The 15% difference: How data analytics boosts small business sales

Data?is the currency of success—but?the journey from recognizing data analysis's importance to harnessing its power is a path that many small business owners have less travelled.

Research?conducted by the Georgia Small Business Development Center (SBDC) uncovered an interesting fact: On average, businesses that embrace data analytics experience a 15% increase in sales compared to?counterparts who?don't analyze?their?data. This statistic alone should serve as a compelling motivation for small business owners to delve into the world of data analytics and use the?technology?available to them.

What is?data?analytics and how does it help small businesses?

Data analytics is gathering data from multiple sources, visually analyzing it, and extracting valuable insights from?it.

The key pain points of small businesses that data analytics solves are:

1) Scattered?data sources

Small businesses often use various applications to manage their operations, marketing, finance, sales,?and more.

Analytics Solution:?Data management

Collecting data from these diverse sources and consolidating it into a single data warehouse provides a comprehensive view of the business.

2) Poor?quality?of data

Poor data quality leads to bad decisions and revenue loss. Small businesses barely have sufficient resources to run their operations—and?manual data preparation is so tedious?that even an enterprise can't do it without the help of an analytics platform.

Analytics Solution: Data Preparation

Data needs to be cleaned and prepared for analysis to ensure accurate results—and?high-quality data leads to better decision-making.

3) Hard-to-understand numbers

Having?fewer?resources, small businesses need to put huge effort?into?running?their operations seamlessly. Crunching data as numbers is?often functionally?impossible for them.

Analytics Solution: Visual Analytics

Visualizing data through charts and KPI widgets makes it easily understandable for even?users?without a deep background in analytics.

How analytics helps small business owners increase their sales efficiency:

Focus on your core business

Analytics saves time and allows business owners to focus on core business growth rather than spending time on manual number crunching.

Optimize?marketing?spend

Analytics helps identify unnecessary marketing expenses, underperforming campaigns, and areas where marketing spend can yield better conversion rates.

Increase?customer?retention

Businesses can enhance customer satisfaction and loyalty by analyzing customer pain points and updating products or services to meet their needs.

Venture into new potential markets

Analytics helps small businesses identify potential revenue streams and untapped markets for expansion.

How Zoho Analytics?helps?small?businesses

Start your analysis right away:?Get started quickly with a wide range of prebuilt reports and automatically generated dashboards for popular business apps and social media apps.

Ask questions and generate reports:?Use?Ask Zia, our smart AI assistant, to make conversations?to generate?reports in seconds, eliminating the need for technical assistance.

Unearth underlying information:?Uncover hidden insights from your data?with a single click.

Get alerts when you reach milestones—or when things go wrong:?Stay informed about milestones and downturns by setting up alerts.

Harness an?AI-powered?intelligent?assistant:?Zia, powered by ChatGPT, simplifies the creation of formulas and queries and helps you discover public datasets without leaving the application.

Small business analytics?is not just a buzzword; it's a game-changer. Embracing analytics can provide small business owners with the tools they need to uncover hidden opportunities for growth, optimize operations, and drive revenue. With tools like Zoho Analytics, even businesses with limited resources can harness the power of data to make informed decisions and thrive in a competitive marketplace. Don't miss out on the potential of your data—take the leap into small business analytics today with Zoho Analytics !