Whatever you might be serving to your B2C or B2B consumers, you will require access to ample data. Equally importantly, the data is expected to be in a format that is easy to decipher for human readers. This is wherein the role of data aggregation platform comes in. It is a crucial component of any business to be competitive in the respective industry.
What is Data Aggregation?
Data serves to be the biggest asset for businesses out there -irrespective of the size. However, data on its own, without any organization, understanding, and segmentation, is typically useless. When you run a business, as you handle business data effectively, it will become the ultimate source of truth about the overall financial growth, health, and opportunities for your business.
Still, it can be challenging -especially with respect to omnichannel sales. It is because the more channels you will have, the more data you will require to analyze. Primarily, you are expected to put it together while presenting the same in a convenient form that allows you to understand what the figures are revealing. Data aggregation significantly helps in the given aspect.
Data aggregation is defined as the collection of raw data that gets converted into some summarized format. It implies that data should be available in the readable format -like numbers organized in the Excel sheet, graphs, or charts. Even infographics serve to be a form of data aggregation.
How Does Data Aggregation Work?
When you make use of advanced Big data analytics software solutions, the system is responsible for handling the process without the requirement for users to understand what is going on behind the scenes. Still, the process of data aggregation might include the following:
- Data Extraction: The software is responsible for pulling the data from the available data sets that are specified.
- Data Transformation: The software helps in converting the raw data into a specific format that is suitable for human observation as well as implementation.
- Data Analysis: The software is responsible for compiling the data into a summarized form. For instance, when you make use of Google Analytics, the dashboard of the software will reveal data through scatter points, charts, and graphs. This is a prime example of aggregated data that has been converted into a summarized format.
How can Data Aggregation Help Your Business?
let us analyze how aggregation of different types of data -including customers, products, or sales, can help business owners improve the overall efficiency of managing the entire business while feeling more confident in making informed, data-driven decisions.
#Improved Sales
Sales serve as the lifeblood of any given business. Therefore, it is significantly important to possess the most up-to-date and accurate information on the respective sales from all possible sales channels as well as payment platforms your business is using. When you are aware of the exact numbers, you can have a comprehensive overview of sales. At the same time, you can also spot the possible bottlenecks quickly while looking for potential solutions.
When you have access to an aggregated view of the entire sales as well as customer data, you can effectively track the most profitable products and consumers. At the same time, you are also able to observe how price changes will impact your overall sales while understanding seasonal patterns. You can eventually leverage these patterns to improve the overall sales.
#Tracking Efficiency of Multiple Sales Channels
In the modern era of omnichannel business organizations, it is crucial to effectively track the overall performance of the respective sales channels. Selling through multiple channels will enable your business to reach out to a wider target audience. Therefore, it is important to clearly get an understanding while being capable of answering the demand of consumers from every possible channel. It can be challenging without having exact numbers on the overall customer behavior and sales across existing channels.
To top it all, marketing methods tend to work differently from one channel to another. For instance, if discounts work the best for your consumers on Amazon, they will have less impact on consumers on the Shopify store.
#Understanding and Impacting Customer Lifetime Value
CLV or Customer Lifetime Value is one of the important metrics you are expected to track towards understanding the overall profitability of your business. It reveals how much revenue an average consumer is capable of generating for your business while interacting with your organization. Therefore if you wish to understand as well as improve it, you require to possess an aggregated view of the overall customer and sales data.
It helps in offering valuable insights into the overall behavior of the customers -like how often they end up buying or what products they are buying and so more. When you have access to this data, you can derive personalized offers, cross-selling or up-selling campaigns, or even loyalty programs towards encouraging customers to purchase from your business and staying longer.
#Planning Customer Acquisition & Retention Activities
Are you required to work more with existing customers towards improving sales or input more efforts into getting new ones? It is a question that cannot be answered based on assumptions because the use of a wrong strategy can significantly minimize your revenues. Therefore, you are required to be aware of the exact percentage of both new as well as returning customers for different sales channels.
This is wherein the purpose of aggregating data will prove to be immensely helpful. It is because it offers the right answers to your queries depending on accurate numbers from the sales channels. Therefore, when you have 20-30 percent fewer returning customers, you can understand that you need to focus on retention. At the same time, when your business has more than 50 percent of returning customers. you can work on your strategy of acquiring new ones.
Conclusion
Data is undeniably a valuable asset for your business. Data aggregation is the method that helps you in getting precise answers about your business. Therefore, you should use a reliable data aggregation software solution to get relevant help.
