strategies that are increasingly innovative, investments in data processing also promise efficiency, increase profits, and also consumer loyalty.

How is Big Data implemented in e-Commerce?

Here are some data analyzes that can support e-commerce strategies:

Improving Consumer Shopping Experience

One of the crucial things to increase consumer loyalty is to provide a satisfying shopping experience. For example, when consumers visit a website, they not only intend to shop right away, but also look for product insights that they think they need.

With data, e-commerce actors can provide product recommendations that match consumer interests based on their search history. Not only that, data analysis is also useful for evaluating consumer shopping flows from when they come to leave the website.

An example is evaluating the testing carried out to find out which features are most comfortable for consumers to use. For example, what kind of filter interactions are used the most, is the page navigation clear enough for them, and so on.

Satisfaction with the consumer shopping experience is certainly very influential for their decision to return to e-commerce or not.

Personalized Shopping Based on Consumer Interests

In line with improving the shopping experience, the data collected on the e-commerce platform can also provide a better promotion strategy by personalizing shopping.

For example, consumer historical data that has been registered in the analysis of which product categories are most in demand. When there are online shopping promotions such as 11/11 or Harbolnas (National Online Shopping Day), e-commerce players can personalize to only provide relevant discounts for registered consumers.

The most common channels for distributing these personalized discounts/promotions are through EDM, social media, and mobile app notifications. Providing relevant promotions to the right targets is certainly the most effective strategy for maximizing purchase conversions.

Improving E-commerce Innovation

Innovation is a fixed price in business to remain flexible to changes in existing trends. Innovation also acts to predict future market conditions and keep consumers loyal.

With big data analysis, e-commerce businesses can see consumer trends at certain times. This behavioral tendency is used to initiate more targeted innovations.

For example, if previously conventional discounts were only in the form of price discounts, now promotions are transformed into innovative and engaging forms, such as cashback promos, flash sales, quizzes on social media, to games in applications.

Evidently, based on a Snapcart study in the month of Ramadan, it was found that 33 percent of consumers liked cashback promos, 22 percent liked flash sales, 21 percent of games in the application (example: shake-shakes ), and 17 percent of conventional discounts.

The Snapchart data shows that innovation is very important to maintain consumer engagement . Consumer shopping behavior is not necessarily stagnant but will continue to change along with the times. This is the homework of e-commerce actors to stay relevant.

Increasingly Fierce E-commerce Strategy War

Indonesia is the country with the largest online marketplace in Southeast Asia. No wonder many e-commerce players are so aggressive to attract customers.

The trend of online shopping is increasing every year, not only influenced by users’ literacy of technology and online payments, but also exposure to large-scale promotions from e-commerce players.

The progress of e-commerce is indeed predicted to continue to increase from year to year. Even Lazada’s Chief Marketing Officer, Achmad Alkatiri, told Okezone.com that the triumph of the online store would last 2-3 years.

The strategy war is getting fiercer considering the many year-end online shopping parties such as 11/11 or Single’s Day, 12/12 or Harbolnas, as well as Christmas and New Year promos. At least, Lazada, who is often in the top five on the Indonesian E-commerce Map, must have prepared his ammunition to attract as many visitors as possible.

Creativity is indeed important to create marketing and promotional strategies that are wow and booming. However, by adopting the role of big data, e-commerce actors can decide more accurately which strategy is most cost- effective in order to maximize the highest profit potential.

For large e-commerce actors, the use of big data may not be new. However, this is a big challenge for small players and beginners, because a more structured approach is needed in collecting data and analyzing it.

Blibli CEO, Kusumo Martanto, explained to Dailysocial, that infrastructure and human resources are the main challenges for e-commerce players to adopt big data. Consistency and discipline in the use of big data is a challenge that deserves more attention.

In addition, investment in data processing can certainly clash with other priorities, especially for small players. However, considering the promising returns for a more mature business strategy, there is nothing wrong with smaller players starting to learn about it.

Increased awareness in the use of data is also predicted to make every online business player interested in mastering it, especially to predict market trends and make the right decisions to win more market share .

The role of big data also stimulates innovation in e-commerce services that are of a higher quality and increase competitive advantage. Increasingly prestigious e-commerce competition also fosters a healthy business ecosystem and reduces the potential for market monopoly.

The party that benefits the most is certainly none other than the consumers themselves, because they have many choices of quality services with maximum online shopping satisfaction.

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