70% expect to convert more sales if they have key information at time of engagement; most companies investing to make it possible

Hazelcast, Inc., the provider of the real-time intelligent applications platform, today released a global study revealing that 8 in 10 (79%) of retail and financial services companies struggle to harness real-time data and combine it with historical data to glean better insights for engaging customers, increasing revenue and boosting conversion rates, especially amid increasingly unpredictable consumer behavior trends and a rising tide of incoming data.

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The survey also found that on average, respondents expect that drawing on customer details at the point of engagement will boost conversion rates by nearly 45%, which necessitates combining real-time with historical data.

“Becoming a real-time business is both radically valuable and a strategic necessity,” said Kelly Herrell, CEO of Hazelcast. “This study reveals both the challenges and the opportunities related to making that transition. Success requires the ability to combine the explosion in real-time data with the business context stored in databases, in a way that enables instantaneous actions. Insights alone are not enough; engagement and revenue growth now comes from transacting in the moment.”

The survey of 629 business and IT decision makers in the US, Europe and Asia Pacific also shows that senior IT executives are investing in different strategies for processing real-time data and unifying it with historical data to increase consumer engagement and drive sales.

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Other survey highlights include:

• Two-thirds (66%) of companies have seen a significant or very significant increase in data over the last 12 months from customer applications and interactions.

• Seven in ten (70%) organizations said they could transform their ability to close sales and special offers if they were equipped with more relevant customer information at the time of engagement.

• Companies are planning on increasing spending on technologies to help capture value from data. Nearly four in five (78%) expect to increase investment in in-memory technologies over the next six to 12 months with 76% planning to focus on stream processing.

• A majority of survey respondents said social media and viral memes (53%) are now causing the biggest demand spikes for their organization – ahead of annual retail events like Black Friday (50%). This shifting landscape drives volatility in consumer demand, making it even more critical that companies can more readily access all data at any time.

Of the 629 respondents, 105 each were from the UK and Germany, 202 were in the US, and 217 were from the APAC region. The survey was conducted by Sapio Research. Access the full survey report and findings here.

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