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Q&A: The Importance of Managing Data for Ecommerce

Data was big news in 2018 - for more than one reason. While businesses grappled with the need to meet GDPR guidelines, other types of data were the drivers of unprecedented growth in ecommerce. In this Q&A, we pose the important questions about data management to one of the UK’s leading experts.

Paul Attard is Chief Technical Officer of B2B ecommerce platform specialist Comgem. He is responsible for driving the award-winning company’s technology forward and identifying the emerging trends in the market. Paul is also one of the co-founders of Comgem.

  1. What is the biggest obstacle B2B ecommerce businesses have to overcome when it comes to data?

    2. Data is at the core of every business. And it is one of the most important foundations to get right when tackling an ecommerce project.

    The biggest obstacle for any business looking to take their ecommerce project seriously is having good quality data and ensuring that data can be imported into whatever platform in a logical format.

    In all the years we have been doing what we do, it never ceases to amaze me how many businesses have poor quality data which doesn’t facilitate automation.

    When we work with customers we provide customers with the tools that will get their data in a logical and managed format. For us this is the most important step in any successful project.

  2. Privacy is a big issue with data. How does Comgem help B2B websites meet legal requirements?

    3. Many businesses were dreading GDPR, however this is only enforcing what businesses should be doing… protecting their customer data. At Comgem we take our customers and their customer security seriously – this is why all ecommerce websites developed by Comgem have an SSL. Sensitive data such as passwords are encrypted to further protect customers, and when importing new customers into our platform we have provisions to send a new password.

    We treat customer data as we would expect our own.

  3. How can data help B2B websites sell more?

    4. Someone once said that good data is like fuel for your Ferrari. In terms of product information, it allows customers to explore the products in a virtual world. Whether it is the specifications, images showing different angles or videos providing a walk through of the product. There is no denying the better the data the more sales.

    It is also critical that businesses focus on unique product content. There are lots of data distributors – all of which feed out the same data to hundreds of websites. Whilst this is useful for the critical mass, we always recommend customers customise the data on their top 100 selling lines. This will provide significant benefits from an SEO perspective where duplicate data is penalised.

    In terms of customer data, it is great to build a picture of each and every customer. By understanding their interactions with your website you can effectively target these customers with targeted automated campaigns that will help you sell more. For example, if you have a customer who bought a printer a month back, is it time to send a promo for 10% off of paper or cartridges This is all possible if you have the data to fuel that Ferrari.

  4. Is real-time data really important to online visibility and, if so, why?

    5. One of the major benefits of digital marketing is the amount of data you can obtain but also real-time information. This can allow businesses to quicker react to trends. For example, if your analytics suddenly show a spike in the number of people looking at a particular product – and people not buying that product - you can react. If customers are looking at a particular brand, you can create content that will further drive other traffic to a particular brand. By monitoring data in real-time you have the luxury to adapt your marketing, prices and focus based on what is happening now - rather than reacting a week or month down the line.

  5. How can data help websites target groups of customers more effectively?

    6. Having a platform that can build large amounts of data can be valuable in terms of analysing what groups of customers are doing, what influences customers to buy or not. Combining powerful data mining tools can leverage benefits in terms of targeting customers with similar patterns. However our platform takes this one step further by analysing individual customer purchasing patterns and then based on intelligent technology the platform provides a complete unique experience for that individual customer.

  6. What is the future of managing data in ecommerce?

    7. Big data is going to continue to drive the agenda. This will be big news in terms of how companies manage product data right through to how they target their customers. We have some exciting developments in this area, which I’m being tight-lipped about at the moment. We’ve only seen the tip of the iceberg so far.

Want to learn more about managing your ecommerce data? Download Comgem’s free buyer’s guide. It outlines the website features that can help you make the most of data management and increase sales.