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:
- Track behavior and responses to specific ads
- Analyze site search results
- Highlight the most searched-for keywords
- 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.
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Did you know that GoECart partners with leading web analytics and monitoring solution providers like Alertra, Google Analytics, NetTracker, Omniture, Unica, WebMetrics and others to offer some of the most authoritative web analytics solutions available today. For example, NetTracker provides advanced analysis on website traffic, search engine robot behaviors, success rates of PPC campaigns, conversion rates of customer, sales and lead information and much more. You can even use web analytics to combat fraud. For example, vigilant inspection of pay per click (PPC) reports could help you identify whether a competitor is falsely raising your click rate and thus driving up your advertising costs. NetTracker and other solutions also let you easily check your site for fraud.
For information about these advanced analytics options, see http://www.goecart.com/mm/Web-Analytics-And-Performance-Dashboards.aspx.
Google Analytics tool is generally a good (and FREE) choice for merchants. However, merchants who are looking for a paid web analytics service are doing so because they are running into the following Google Analytics limitations:
Javascript-based:
Google Analytics uses Javascript, and cannot provide information from browsers that either do not have Javascript, or may have it disabled. According to VisualRevenue.com in 2007, 3.05% of users have Javascript disabled in the US.
Privacy Policy:
Merchants with strict legal guildelines cannot sign due to the lack of a complete privacy policy on the data collected by Google Analytics.
Custom reporting:
Some merchants require special reports based off of custom triggers that you cannot set up in Google Analytics. Many paid services also offer real-time reporting, which Google does not.
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