ThirdLove Co-Founder: This Is How Big Data Is Changing E-Commerce

How can Big Data help E-commerce? originally appeared on Quora: the place to gain and share knowledge, empowering people to learn from others and better understand the world.

Answer by Heidi Zak, Co-Founder of ThirdLove, on Quora:

The amount of data that e-commerce companies collect is changing what we can to do for customers. Increasingly, commercials and ads are targeted to our specific demographics.

You’ve probably noticed that after you go shopping for a certain item online, your ads are suddenly all about that item.

I remember watching TV as a kid, forced to sit through the same four commercials over and over during a one-hour show. It didn’t matter if you were a boy or girl, if you were 7 or 12—everyone saw the same commercials. Now, you can fast forward through commercials.

That option wasn’t always there, though.

We’ve come a long way since then. We can skip (almost all) commercials on TV and online. It’s not a coincidence. It’s big data at work. And the future of big data is going to benefit all.

Using Data To Create A Better Experience

Data impacts every aspect of the e-commerce landscape. At ThirdLove, our data affects how we develop products, create the customer journey, and ensure that our customers have a great experience. Everything revolves around that.

Sometimes women ask me how we’re able to find them the right bra size using the Fit Finder on our website. With around six million women going through it, we’ve got quite a bit of data to help find the right size.

And that’s where the power of big data really lies for e-commerce—it creates a better experience. For example, we’ve collected approximately 75 million data points just from our Fit Finder quiz. We use that data to influence nearly every aspect of our business. Each woman who takes the quiz adds something to it and makes our recommendations smarter.

E-commerce companies all have massive amounts of data at their disposal, and it’s changing how they interact with customers.

Tracking Preferences

Think of when someone walks into a brick and mortar store. The sales associate on the floor doesn’t know who they are or what they need. They don’t know if that customer is primed to buy, or if they’re going to three more stores after this one to compare prices. It’s very difficult for them to know all of that.

But these types of things are apparent when customers shop online. If they allow cookies, then the company knows where they came from. They know if the customer saw an ad on Facebook or clicked on an email offer. They know if that customer has visited the site before, put something in their cart, and then backed out. It’s all available.

This type of tracking allows e-commerce companies to target consumers who are of a certain age, who have a certain income, who like these types of products. They don’t engage every single person who might wander into the store, or those who aren’t interested in buying.

That enables companies to spend their money more effectively. Instead of putting up a billboard in Times Square and hoping the right people see it, they’re using data to target the right consumers at the right times.

And that’s good for the customer, too.

Catering To Customers

Sometimes a woman will come to our website, take our Fit Finder quiz, and then decide not to buy anything. When she comes back, the calls to action for the Fit Finder will be gone. In its place, she might see products that fit her shape or size—specific content that’s adapted for women like her.

Big data allows us to personalize the customer journey by intelligently segmenting our customer base.

It isn’t 100% personalized to each individual, like many think. But with so many data points to draw from, we can tailor content to certain types of customers. It’s more personal, and it makes sense from our standpoint and the customers.

Our customers tell us: We want you to know who we are.

They want to come back to our site and have an experience that reflects their previous visits. They want to get an email that talks about their preferred style and size. Without big data, we couldn’t create that personalized experience.

Big data is the next frontier in e-commerce, but its uses revolve around one key question:

Are you delivering value to your customer?

It all revolves around creating a better digital experience than what they can get in a store. We’re that point, and big data is going to take us even further.