With technology evolving rapidly and shopping trends changing daily, e-commerce is constantly adapting, leaving brands in the dark. To keep up, e-commerce companies need reliable data insights to anticipate changes in the market. In short, they need effective ecommerce analytics.
Ecommerce analytics simply refers to any tool or strategy designed to analyze large amounts of data to generate actionable insights. As e-commerce exists in an almost entirely virtual space, it generates complex and wide-ranging data sets — especially those related to customer behavior. More data was created in 2017 than in the previous 5,000 years combined. That's a lot of data to measure, analyze, and analyze. However, finding the right ecommerce analytics tools for the job can give your brand an immeasurable advantage over the competition.
With that in mind, the most important question is: what key performance indicators (KPIs) do you need to stay ahead of the curve, and what ecommerce analytics tools can you use to measure them?
Expand your customer base with insights from SEO, SEM and email campaigns.
Did you know that?40% of online shoppersstart your shopping experience with an online survey? As a result, any business that doesn't focus on search engine optimization (SEO) is missing out on a huge chunk of their consumer base. Effective SEO optimization starts with researching search volume, competitor rankings, and search intent. These include understanding search engine results page (SERP) rankings, creating superior meta tags for your competitors, developing accurate sitemaps, and creating effective, consumer-friendly URLs. There are many SEO analysis tools that can help you achieve these goals, but we recommend looking for tools that include keyword planning, ranking trackers, and the ability to track bounce rates and conversions.
SEO optimization shouldn't be your only focus for acquiring new customers. Paid search engine marketing (SEM) campaigns can set you apart from the competition and help you attract more buyers. To be successful in this area, you need analytics tools that measure search volume, cost per click (CPC), average ranking position, click through rate (CTR), and in turn, engagement rates. rejection and conversion.
In addition to SEO and SEM, email marketing campaigns can help you reach new potential customers and drive traffic to your e-commerce website. To track email performance and develop informed campaign strategies, look to ecommerce analytics tools that track your email subscriber count and source, total email campaign revenue, conversion rates, open, click-through rates, and unsubscribe rates.
Reaching new customers is important, but keeping them is crucial.
Acquiring new customers can make your business take off, but customer retention is really the backbone of your brand's continued success. According to the experts,80% of future saleswill come from 20% of your existing customers. Therefore, it is important to focus on managing customer retention, repeat business and overall customer satisfaction.
To understand and nurture customer relationships – and really unlock that valuable 20% – you must track KPIs like total lifetime value, repeat visitors, purchasing behavior, social shares, subscription renewals and updates. In addition to click tracking, conversion tracking, and social media tracking tools, we recommend using a comprehensive customer relationship management (CRM) solution. CRM platforms offer all of the above tracking capabilities with the added benefit of sophisticated audience segmentation, customer segmentation and AI-driven analytics to help with marketing decisions. Armed with these resources, you'll know how to reach the right people with the right offers at the right time through the right channel.
Optimize your site with data-driven insights.
Effective website design, user experience optimization and streamlined checkout processes help you connect shoppers with products and increase conversion rates, but how do you know what works and what doesn't? Ecommerce analytics can provide data-driven insights into how shoppers are interacting with your website, both good and bad. These insights take the guesswork and subjectivity out of site optimization and reveal opportunities for improvement and innovation.
Key focus areas include a user-friendly checkout process, optimal product presentation and recommendations, and overall ease of use. To really maximize the effectiveness of these areas, we recommend tools that allow for conversion rate optimization (CRO) testing,A/B and multivariate testing of landing page, heat mapping, click tracking, visitor logging, and more.
Don't be afraid to speak directly to your customers.
In many ways, there's no replacement for the oldest form of customer data: direct feedback. You can collect as much data as you want - and use it effectively - but if you don't listen to what your customers are saying, you'll struggle to give them what they're looking for - and they may look elsewhere. Engage directly with your users at every touchpoint with helpful feedback tools like online VOC surveys, live chat, ranking programs, and social media trackers.
Capture customer data no matter how or where they shop.
As the lines between shopping channels continue to blur, brands are turning to cloud-based unified commerce to deliver integrated, holistic customer journeys across all touchpoints – mobile, social, web and in-store . Ecommerce analytics also need to evolve to track shoppers wherever they are, whether it's buying a product on Instagram, discovering a brand on their phone, or redeeming a gift card at a pop-up store. We recommend adopting tools that integrate with your unified commerce platform and can keep up with the rapidly evolving customer journey.
RESEARCH ARTICLE
Study with consumers reveals the new retail rules
Did you know that 59% of in-store shoppers research products on their phone? Learn how shopping is evolving and discover new retail opportunities in the latest SapientRazorfish report.
Without the ability to accurately access, measure, and interpret the vast amounts of data your buyers generate, you could be operating in the dark. Turn on the light and start working with your customers' dataCommerce-Cloud, a complete unified ecommerce platform that includes the most advanced ecommerce analytics available.