Power Up Your Ecommerce Sales With Website Analytics
Understanding customer behavior is no longer reserved for market research teams and
analysts. With the advances in ecommerce technologies that allow website owners to
monitor crucial data, the integration of buying behavior, search results, and the
final purchase is become a necessity in developing revenue-generating marketing
initiatives. Retailers who can measure and decipher their customers’ behavior have
a stronger chance of reaching them at the opportune moment.
Understanding Web Analytics
Web analytics is a key element of studying and understanding the online customer’s behavior
and buying patterns. Online consumer behavior is driven by many factors that include website
architecture and design, value of content, quality of pictures and other media, as well as
the overall ease of the shopping experience. An efficient online checkout system and high
levels of customer service play a strong role in retaining customers, and increasing sales
and revenues become much easier when e-tailers can provide a shopping experience based on
hard data.
A survey conducted by the Aberdeen Group reports that the primary goal for e-tailers is
to attract, convert, and retain customers. Of all the companies surveyed, 75% used
analytics data to increase visitors (attract) , 78% used this data to improve the
duration of the visit (convert), and 89% used the data to better understand (retain)
visitors on the site.
ShopLocal.com is just one example of a company that has achieved success with promotions
data, and an increased understanding of customer behavior as a result. By using real-time
metrics and custom reporting, the company reported a 30% increase in page views and visits
during a holiday promotional period. Not only did the site receive more potential
customers, but visitors stayed on the e-tailers website for longer periods of time.
Why? They were continuously provided with relevant information and links. Web analytics
systems have the potential to generate statistics and reports to:
Identify which parts of a site receive the most activity, and therefore, attention
Deliver reports on click-throughs for various links (e.g. those embedded in e-mail marketing campaigns)
Web analytics makes all of this possible! By adjusting the results of each and every
action, implementing the right tools can help create a unique and customized shopping
experience for every single website visitor. There are a number of web analytics
packages that offer complete analysis, statistics, and metrics for simple reporting. These
can help optimize the website for efficiency week after week.
GoECart recommends NetTracker; NetTracker is now known as Affinium NetInsight from
Unica Corp. (Nasdaq: UNCA) and is an advanced web site analytics solution for many
e-tailers. The package offers key features including campaign tracking, custom
reporting, and efficient visitor tracking to provide extensive clickstream analysis. Other
valuable web analytics packages include:
Google Analytics – a popular free option
WebTrends
Omniture (Nasdaq: OMTR)
WebsideStory
CoreMetrics
The Web Analytics Association provides additional articles and resources for implementing
a web analytics package. From calculating web metrics to developing a custom traffic
analysis report, the association offers a variety of tools and services.
