The terms Big Data or Massive data refer to computer systems based on large-scale data collection, together with methods to identify recurring patterns within the data, which allows not only to gather information, but to be used as powerful tools for analysis. These strategies have become a key to success for many technology businesses.
Big Data arises from the need for new techniques for analysing data, which has been growing exponentially over the last decade, and from the urgency to process this information in less and less time. The huge amount of information available to us is useless if we fail to manage it, analyse it, draw conclusions and create appropriate action plans.
CRM (Customer Relationship Management), that is, the management of customer relationships, is a strategy that focuses on the wishes and needs of users, customers and potential customers. This is where the Big Data and data analysis have a greater role and come into play, in a game consisting of volume, speed, variety and value. These are undoubtedly the four great challenges of Big Data, as we are increasingly generating more information at higher speed and we need to analyse it at the same time it is generated to make it useful. But this process should also be able to analyse real-time different types of data to create accurate insights (ideas, actions) with a high added value.
This is precisely the major trend in recent years, the ability to act in real time and make decisions in an automatic and programmed way. One example is the systems of advertising purchase in real time (XTB: Real Time Bidding) where different advertising platforms (DMP: Data Management System) make purchase decisions (print to print) based on the knowledge they already have of the user who is browsing a specific website. Some large stores already use these services: Zalando, ASOS, Redoutte, Addictia… or even Amazon, who are developing their own system.
E-commerce is one of the sectors where Big Data and programmatic advertising have hit harder because it is a kind of business without growth limits, where a comprehensive knowledge of customers is necessary and almost essential. The evolution of the digital world in recent years has meant that users are familiar with the concept of online shopping and also they have been getting used to a more personalized shopping experience. The factor of personalization is becoming an increasingly essential element for any e-commerce. Not only because customers are getting used to it, but because it allows companies to create ever more surprising and unique shopping experiences that help increase sales, such as: personalized product recommendations, email retargeting, dynamic retargeting, diversification, and even resorting to techniques to modify online stores in real time based on user behaviour.
But … where do the data come from? Everywhere, from emails by users who purchase or register for newsletters, from those participating in raffles or surveys, from social profiles of users on Facebook, Twitter (and soon on Instagram, with the new advertising services), from pixels that are introduced on the online store’s website or blog to profile users and similar, from programmatic advertising campaigns that generate a Big Data to deliver specific advertising to the right public at the right time. Any action on the Internet leaves a trail that can then be used in advertising in a programmed and automatic way to achieve a major goal: optimize budget and achieve more sales.
Definitely, Big Data, rather than a new tech concept, is the tool that enables any online store to move on to the next level, to a higher level.
For more information, check out the following references:
DataXu – Programmatic marketing technology (https://www.dataxu.com/)
MediaMath – Programmatic Marketing Operating System
(http://www.mediamath.com/)
Real Time Bidding – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Real-time_bidding
Advanzis – digital marketing agency specializing in conversion (e-commerce) that manages actions in social networks and programmatic advertising campaigns ).
