Big Data: The Engine Behind Personalized E-Commerce

Big data is a way to define a huge volume of data stored in databases, physical devices, or any other media. Usually, and not long ago, this term was widely used by governments and big internet enterprises.

Right now, big data has a very important role in the development of functional databases to correlate data and user preferences—often using cookies—to show relevant results to users on e-commerce and sites that need to offer a personalized experience to the user.

Think of this concept as a way to store what the user does on your site while they're logged in. The collected information can be used to offer the user a completely personalized experience, making the process automatic.

This kind of database and data usage is often seen on sites that will offer you similar products or related products to a recent purchase, and even other products that can be of your interest based on the stored information about you.

It's a controversial way in some sites, because it can manipulate search results in engines to take the user to a specific ad on an advertising network, knowing that the user is the target or specific niche.

Google widely uses this to display ads and "relevant" content. A lot of this is just blocked, for instance, by Adblock Plus.

But no matter how, if you register on a site, and that site uses a lot of information that it collects from you, it can send newsletters and email offers to you based on your purchase preferences or even on articles that you were about to purchase but left incomplete. Hence: you looked into a product for X period of time, you hit the purchase button, but after that, you took back the idea and closed—for instance—a PayPal window.

You will probably get an email suggesting you finish the purchase.

In the eyes of most internet users, this may look abusive, but it can be used for a huge amount of purposes, even to prevent crimes. The usage of this huge volume of data collected by websites often leads to user concern. That's why if you live in the European Union, you will get a notice if the site uses cookies to get any info about you.

Let's put aside the uses that we already know—and sometimes suffer—from part of enterprises, and let's think of this as a way to empower sales on our own e-commerce.

Of course, you won't be managing the vast amount of data that Google uses, but with a tailored-made website, the developer can achieve the same results, and in spite of many critics, it really works to sell more and offer relevant products.

Let's say that you registered that the user bought an iPhone. Well, if you also sell cables, earpods, or any related item that can be associated with the user and the article that he purchased, you can offer him other products after the purchase of the phone.

You can also store that transaction, and what items you offered and the user rejected, to get a well-defined profile of the user for future sales, and of course to make the most of an automated mail promoting products.

Another good example of this practice—and probably the most obvious—is AliExpress. No matter what you purchase, you will receive an email telling you that an article is on sale, and that article is among the things that can be of your interest.

There's no doubt that big data will be one of the future pillars of personalized sales. It can automate the process of a seller offering related articles to the client and go even further and email them with "news" if it's necessary.

So, big data can be a huge benefit and not only for commerce, but for many things.

And if you are thinking about it right now: No, this site doesn't use cookies, doesn't store any info, and won't track you either.