You have set up your eCommerce brand online - the website is up and running, you manage the inventory across various marketplaces, payment gateways are integrated, shipping partners are onboard, ad spends are in full swing to acquire new customers, and you constantly work on optimizing keywords through SEO. As your eCommerce brand grows, the platforms that you need to manage your brand also grow - you now need warehouse management services, communication channels such as email newsletter platforms, and apps like WhatsApp. And that’s just the beginning.
What does this mean?
Data, data, and more data - as an eCommerce brand you would generate hordes of data every day. Be it the number of daily visitors on your eCommerce site, the types of products they are viewing, the purchases customers make, or the logistics of shipping and returns.
Often times, this data is in silos and can lead to inefficiencies and inaccurate interpretations. For example, you may end up segmenting your customers wrongly because the Facebook Ads data was not studied in tandem with your Google Ads, or because your attribution was not done correctly. Let us understand why a single unified view of all data or the 'single view' approach is necessary for your eCommerce brand, and how to build one.
Benefits of 'single view' for eCommerce brands
1. Reduces effort
Manpower and human capacity are finite resources, and if you have to shuffle between tens of dashboards for each related service you employ for your eCommerce brand, you will most definitely be exhausted trying to keep up. It also puts cognitive load as you have to aggregate data manually from all the individual platforms and go back and forth between various screens. Valuable information and insights can be lost in this process. A single integrated dashboard showcasing all the relevant metrics will significantly reduce effort and make it easier to correlate and interconnect cross-functional metrics and data. It will streamline the analytics experience so that tracking data would be effortless and not a chore.
2. Avoids duplication and overlapping
If you employ more than one analytics platform, you might be seeing duplication of data. Some metrics such as inventory values may overlap since you might be maintaining a central inventory for all the marketplaces - Amazon, Shopee, Lazada and so forth. Overlapping of data, as well as duplication of data, can result in skewed projections and misallocation of resources. As an example, ROAS may be less for a particular channel but you keep allocating the same funds without differentiating high-performing channels and relatively less-performing channels. As a consequence, core issues would remain hidden and unaddressed - you might generate traffic to your website but they may not be the right audience leading to poor conversion rates. A single unified dashboard standardizes data so you can draw beneficial insights and compare data in a meaningful way.
3. Gets you insights across all data points
Since a unified view presents all data points in one platform, you can get insights from across several interconnected touch-points helping you identify the root cause of an issue. For example, shipping may be delayed in certain locations compared to others, mapping and correlating this data to the site traffic and order placements can help you better understand what’s happening. Solutions such as changing the delivery partner for those specific locations or increasing warehouses in case of higher demand can be considered instead of just sending ‘delays in shipping’ messages to customers and risk losing customer trust.
4. Enables a holistic overview of the eCommerce brand
The big picture view of where your eCommerce brand is in its growth trajectory and how it is faring needs to be monitored continuously to keep track of your brand’s growth and expansion goals. A single view enables this holistic overview and empowers you to make allocations that align with medium and long-term goals. For example, Graas' predictive AI engine is able to offer strategic advice on growth because it integrates all of your data sources. This would have been impossible if the data was always siloed.
5. Empowers quick actions
Time and timing can make or break an eCommerce brand - whether it is in mitigating risks from unforeseen events or leveraging opportunities as they come by. The quicker you take action, the faster the turnaround would be. Having a single view empowers you with all the data points for you to take proactive steps instead of reacting to events after they happen.
6. Enhances customer experience
Customers are the heart of eCommerce businesses. How they interact with your eCommerce website and the frustrations they face in the process such as slow loading pages, inadequate product descriptions, and so on, can hinder the growth of your brand. By having an integrated view, measuring metrics such as conversion rates, cart abandonment, and mapping them to customer pain points such as the slower loading pages as mentioned above - customer experiences can be enhanced to create a seamless delightful flow right from the landing page to the payment gateway. Further, customized experiences can also be created by having dedicated communication channels such as WhatsApp customer service. This data again gets tied into the entire gamut of metrics providing a positive feedback loop when implemented correctly.
'Single view' through Graas' Predictive AI Engine
Graas is an AI-powered growth engine that incorporates real-time tracking of all the important key metrics, be it eCommerce business metrics, customer acquisition metrics, or demand fulfilment metrics. The platform is able to integrate with all of the tools that a brand would typically use. This integrated approach enables a holistic understanding of your eCommerce brand end-to-end, covering all touch points. Custom dashboards on the platform can also be built and customized to suit your specific needs. Frameworks for fetching data from various sources such as marketplaces, eCommerce platforms, payment gateways, delivery partners, and marketing tools, as well as lesser-known platforms and partners are also in place.
The single view approach gives a unique vantage point to accurately estimate not only the performance of your brand but also the factors contributing to the growth and those hampering it. Plus, you get access to actionable recommendations that can be implemented in a snap.
For example, traffic sources can be analyzed to determine which channels are performing well, and ad spend can then be reallocated to give better ROI. Cost per acquisition can be cut down by promoting organic growth through SEO in locations where marketing campaigns have given good results. Average order value can be increased by upselling through product bundles determined by the platform’s powerful AI algorithm. Seasonality can be leveraged to spike sales and ensure that revenue is generated in lean periods.
The platform’s recommendations come with assessed monetary impact and a timeline within which these recommendations work best. These recommendations are specific - such as enabling free shipping above a threshold cart value, target specific geographies for particular products. In this way, not only does Graas provide a snapshot of the business but also provides expert advice to grow your eCommerce brand.
Give Graas Platform to see how it can best integrate with all of your data sources, and help you with targeted advice on growing your brand.
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