In today’s net market, everyone has a website. For those that have a brick and mortar store or are a pure-play e-commerce company, a website can offer a plethora of information for an owner to ensure that inventory is available for sale. When used properly, a website can also be an asset upon which your customers and potential clients can rely.
Business analytics (BA) is a term that is being used quite extensively. Also known as business intelligence, BA is the ability to examine and analyze the information or data from a transaction list to determine future actions. The transactions can be tracked via a website and/or a point of sale. You don’t have to be a big corporation to accomplish business analytics, you just have to have access to (and be able to read and make use of) the technology at hand to see the signs.
There are a number of factors you need to consider for a product-centric website that can complement in-store merchandising.
- You need to know what consumers are looking for and when.
- You need to have the items in stock when they want them.
- You need to be able to use the data from your website to anticipate purchasing trends.
- You need to stay up on overall net purchasing trends for your vertical.
The first move a savvy web owner makes is installing Google Analytics. This offers an opportunity to examine when consumers are viewing your site, what pages they are landing on, and how long they are staying on them. Your traffic patterns will give a bird’s eye view of popularity, elevation in searches and can allow you to make any adjustments to the site for increased traffic.
Most website platforms have a dashboard that is a goldmine of information. You probably have a list of the top 10 (or 20) search words and possibly the most viewed pages. Each of these areas is a priority to help you to understand what consumers are looking for and allows you to have the products in stock. Take heed of items that may be special or seasonal items.
Another recommendation is to use a product ordering technology. These include smart scanners that:
- keep track of your inventory
- automatically link to the manufacturer
- keep track of the timing and amount of your past orders
- prompt you when there are additional ‘deals’ available
Smart scanners can also link to your website to update inventory and set alert flags for products that are not available or are no longer offered, as well as those with a status change to available.
Depending upon what products you carry within your store, you will want to examine popular websites from your competition, social media search topics, and the hot trending searches as they relate. Combining the technology tools for your business analytics with the results from the Internet will give you a gauge for what will need to be on hand and in stock at the store.
Making use of your website data and the Internet to ensure the right products are available and the marketing message displayed can be an easy process, once you have all of the tools and steps in motion.