Dive Brief:
- One-quarter of e-commerce stores have lost key business data due to human error, cyberattacks or flawed third-party applications, according to a survey of 271 executives from software company Rewind.
- Most businesses spent upwards of five hours recovering the data but 8% say the data loss was permanent.
- Eight in 10 e-commerce execs expect a negative business impact because of data loss, with one-third of respondents fearing lost sales and revenue as a consequence of data loss.
Dive Insight:
For retailers seeking reinvention after COVID-19, the list of concerns is lengthy: from adjusting to changing consumer behavior to supply chain or cash flow concerns.
Until the aftermath of the pandemic settles, e-commerce is a lifeline to survival. U.S. retailers saw digital revenues soar in April, easily surpassing previous years and months, Retail Dive reports.
Without a solid data strategy in place, retail companies miss the upper hand of leveraging customer patterns to boost marketing efforts, at a time when economic forecasts already paint a dire picture.
Companies leveraging data to make business decisions are 58% more likely to say they've surpassed their revenue goals, according to a study from Collibra.
Data loss can reduce the efficiency of artificial intelligence or data analytics strategies, since access to accurate data sets determine how well these technologies can predict behavior. For Target, information flowing from its 1,800 stores fuels data science models that help ease supply chain challenges.
Lost data can also mean compliance risks in the context of key legislation, such as the California Consumer Privacy Act or Europe's General Data Protection Regulation. Nearly two-thirds of companies say they've experienced theft or loss of over 1,000 confidential data records in the last two years, according to a survey from the Ponemon Institute and Experian.
