How Small Businesses Can Use Big Data
- Develop close relationships with customers based on a deep understanding of their behaviors and needs
- Deliver the targeted advertising promotions and product offers to customers that will motivate them to buy
- Balance inventory with demand so you’re never out of stock or carrying excess inventory
- Charge exactly the price that customers are willing to pay at any moment
- Determine the best use of marketing investments
- Locate stores, distribution centers, and other facilities in optimal locations
A few leading firms have already achieved dramatic benefits. Kroger, for example, gets a 40% redemption rate from its analytically-targeted coupons, compared to an industry average of 2%, and believes the promotions have increased overall sales by 5%. Automation can also contribute to improving the customer experience. Tesco, Britain’s multinational grocery and general merchandise retailer, promised customers that it would open up a new checkout line if there was more than one person in front of them. They achieved this seemingly impossible goal by introducing heat sensors to monitor the number of people in the store. The technology collected information such as the number of people in each line, the average wait time and even the average store performance. This allowed Tesco to “predict the checkouts that [needed] to be open per hour,” according to then CEO Terry Leahy. The company used technology to collect big data and analyze the trends across all of their stores so they knew how many staff they would need working at any time, as well as how many registers to open. The company claims this led to a ten percent increase in pre-tax profits.
Track all marketing channels
Since many small businesses use various offline marketing channels, it is important to track each of them to determine response rates by geography and demographics to plan more effectively. These are some ways you can track different media sources:
