In the third part of our eCommerce digital transformation series, we sat down with Digital Commerce Consultant Christina Stensvaag (Former VP of Product Management at ShopStyle & Sephora, former Head of Digital Product Management at American Eagle), to chat about the changing role of data analytics for eCommerce–and ideas on how to craft a strategy for any-size fashion eCommerce.

(The above video is an excerpt from YesPlz's digital transformation in eCommerce podcast)

Data analytics are at the core of a successful digital transformation strategy. As the fashion eCommerce industry adopts new personalization tools, like AI-powered search and recommendations, what steps can eCommerce brands take to improve their data analytics for eCommerce strategy?

We highlighted the must-know parts below:

What is the team culture necessary to craft a successful data analytics for eCommerce strategy (especially if it's from scratch)?

CHRISTINA: Ecommerce brands need to experiment to see which ideas work best for them.

Some questions to consider are:

• Does your team want to win? Are you willing to incubate different ideas to get it right?

• What could your eCommerce brand be doing better?

• Are you committed to trying new things?

And the core question: How do you find the right individual at the right time with the right product to get them to convert?

The answer to this question requires experimentation, coming from teams that are patient, approach the transformation with an experimental mindset, and ask themselves what’s working–and to improve even more.

It’s unlikely that your brand will get digital transformation right the first time–but there’s value in staying curious and exploring.

What are your tips for eCommerce brands looking to create a data analytics for eCommerce strategy? It can be overwhelming when it seems like there’s so many components to consider, from data collection to organizational attitudes. 

CHRISTINA: At Walmart, we sat down and carved 3 hours out of the day to run a checkout experiment. Data analytics requirescommitment, and a willingness to sit down and consciously take the time to run these experiments.

And, you don’t need a perfect data brief to start from somewhere. You can use customer spend to see events, seasonality, and identifying spikes in sales–those are all starting points for creating a data analytics strategy that informs digital transformation. 

You do need to log that data–and someone needs to analyze said data. It takes time, but once your eCommerce starts collecting data, you’ll be in a position to ask difficult questions like “Why are shoppers bouncing off at a certain point?”--and you can plan ahead for production. 

Start experimenting from somewhere.

Learn, optimize, and repeat. And keep an open mind to be ready to ask and answer hard questions like, “Are shoppers abandoning carts on a certain page because of later delivery dates? And how do we fix that?”

This interview is part 3 of YesPlz’s Digital Transformation in eCommerce Experts Series. You can find the first two parts, focusing on personalization and BFCM eCommerce tips here.