Abhishek Mehta, the founder of Tresata, explained how his startup’s Big Data suite will help enterprises make omni-channel commerce a reality in a recent Q&A with SiliconAngle NewsDesk Head Writer Winston Edmondson.

Mehta starts the interview by explaining the buzzword. He tells Winston that omni-channel describes the notion of “looking at all possible avenues to reach your customers, whether it’s a brick and mortar store, whether it’s an e-commerce site, a mobile channel, [or] social platforms.” He adds that “omni-channel transcends all those avenues that you can reach your customers with and represents … the optimal strategy to leverage and maximize the benefit from all those channels.”

Mehta names mobility and social media as two of the most important channels, or mediums, for reaching consumers. The market identified the immense value of the former trend, he says, but social media – namely Facebook and its Canvas platform – don’t receive as much attention as they should. In his view, Likes can be an extremely valuable resource when put in context.

He explains that on its own, a Like doesn’t reveal whether a user might be interested in buying a certain product. But when integrated with other data sources, Likes can help enterprises gain a holistic view of individuals’ online activities and extract deeper insights into consumer sentiment. Mehta says that Tresata’s software provides companies with the tools they need to accomplish this task.

Winston changes the topic to mobile and notes that enterprises are not harnessing the full potential of the data generated by mobile devices. Mehta blames this on the difficulty of monetizing Big Data, and highlights that his company is working on transforming mobile from an “access mechanism” to a “tool that can actually drive a sale.”

See the video below for the full interview.