E-Commerce Analytics - Using SQL In Conjunction With CRM

Being a Digital Marketing student, there's times when my course kind of aligns with something like Software Development. We study things like web design, learning things like HTML and CSS, but what always interested me was Data Analysis, more specifically SQL. The small amount of technical knowledge I've gained from learning SQL for college has made me want to lean more into it, but the issue there is that its difficult for Digital Marketers to get a job as a data analyst. I have to try and find a middle ground, and I think that is going to be eCommerce Data Analysis.

Using a Relational Database, such as SQL, you'll get data points for every part of a customer purchase. For example, you go onto Amazon and buy a new phone case. Amazon’s database of customer info gets updated. Another line is added where it tells you the customer name, customer ID, item purchased, item ID, your address, and the column that says how many orders you've had in total gets a +1 added to it.

If we ran a simple query like:

SELECT *
FROM user

We get a table full of all the info available on every customer that has ever shopped on your website, info such as full name, username, the date your account was created, the date it was last modified. You could join the ‘user’ table with ‘user_address’ and then you have name, username, and address. This is helpful in its own way but if we were to join the ‘user’ table with a table like ‘order details’ where it tells me who placed an order, the item that was ordered, the item ID, and when the purchase was made.

Heres my favourite part. Using an RDBMS like SQL in conjunction with a CRM system, allows you to see even more info. Raw data can tell you a lot but what it can't tell you about is the buying habits of any individual. This is where the CRM comes in. Lets say your neighbour John bought a guitar last month from amazon, but hasn't bought anything since then. Amazon might decide they want John to buy something else, so what they do is send him an email telling him about some products he might like based on his most recent purchases, guitar picks, strings, a stand, and all of a sudden John is back on Amazon looking for something else he can buy. Data analysis for your website is about more than just optimising it for the next customer, it can be about getting your previous customers to come back to the website.