Analytics – A Must Have for eCommerce.

At this point in time it would seem reasonable to assume that most companies understand what analytics are, how to use them and then actually use analytics to improve their online performance, right?

Short answer: No.

Long answer: From personal experience most of the companies we work with or speak to only get at most 2/3’s of the entire picture. Meaning at best companies know what analytics are and how to read them but very few make adjustments based off what the data is telling them.

Leveraging analytics to improve or modify site performance is one the critical functions of spending the time and resources to implement and review the data. If you’re not doing this, then don’t bother with it at all as you’ll be wasting your time and money. It’s that simple.

Here are some quick tips on what to look for in your ecommerce analytics:

Step 1.

Determine where people are coming from. Identify pages or processes which are driving people to your website and see which traffic sources are under performing, performing to expectations or are exceeding expectations. Once you have an understanding of your traffic making adjustments to fix the problem areas and continuing to build on the positive points will help increase your traffic.

Tip: For starters track the top 20/25 traffic sources for your website and focus on those. Most often the 80/20 rule will apply, meaning 80 percent of your traffic will come from 20 percent of the traffic sources. Focus on those sources as that is the area with the best chance to capture new online revenue.

Step 2.

Review what users are doing on the pages they are being sent to. For starters one metric to check out is the, “bounce rate”. The lower the bounce rate the better. If your bounce rate is too high that generally means one of two things: they were confused and did not know what to do, or what they were looking for on the page based off the messaging that got them there was not aligned.

Tip: Make sure you website is designed for conversions and is not confusing the customers. And ensure that your marketing message which drives people to your site and the deliverables of the site are aligned. If the customer expects one thing and sees another they will bounce.