Big data analytics spans its benefit not only for large businesses but also for small businesses. It’s not about the company’s size; even the smallest company can produce a significant amount of data when CRM platforms are in use or a website and app that conducts transactions. Furthermore, customer data and sales data hold value and can be utilized to make better business decisions in the future. However, the cost is a major binding for small businesses for which they often can’t enjoy the economies of scale. An elementary example is cloud storage pricing that a small business can’t negotiate as easily as a large can do. Besides, every wrong investment can cost a smaller business a lot and makes it one step closer to failure.

Multiple factors play critical roles for a business, like how is its online presence? How its online campaigns are running? What are customer behaviors? And many other marketing factors that may impact the overall growth of a business. Fortunately, these questions can be answered using big data analytics tools. These data analysis tools are increasingly being available in the market within reach of small businesses.

Big data solutions for Small business

For small businesses, Big data is not about the size when we consider big data analytics tools. It’s all about revealing hidden patterns, customer preferences, market trends, and other meaningful insights. Moreover, it’s about making smart decisions to move ahead in the high pitch competition to increase profitability as the large businesses need big data analytics to succeed in the journey so as the small businesses. Using big data analytics tools, businesses get actionable insights. Some of these data analysis tools analyze and track user behaviors, whereas others may monitor and mining customer demographics. Interestingly, these data analytics tools for small businesses do not always need high technical skills or high cost to gain their advantages.

Thus, big data solutions for small business provides following advantages:

- Reduces overall cost

- Improves pricing decisions

- Increases efficiency in decision making

- Increases sales and revenues

- Provides a competitive advantage

- Helps to identify customer acquisition and value

- Saves time

- Unlock new insights

- Data analysis helps to highlight mistakes in data input and management.

- Enables users to analyse data in real-time.

- Makes data driven marketing campaign more successful.

- Provides improved personalization

- Saves cost

As there are many data analysis tools available in the market, it is essential for small businesses to identify which tools are particularly applicable for their business. Here are some of the categories of big data analytics tools in the market:

Data integration tools

Data quality tools

Data preparation tools

Data governance tools

Related post - Top 10 Big data Open source tools 2020

Best big data analytics tools for small business

1.    Google Analytics

Purpose: Web Analytics 

If you want to measure common web statistics to your website or social presence, then Google analytics is the best tool that falls under free data analysis tools. This data analysis tool is a one-stop solution where all you need is to sync up your Google account. While syncing up the Google account, you can monitor any marketing and advertising campaign through web reporting.  Not only small businesses, even large businesses, use this tool for measuring web metrics.

2.    IBM Cognos Analytics

Purpose: Machine-Powered Metrics

This versatile tool can collect a huge amount of customer insights and performance data. At the same time, it can sort, extract, and process information from the datasets. Since the tool can take up the extra burden as an SMB, you can engage the resource time to analyze the data. Also, you can opt for an automated solution rather than outsourcing the task. This saves cost and time. The tool itself is an AI-powered analytics and machine learning platform and a cloud solution that can leverage predictive analytics solutions.

3.     MixPanel

Purpose: Online User Behavior

Google Analytics provides a simple analytics overview of your business, like overall traffic, customer sentiment analysis report, etc. But what if, as an SMB, you want to analyze in a deeper way like what visitors are doing during their visit? MixPanel performs these kinds of complex behavioral analysis for online users. This is also happening with the help of machine learning algorithms that help to find hidden patterns. This is also a free data analysis tools

4.    Optimizely

Purpose: Real-Time Idea Testing

Sounds new; what is real-time idea testing? This actually tests the customer view through digital and virtual mediums. Optimizely allows you as an SMB to pan out decisions and investments for various elements like product development, design, and marketing initiatives. These experiments can be run across devices, a variety of customer touchpoints, and channels. This works as a type of business simulation with a real result.

5.    UserTesting

Purpose: Audience Feedback

This tool performs a kind of sentiment analysis of the audience about a business's services and products. Using customer-created videos as an SMB, you can analyze what the users want to express about the product or service. It gives real insights into the users.  

6.    Kissmetrics

Purpose: Breaking Down Audiences

This is one of the data analytics tools for small businesses that provides audience segmentation support. It gives you a base of the loyal and potential customer base. Using this tool as an SMB, you can get a complete view of what resonates with those potential customers and how they are likely to spend on it. This tool can be integrated with other marketing tools.

7.     Flurry

Purpose: App Monitoring

Every business is now dependent on e-commerce. Hence mobile applications play a key role here. So, your mobile app needs a performance analysis, which is what Flurry does. It helps to unveil customer behavior, problematic app features, conversion rates, and many more. Also, you can identify what your users are doing with the app. Besides, Flurry allows you to explore the app-centric demographic and audience analysis with it.