If you are collecting data from your customers and other retail areas (and let’s face it, you should be), you need to put this information to work for you. If you’re culling the right data from customers, then you can leverage it to influence and improve a number of different eCommerce operations – here are three such possible uses:

1. Fraud management

Online retailers lose a tremendous amount of money in returns fraud every year. Recent data from the National Retail Federation suggests that merchants lost nearly $9 billion to returns fraud last year. In the U.S. alone, eCommerce businesses lost $3.5 billion in revenue.

As Practical eCommerce notes, larger data sets can help retailers improve fraud detection.

By processing sales transactions against fraud patterns, businesses can improve their discovery of fraud. Real-time analysis helps catch fraud as it’s happening, rather than when it’s already too late and the losses are realized.

2. Personalization

When looking at an entire customer base, there is often only one consistency: the fact that shoppers are coming to your eCommerce website. Outside of that, they have very little in common. Whether you’re trying to create an engaging marketing campaign or put together effective item bundles, you should be personalizing these efforts using customer data.

“For example, do not treat loyal customers the same as new ones,” Practical eCommerce explains. “The experience needs to be personalized to reward loyal customers. It should look attractive and ‘sticky’ for new customers.”

3. Pricing

Gone are the days of stagnant pricing. Many retailers have enacted price adjustment strategies to ensure customers never leave them for a competitor. Additionally, merchants can change prices to stimulate sales and clear out inventory.

However, data is crucial to all of these initiatives. Whether you’re matching prices or trying to move inventory, you should be looking to sources such as competitors’ websites, regional trends, product sales, inventory numbers and past customer behaviors. By using metrics, you can set dynamic prices that make sense for every situation.

Information should power your eCommerce operations. By making use of the data you are collecting through eCommerce software, you can more effectively compete in today’s competitive retail landscape.