Maneuvering the present, while shaping the future
People in key business decision-making positions are utilizing web data in order to better navigate their company’s current business climate. Here’s how:
A product inventory executive at an eCommerce company
This is a well-established brand in the sports apparel industry. At present they are looking to expand their operations by introducing sports gear such as tennis rackets, in addition to their existing clothing lines.
But introducing new inventory comes with risks – What if the demand isn’t there, or what if the existing vendors in the space are currently so well established that it will be hard to break into this market?
The product inventory manager in question decides to identify concrete answers to her questions using the following web data points:
Sales volume and competitor pricing
By looking at sales data for specific GEOs, and marketplaces, say customers located in New York that are shopping on Amazon. The inventory manager discovers 1,000 sales per day with a median price of $29.99 for a pair of rackets. Her company was considering pricing their rackets at $32. Now she can consult the manufacturing and shipping costs and see if they can either afford to undercut the competition or see if the quality they are providing is superior to the competition, thereby justifying the price hike. This last point can then be stressed in marketing campaigns.
Consumer feedback on existing products
Another dataset that she looks at is how her future competitors are performing from a consumer perspective. By collecting customer reviews, she can identify their shortcomings and then work on perfecting those flaws in her own product line. For example, creating an extra sturdy racket grip where other brands have failed expectations.
The head of legal at a music streaming application
This individual is part of a vibrant, fast-growing company. The only issue is that the business is investing millions of dollars annually to buy the rights to music which is then being played with no attribution. This means that they are losing huge amounts of music royalties.
The legal counsel is wondering – How can we keep better track of unlicensed instances where music we own is being played so that we can follow up and demand royalty payments?
He decides to collect the following web data in order to help him better cope with these challenges:
Social media-based song metadata
Songs typically have metadata such as the record label, producer or the artist’s name. So when a song is being played on platforms such as TikTok, and YouTube, relevant metadata points can be filtered for thereby enabling the legal department to identify copyright infringements in real-time. They can then reach out to the offending party and ask them to either remove the content or pay the appropriate royalty fees.
A portfolio manager at a Venture Capital firm
The portfolio manager is under immense pressure to identify new investment opportunities in the online gaming industry. The issue is that it is extremely difficult to discern which companies might be good candidates for the fund with classic data sets.
Questions like What are the market gaps and opportunities come up and need to be addressed using another layer of information. It is for this reason that the portfolio manager turns to alternative data:
Social media sentiment analysis
When considering potential companies to be acquired, the portfolio manager scans social media to understand user sentiment and underlying opportunities. Regarding a particular ‘investment candidate’ he may see that people really love the games on offer but are very disappointed by the ‘rewards’. This can actually help him make a favorable decision when deciding whether or not to invest in this company. The reason is that he has now been made aware of a concrete/untapped way in which the VC firm can now work in order to add value to and grow the company in question.
The bottom line
Web data is a tool that is currently helping corporate leaders better understand the space they are operating in, expand into new markets, protect intellectual property, and identify new opportunities.
Interested in incorporating a data-driven approach in the context of your business?
