Big Data Used to Scale Startup Businesses
In this episode, we're talking about big data and how it is used to scale startup businesses. Big data gathered for business analytics can exponentially scale a startup's bottom-line, brand, and culture. Leveraging data analytics' power is just what Poshmark did to build their startup into a leading social marketplace for new and secondhand style for women, men, kids, home, and more!
We're here with Barkha Saxena, Poshmark's very own Chief Data Officer (CDO), speaking to us about scaling with data. Barkha shares how her team adds customer-centric layers to boost both the intelligence behind the community's data and value. This sense of a "data-driven heart" has fueled six-years of Poshmark's exponential growth.
Poshmark's people-centric culture is the foundation and catalyst for their success. Poshmark holds only four but vital cultural values that help them grow internally and for the community.
Poshmark's four cultural values.
1. Focus on people. Every decision made within Poshmark starts and ends with talking to the community and helping them.
2. Lead with love. Internally, decisions start with people-focused and then is lead with love. Leading with love commences clarity better decision making.
3. Together we go. When employees focus on each other's growth, we grow together, our community grows together, which is the only way Poshmark as a company will grow.
4. Embrace all weirdness. Embrace all diversity by welcoming the differences of everyone.
Using the power of data to curate comprehensive stories and insights.
Barkha said it best, "Let the data come up with a comprehensive story."
Poshmark understands how to leverage the power of data and how to gather and organize the data to curate comprehensive stories. With Poshmark being a social marketplace where the people are the focus, studying the data trends is vital toward supporting its community.
Barkha reveals that Poshmark collects over 30 metrics to support the social commerce space. Under Barkha's guidance, each team keeps track of their own set of meaningful metrics to their specific goals and trends. As the product team keeps track of their matrices to understand how users are engaging, and the growth team keeps track of how different channels are performing, all teams are working collectively, while insuring the four cultural values remain the foundation.
Creating value for the community through data.
The internal team at Poshmark has a creative process toward initiating a new feature for the social marketplace. Ideas asked broadly to gain each other's perspective soon turn into hypotheses waiting to be nurtured into possible future products. Data analytics are followed daily and even hourly to ensure Poshmark serves their customers the best way and how they're trading across the platform. Barkha points out that while there is much excitement around AI and machine learning, 70% to 80% of the value from data is discovered in other ways – like through insights and statistical concepts.
As of this recording's date, there are currently 8 million people selling at Poshmark, with 38 million items available for purchasers! The Poshmark has over 2 million likes, with each user spending 23 to 27 minutes in their app every day. Their community's engagement level is proof that the value gained via insights, trends, and statistical concepts is highly effective toward creating a delightful experience for their users.
So if you're looking to learn how to use your data effectively and build customer equity, just like Poshmark, sit back and enjoy this episode!