The value of data analysis

The Alibaba Group of companies are known to be particularly innovative users of data in their business, from the operational to the strategic levels.

This is a brief essay describing one use of data by an Alibaba Group company applying Analytic Value Escalator framework adapted by Amitabh Sinha from the course Introduction to Data Analytics for Managers from University of Michigan.

The Alibaba Group consists of many innovative companies in the retail and technology space, including the ecommerce company Alibaba.com, the financial services company Ant Financial, and many others.

Alibaba Group launched “Tmall Innovation Center” (TMIC) service on April 2018 offering end-to-end product-development for companies looking to achieve success with chinese consumers.

This service has a true potential as Alibaba operates China’s largest e-commerce platform and owns more than half-billion customer data that reports gender, age, location, purchase power, etc..

TMIC researchers enriches Alibaba data sending out surveys and using tools to better identify customer preferences and behaviours besides ecommerce.

The main goal is extracting value from Alibaba customer base to offer companies a end-to-end product-development service from design, marketing and customer surveys to post-launch performance tracking

So once a product is ready for the market TMIC offers six models to forecast a product’s first-year sales revenue and can help craft a targeted advertising campaign for the company’s e-commerce platforms

TMIC has already partnered with 37 global groups, including Mars, P&G, Mattel and L’Oreal.

The framework consists in understanding the value of four types of analytics that help deliver richer insights for better decision-making processes:

1.??????Descriptive: What is happening now?

2.??????Diagnostic: What happened and why?

3.??????Predictive: What might happen?

4.??????Prescriptive: What actions should be taken?

It is possible to identify the use of Descriptive Analytics on mining their customer base to identify historical performance, spot trends, understand whats and whens.

Diagnostic Analytics happens when the research team tries to find patterns and key directions about Alibaba customers behaviours and preferences using survey and analysis tools

When all this findings are put together through statistical models TMIC has a better understanding to answer questions about the future or to determine the likelihood of what customers want to buy next. This is a Predictive Analytic Model..

Prescriptive Analytics are the outcomes from TMIC research for companies trying to engage with the chinese consumer. Through prescriptive analysis TMIC offers the creation, design, pricing and marketing of the product as a state of the art service.

Referencies:

Hsu, Jenny W. “Alibaba Now Product Designer, as Well as Seller, for Brands.”?Alizila.com, 20 Apr. 2018,?www.alizila.com/alibaba-tmall-innovation-center-brands/