If data is the new oil, then WisePass is the refinery — Series Article 3 Data Collection Part 1

Data collection has been quite a controversial topic, especially with the Cambridge Analytica scandal that happened to Facebook. For brands, it’s a necessary step for better relevance to the consumers and that’s what we’re going to talk about

First, let’s define data collection. Data collection is the process of gathering and measuring information on variables of interest, in an established systematic fashion that enables one to proceed to the next steps to reach a specific objective.

On top of that, it’s necessary that we’re talking about data that is accessible online and easy to process. We’re not talking about surveys, focus groups requiring face to face or using pens and paper.

The data collection is a critical step for businesses to address as they need to understand what they need to reach their objective

Define a clear outcome in data analytics

Everyone is talking about data but nobody really spent enough time to specify what the data will enable businesses to do. For the sake of simplicity, we will select a couple of businesses that are collecting data and show the outcome.

One of the uses of data collection is to improve the user experience by doing recommendations. Companies such as Netflix is collecting data to personalize the user experience that may be leading to an increase watch time. An increased watch time from a user correlates to longer lifetime value. In other words, subscribers will keep paying monthly their 10$. The outcome is connected to sales. Period.

In this case, all the data collection is used to provide a personalized experience through a recommendation engine. The video from Vox illustrates better how the data is used and processed to display it to the end users.

With some consistent increase in subscribers over the years, Netflix has become a juggernaut in the industry

For the past 10 years, Netflix really emphasized streaming and we can see the subscriber's count has kept increasing in the US and international markets. That’s partly due to their ability to provide a much better user experience with the way they collect and process the data.

How can you collect data?

There are two ways to collect data. Either you build your own platform and it generates data you can use or you collect data from a third party that consents you to collect it.

Proprietary data

Within your business, you may already have some useful data you can process to reach your objective

Data generated from your own platform is usually prime and enables you to build a competitive advantage as that’s something you can keep private and gain more insights from it.

That should be multiple data sets you can collect and then process to generate more sales. A primitive example is an email marketing campaign. Usually, e-commerce companies will require your email when you make a purchase. What they usually do with that email is to send you some newsletter or special offers after you made your first purchase.

Another thing they can do is to process the data and select the emails that only made a single purchase by triggering a special promotion to incentivize the first customer to make a subsequent purchase on that platform. The more transactions a user makes, the more repeat transactions will follow as that marketing budget is used to generate consumer habits.

To sum it up, e-commerce websites collect an email and then use email marketing for specific first-time customers to incentivize them for subsequent transactions so they can turn these first-time customers into loyal customers in the long run.

Framework Case E-Commerce Website

Data: Email
Processing: Focus on emails that are first-time customers
Action: Send them a promotion
Outcome: Generate a second transaction from that email
System: Email Service Provider

3rd party data

You can connect with many 3rd parties to collect data that can enable you to reach your objective

Data can be collected from a third party like Facebook. One of the examples we can pick is the API from Facebook Pages. Whenever WisePass sponsors a venue, it will require a standardized set of data. Among the data is pictures from the venues.

It used to be cumbersome as we would ask the venues to send it over and ensure it’s the right format. Today, what WisePass does is simple, it pulls the pictures from the Facebook Page of the venues so it can collect more pictures that are fresher for our users to see how the place looks like.

The main outcome, in that case, is simple. It’s all about automation so we can proceed with that task more efficiently for any venues we’re working with rather than waiting for another human being sending some content that we would need to process again. That aspect of the business lies more in the operations team and helps to cut costs as it takes less time to onboard a new merchant.

Framework Case for WisePass Merchant Onboarding

Data: Pictures
Processing: Collect Pictures from Facebook
Action: Display them on the app
Internal Outcome: Lower operating costs to process content from merchants
Business Outcome: Better assist in user decision making to know where to go
System: Facebook API