Not too long ago, I had the privilege of hearing David Zucker, Chief Marketing Officer for the Gilt Groupe, speak at a SAS Small to Midsize Business (SMB) Breakfast Event titled, “Discover the power of business analytics over coffee.” David opened his presentation with a video highlighting the excitement Gilt Groupe users experience during one of its online sales.
David explained how a Gilt customer’s purchasing cycle is one laced with emotion – from excitement, anticipation and anxiety to gratification and finally addiction. I can personally speak to the addiction – I am consistently checking the Gilt Groupe site for the daily sale at Noon ET. One quick peak before lunch never hurt anything – except in my case, my wallet. Anyway, based on David’s presentation of Gilt’s success over the three years since inception, I am not alone in my addiction to the site. Gilt Groupe has over 2,000,000 members and over 100,000 visits daily between Noon and 1:00pm daily. In 2010, Fast Company ranked them as one of the Top 50 Most Innovative Companies. When David arrived at Gilt via Dell Computer about two years ago, the company was not using any form of analytics in their business. Gilt had their data challenges as well. Most of the data was unstructured, in different systems, and not linked back to the business. Using SAS Analytics Pro, David is able to capture in depth analysis of their customers and products to help provide insight into ongoing strategic and tactical efforts. David also uses SAS to do research on prospects and members in order to gain both qualitative and quantitative insight and improve marketing and operational efforts. While David is pleased with what he’s accomplished so far at Gilt, he plans to do considerably more. He plans to devote more time to predictive modeling, capabilities readily available in SAS Analytics Pro.
Asked by an audience member about how to approach executives on the need for analytics, David offered up this advice “Ask your boss what his or her end goal is for the business and let them know that with analytics, they can most likely get there.”
David is planning to speak at an upcoming applying analytics webinar, so check back soon to get the specific date and time he'll be speaking. You won't want to miss your chance to hear more about Gilt Groupe's use of analytics for marketing and customer intelligence.
