How and Why You Should Harness Real-Time Data

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October 20, 2023 Business

Real-time data is incredibly powerful. As a business, you can use it to improve efficiency levels, identity trends, boost customer satisfaction, and a whole lot more. If this is something you think you’d be interested in, read the following guide so that you can learn how and why you should harness real-time data moving into the future.

Fun Fact: This guide is for all-size businesses, from start-ups to fast-growing companies!

What Is Real-Time Data?

Firstly, let’s focus on what real-time data actually is.

Real-time data (RTD) is information that’s delivered straight away. No delays, no pauses. The data is simply passed along to the end user very quickly so that they can then use it.

An excellent example of this is a Currency API. This currency API supplies real-time exchange rate data surrounding 152 different currencies, cryptos, and metals. If you were to add it to your mobile app or e-commerce platform where you sell products, customers would then be able to receive real-time exchange rate data, allowing them to make smarter purchasing decisions. Nudge, nudge — this is why the world’s most successful companies now use real-time currency APIs, as they’re necessary for international customers.

Hopefully, you should now have a clearer understanding of what real-time data is. The next step is to let you know how you can harness real-time data, no matter which industry you currently operate in.

How to Harness Real-Time Data

The good news is that there are lots of different ways you can harness real-time data. Remember, big data is here to stay, so it’s highly recommended that you start using real-time data, too. Here are some more examples of how you can do this.

Dynamic Pricing

Today’s markets can be quite volatile (and that’s an understatement). As a result, it’s a good strategy to continuously offer dynamic pricing so that you can stay ahead of the curve in your industry and outperform your rivals.

In a nutshell, dynamic pricing is when you rapidly adjust the prices of your products and services based on changing market conditions. For instance, if you sell teeth whitening toothpaste and there’s currently a huge market demand for it, you can increase the price to match this demand. Make sense? Great!

Over recent years, dynamic pricing has become a huge trend across all of the major industries. It combines historical data, machine learning, and more to determine the best possible prices, with the main aim being to build profits and attract more customers.

Most of the big brand names you can think of have started using dynamic pricing, from Amazon to General Motors. Even ride-sharing services such as Uber and Lyft have deployed dynamic pricing, using variables like rush hours, holidays, and weather conditions to determine the prices they charge.

Make no doubt about it: if you want to truly boost your sales and get as much brand engagement as possible, you should use real-time data to create a truly efficient dynamic pricing strategy.

Accurate Sales Forecasting

Next, you can use real-time data for accurate sales forecasting. To do this, you’ll need to use a sales forecasting app, such as Pipedrive, which can help you adjust sales strategies based on real-time data. It’s a smart way to operate and will enable you to estimate future revenues, allocate your resources more effectively, and tailor your goals so that they’re realistic.

Instant Lead Engagement

When it comes to lead engagement, it’s also about engaging leads instantly. The quicker you can do this, the better. Thankfully, this is where real-time data steps into the equation, as it can help you to immediately take action and get your potential leads engaged.

For example, when a customer visits your website and shows interest in a specific product, you can use real-time data to trigger a specific action, such as sending them an email with an exclusive discount code for the product they were looking at. As a result, you get to increase the odds of a sale.

Personalized Shopping Experiences

Another exciting way that real-time data is being used is in relation to personalized shopping experiences.

These days, modern customers, particularly Gen Z and millennial customers, want personalized shopping experiences. However, as a business, it’s almost impossible to provide a personalized shopping experience without having at least some real-time data to work with. Otherwise, you’d simply be guessing.

The great thing about real-time data analytics is that you can easily pinpoint what customers want. This is why (whenever you shop online) you usually have a ‘product recommendations’ section. These products are usually identical or similar to the products you’ve been browsing, therefore enabling a more personalized shopping experience that’s worthwhile to you. The only way this is possible is through the collection (and deployment) of real-time data.

Over the coming years, it’s highly recommended that you focus on providing a personalized shopping experience through the power of real-time data. Remember, 71% of consumers say they’re more likely to purchase from brands that provide a personalized experience, which is ultimately why this is so important.

Fleet Management

The last example for now is fleet management.

If you’re a delivery company with a fleet working under you, real-time data can have a hugely positive impact on driver safety and other key factors.

Through fleet management data analytics, it’s now possible to collect data from cloud devices, GPSs, traffic cameras, and more. This real-time data can then be converted into actionable trends, such as redirecting your drivers to a different route that’s more fuel-effective.

Why You Should Harness Real-Time Data

The benefits of harnessing real-time data are essentially endless. To wrap up this guide, here’s a general overview of some of the most exciting benefits you can look forward to:

Smarter and faster decision-making
Increased efficiency levels
Better customer service
Higher sales
Quickly address issues

In order to start experiencing these benefits, you’ll need to equip your business with real-time data collection and analytics tools that can then do the hard work for you via the power of AI and smart technology.