What is SQL & why Ecommerce folks can benefit greatly from learning it?
SQL is many things. But above all else:
#1 it’s the simplest programming language* out there
#2 even though it’s simple, it’s super powerful, and allows you to have FULL control over your data & reach extremely valuable insights unavailable in Google Analytics & practically anywhere else
#3 it’s a gateway to the world of advanced data analysis (AI / ML algorithms etc.)
And its beauty lies within its simplicity.
But let me show you that using some examples.
Basic structure of SQL query
The most basic construct within SQL is a thing called query.
Query is like a sentence. Or to be more specific, like a question. Question to your data.
Let’s take this example:
You have a table called ‘customers’.
It looks like this:
Pretty simple, right?
Now, imagine that you want to get a list of all customers from US.
If you wanted to ask a regular person (e.g. analyst at your company) about it, you’d say something like:
And your results would look like that:
Now, guess what…. when you want to use SQL to ask your database that exact same question, the words that you use are not THAT different (ok, besides that Fred part, databases don’t like when you call them Fred…).
The query looks like that:
And of course, the results look exactly like the ones from human-like query:
And to reiterate:
As you probably noticed, when compared to normal, human language, SQL follows almost the same logic, but it has 1, very important difference.
A) When you ask a human, you can say it like “please show me all users from US from the table “customers”.
…or you can say “Who are our customers from the US?”
…or you can use gazillion different wordings. Nevertheless, your analyst will get it.
B) When you use SQL, you can’t frame your question however you want.
Instead, you have to follow a very specific structure.
Otherwise the computer won’t understand. AI and all, but computers are not (yet!) that smart after all.
The structure is based on 3 elements (so called “skeleton”):
*Note regarding WHERE clause — notice that we’ve used quotation marks (single or double — doesn’t really matter) around “USA”.
That’s because the column “country” contains text (as opposed to numbers, dates etc.) and that’s how you deal with text while using SQL.
Now, how about some exercises?
Are you a data-hungry, ambitious Ecommerce pro ready to take your data game to a whole new level?
Congrats!
You’ve just learned the basics of SQL.
Now, the question is – are you willing to level up even more?
If so, you might be interested in our program: “SQL & BigQuery For Ecommerce Professionals: From Absolute Beginner To Go-To Data Expert”.
Inside the program, you can learn:
● basic, intermediate & advanced SQL queries tailored just for Ecommerce context
● how to work with real-life Ecommerce data (transactional data, ads data, GA4 etc.) in BigQuery
● how to apply your SQL-based insights to make an impact in your everyday work
All of that, in a course which:
● starts from an absolute beginner level – absolutely no prior SQL knowledge required
● takes you step-by-step (just like we did in this tutorial) until you’re totally comfortable & independent while writing SQL queries for your environment