Big Data: the key to a powerful e-commerce

The concepts used in business sometimes lose their rigor and are therefore used inaccurately, sometimes for marketing purposes. That is the case of Big Data and e-commerce. Both are vital when it comes to understanding the so called “Information era”, and even though many have heard them, their meaning may still be unclear.

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The loss of meaning and the lack of proper literature sometimes makes people hire services or take online courses that give either obvious advice, or a superficial view of these important concepts.

So, let’s start with two simple definitions:

• E-commerce is nothing more than the management of a business through the internet, whether what is being sold are products or services.
• Big Data refers to an exorbitant (putting a number is not really meaningful) amount of information that comes, mainly, from the way people surf the web.

The term Big Data was first used around the 90s, once computing power and powerful processors started to be more “common” (mainly with the surge of IBM); that said, Big Data already existed but with a different “name”: tons of information.

Information (Big Data) is the key that opens today’s world

We are made of information. Our words reflect it; they are coded thoughts that come out of our mouth, and then get decoded by our listener so we can comprehend each other. We code what we are thinking, seeing, and feeling. That coding contains information that gives meaning to our world and creates infinite expressions and references.

Among the many kinds of information there are, we as human beings have two of the most complex ones: our genetics and our social norms, made of countless variables such as gender, race, language, age, nationality, economic status, and other less material, such as thoughts, beliefs, and feelings. Together, they are responsible for our behavior, what we like and what we don’t, and many other characteristics.

All these information was already present in the world before computers were around, but it had never been coded in such a fast, incredibly voluminous way. Information was always coded according to the times in which people lived: cravings in stone, then codices, books, encyclopedias, and then computers. This is also not the first time that those who hold the most information, hold the most power. That said, it wasn’t until the internet era that the amount of information that was coded and stored daily started to increase exponentially.

With so much data being generated every day, humanity was suddenly in need of processing all of it in such a way that it could provide chaos with some order. To do that, they started using computers and processors. Truth be told, Big Data is nothing new; it is just massive loads of information. How it is used is what has given a new meaning to the term.

The new face of capital

Without question, data mining is one of the greatest resources we have today to better approach a business project. Being able to access the data of millions of people now defines the value of a company, because information is moving our world forward.

However, everything comes at a cost. In this case, data privacy and data mining sometimes crash between each other, mainly due to ethical considerations. And although obtaining the data is already valuable enough in many cases, it is the use of it which adds the more value to a company, but it is also where the harshest ethical considerations become relevant, but that is a different story.

Big Data being used for e-commerce

When it comes to e-commerce, what you are offering your customers is vital. You want to make sure the products you show them will improve their lives and will be of interest to them. How well you can do that is closely related to how much information you have about your clients… and a bit of creativity too in how you interpret and put that information together.

E-commerce is using tons of information every day, so it is a good idea to constantly learn about it and be informed about the new trends. However, it is vital to do it with the help of specialists who understand statistics, computer sciences, math, business, and marketing – not an easy combination to find. Fortunately, we have it at X eleva Group.

Big Data also involves ethical and philosophical matters. One must be confident that information is being used and obtained in a legal, legitimate, and ethical way. On top of that, whatever knowledge you are getting out of information must also help the business become more profitable, by applying it to an e-commerce, for example, or an AI system.

At X eleva Group, we are aware of the different elements that are needed to make a business work in the era of technology. We know what it takes to run an honest, profitable company, and make the best use of information, technology, and business.

Do you want to know how much your Big Data project costs?