Briefs

by Jesus Mena, December 18, 2008

Customer interactions reveal important trends and patterns that can help a company design a website that effectively communicates and markets its products and services.

In their frenzy to be the next Amazon.com, companies of all size and types are scrambling to set up their e-commerce sites. They often concentrate on the mechanics of transactional processing, setting up their inventory and shopping carts - but usually fail to plan for the vast amount of customer data their site will generate. Most companies fail to see that in e-commerce, success will depend on how this web data is leveraged to convert visitors into customers. The web data that is generated with a single sale is of more value than the sale itself since it can lead to a long and profitable relationship with that customer.

Every visit to a retailing site generates important consumer behavioral data, regardless of whether a sale is made. Every visitor action is a digital gesture exhibiting habits, preferences and tendencies. These interactions reveal important trends and patterns that can help a company design a website that effectively communicates and markets its products and services. Companies can aggregate, enhance and mine web data in order to learn what sells, what works and what doesn't, who is buying and who is not.

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