Online retailer that uses web analytics & Recommendations

Introduction:

Several online retailers are utilizing Google Analytics to improve their conversion rates among their customers and also to follow new opportunities in the mobile and social commerce sphere. These retailers are noticing that their customer's online experience can be enhanced based on the information that they receive from the web analytics data (Martinez, 2011). 

Really Good Stuff Uses GA:

Really Good Stuff is an online retailer that sells teacher supplies. Their VP of commerce, Larry Wasserman, says that the company utilizes Google Analytic software to "see what people click on and how that leads to conversion" (Martinez, 2011). They have been using the software since 2005 and stayed with it through all of their many upgrades. Aside from the new interface and social networking capabilities, Really Good Stuff is able to leverage Google Analytics' segmenting tools to analyze the difference in new visitor behavior versus returning visitors. According to Wasserman, "It's gotten more advanced in terms of custom reporting and the ability to set goals," (Martinez, 2011), The online company also uses the Google Analytics tools to understand product and promotion performance. For instance, if something is not performing up to their standard, then they can just slot in a new promotion. Really Good Stuff has recently rolled out a product customization tool and as a part of the development they were able to create feedback loops to improve the overall product (Martinez, 2011). 

Recommendations:

a.      Ecommerce Tracking

Google Analytics offers several ecommerce specific functions that are not just displayed by default and must be enabled. Therefore, it is necessary for Really Good Stuff to set up Ecommerce Tracking in the admin panel of their shopping cart, as it sends Google all of their conversion rate information (Chou, 2012). Once this function is set up, Google will know every product that the store is selling, how much the store is making, and even how much is being charged for shipping. Once successfully implemented, Google Analytics will help Really Good Stuff track: the total amount of revenue broken down by products sold and correlated with every traffic source that they receive; the conversion rate depending on the traffic source and if certain mediums are converting better than others; and the demographic data of the store’s customers and who is more likely to spend more or to buy a certain item from the shop (Chou, 2012). The value in this feature is that it would allow Really Good Stuff to gather and cross reference several important pieces of data for their store.

b.      Funnel Visualization

Because Google Analytics puts out so much data, it becomes the company's responsibility to determine where consumers are experiencing issues or stumbling on the website so that they can have the best experience possible. In turn, a retailer like Really Good Stuff should think about implementing the funnel visualization tool within GA. This provision will help Really Good Stuff see when exactly users are backing out of a particular process on their site, like when they purchase the product or when they fill in particular information. Funnels are most commonly used in ecommerce sites where there is a shopping cart and checkout process, so Really Good Stuff would get the most out of this report. The web administrator at Really Good Stuff could set up a Goal Funnel that starts at a landing page of a pay-per-click or email marketing campaign that they establish and that ends at the Goal, like the "Thank You" page after the users completes their purchase (Teixeira, 2008). The marketers at Really Good Stuff will be able to look at each page in the Funnel and see where users are abandoning the shopping process or if they are facing complications in just handing over their money (Teixeira, 2008). 

Setting goals within Google Analytics would also be beneficial for Really Good Stuff in that it would allow the Internet retailer the ability to establish and manage goals for pretty much anything they wanted, like sales, registration, successful ad conversions, and traffic. When these goals have not been met, then the marketers could use this data to pinpoint certain flaws in their marketing strategy (Sazbean Consulting, 2011). 

c.       Social Reports

Sometimes it may be difficult for companies to assign value to social channels and campaigns and there are several tools out there today that attempt to assess the return on investment of social media (Miller, 2012). Considering that Really Good Stuff maintains a few social media accounts, the Social Report application within Google Analytics seems like it would be a great asset for the company as well. This particular platform will allow the retailer’s marketers to be able to track all of their social accounts, websites, short links, and blogs easily. This report will connect the dots between their social media and essential business metrics. Really Good Stuff can identify the full value of the traffic coming from social sites and measure how they lead to direct conversions or assist in future conversions. They will be able to completely understand social activities that are happening on the store’s site as well as off the site to help them optimize user engagement and increase social key performance indicators. Also, the Social Report will ultimately allow them to be able to make more efficient data-driven decisions in their social media marketing programs (Miller, 2012). By defining goals within this report, Really Good Stuff can determine what the value of a specific network is and they would be able to tailor it to the things that are important to their business. The Social Reports will provide another segment of social insight that will be able to show Really Good Stuff which portion or products of their website attracts links, while enabling them to keep a record of conversations across other sites that may link to their site as well.

d.      Refine Adwords Ads

Last, it would be ideal for the retailer, Really Good Stuff, to use Google Analytics to refine their Google Adwords ads. They could track all of the search queries that a customer may type in when searching and clicking on their Adwords ads so that they know what the customer is looking for (Chou, 2012). Then, they could cater their ad keywords and landing pages according to what they uncover. There may be an instance where a customer lands on the Really Good Stuff site looking for a certain type of product, like a special rack for the classroom. If the store does not carry this particular item, then they can add negative keywords to their Adwords campaigns. These keywords will prevent Adwords ads from appearing when a customer types in this specific online search item. In turn, Really Good Stuff will save money with their ad spend because they will no longer have to pay for ads that customers cannot buy from them. This information could also be beneficial to determining which products to add to the store. If there is an overwhelming amount of people looking for this particular rack, then it may be a good idea for the store to add it to their product mix (Chou, 2012).

References:

Chou, S. (2012). How We Use Google Analytics To Improve Our Online Store. Retrieved July 9,

2012, from http://mywifequitherjob.com/how-we-use-google-analytics-to-improve-our-online-store/.

Martinez, J. (2011, 01 August). Web analytics boost e-commerce sites. Retrieved July 08, 2012,

from http://www.dmnews.com/web-analytics-boost-e-commerce-sites/article/208145/.Miller, M. (2012, 20 March). New Google Analytics Social Reports:

Measure SMM Value, View Streams. Retrieved July 9, 2012, from http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2161938/New-Google-Analytics-Social-Reports-Measure-SMM-Value-View-Streams.

Sazbean Consulting. (2011, 16 March). 19 Reasons to Use Google Analytics for Your Business.

Retrieved July 08, 2012, from http://sazbean.com/2011/03/16/19-reasons-to-use-google-analytics-for-your-business/. 

 Teixeira, J. (2008, 18 September). Let’s talk about Funnel Visualization. Retrieved July 08,

2012, from http://www.morevisibility.com/analyticsblog/lets-talk-about-funnel-visualization.html.

Google Analytics Goals, Funnels & Filters

1. Introduction:

Google Analytics tells marketers and business leaders how people found their website, how they maneuvered it, and how it can be improved. I have learned that, by default, Google Analytics does not just outright tell you which visitors are contributing to one’s overall business or blog. You have to tell it exactly what to track. Traffic parameters within Google Analytics provide an overview of the various sources that send traffic to a particular web site. Goals, funnels, and filters, are extremely useful in helping business leaders to make the most out of their website. This data allows them access to see exactly where the visitors are coming from and what content they are most interested in.

2. Google Goals:

Business leaders want more information from Google Analytics than just the amount of traffic or views to their website (Spreadbury, 2011). This data can actually be useless if there are no goals established within GA, then there is no measurable way to see the site's conversion rates. Goals are a very useful function within GA, in that they are a great way to measure the business objectives for a website. The fact that goals have to correspond to a measurable action performed by one's website's visitors, would seem to help business leaders to streamline their focus on the most important aspects of the business and not worry about smaller things that may not matter as much (Google, 2009). These goals let the business leaders see how well their website is living up to their business objectives. They can also help to identify areas within the website that may need to be improved upon and determine if they are targeting the correct market group. 

            Once goals are established, business leaders can use this information to make smarter marketing decisions as well. Upon securing this information, marketers no longer have to guess about what online marketing activity is worth their time and money (Lockard, 2012). I would say that goal setting tends to be paramount for any business. Without knowing where the business stands now, there is no way of knowing when the business has reached the desired point of success. Google Analytics’ traffic parameters can help monitor and track these goals, while guiding business leaders in their entire strategy as well.

3. Google Funnels:

A funnel is the path that will be followed by website users to achieve the conversion of a goal. "Funnel" is a fitting term in that it explains behavior like: "In each step a percentage of users leave the site so at the end of the funnel there will be less users than there were at the beginning" (C., 2012). In regards of e-commerce sites, the fact that users buy the product that is being sold on the website could be a goal. Then, a path or redirection can be created to address customers from the website of the product to a paid process that ends with a fixed goal like a "thank you" page. It allows administrators the ability to check the true percentage of customers that actually arrive at the end process. Funnels are also important in that they allow every step in the process to be dissected in order to establish how many people enter in the sales process, how many complete it, and at what point they left the path. From this information, it becomes easier for administrators to see what pages have caused problems. For instance, if there is a large percentage of people that leave the page where the payment is collected, and currently, the only payment option is through Paypal, then business leaders can interpret this as they are being too restrictive with this aspect and it may be more beneficial to add other payment alternatives, like accepting other major credit cards in addition to Paypal (C., 2012).

In turn, the information provided from funnels is extremely important for both business strategies and for contents studies of the website. Business leaders are able to measure what is correct in their website and they can be alerted to what is wrong, while also having the clues to correct it (C, 2012). Funnels can offer actionable information to these individuals in that they will become more aware of which users on their website are surfers and which are potential prospects. They will want to ultimately make both groups customers in the long run and the funnels can help in achieving this goal. They help to answer the "why" of a website. I think it is safe to say that funnels can determine the overall success of one's site and they can be utilized on each of the major pages to track all activity. 

4. Google Filters:

Filters are useful within Google Analytics in that they help users manage what type of data is shown in the Google Analytics report. If administrators do not utilize these filters then they may not be getting a relevant and accurate measurement of their numbers. It may be somewhat overwhelming for business leaders to delve into plethora of data to find the specific information that they or a possible stakeholder is looking for (Insightr, 2010). Filters keep the data clean and organized so it will be easier understand site visitors and analyze website statistics. 

Actively using GA filters can do a little more than to help one organize and structure his/her data. Creatively managing their usage can lessen the task of analyzing the data, and makes getting value out of the investment in tracking and the decision making process substantially simpler. The filters within Google Analytics can range from fairly easy to complex, when implemented, depending on what users want to do with their data. One particular filter that is one of the easiest to install, but also one of the most powerful, is the lowercase filter. All this filter does is take the dimension and turns all data lowercase (Insightr, 2010). Because GA default tagging is very literal, it takes the entire URL and passes the string into the content reports. Several of a company’s visitors may actually have a browser that modifies URLs, or type in a URL that uses mixed case or an internal anchor tag that might link to .com/Content.html or similar (Insightr, 2010). Installing the lowercase filter will result in possible double counting of content and in the content reports the pages will show up as separate pages (Insightr, 2010). This particular filter will de-duplicate these types of pages and any other instance where page names could get double counted in Google Analytics so that administrators can effectively carry out their content analysis.

Through these three traffic parameters, one can determine which sites are providing the best converting traffic and business leaders can then decide if they want to increase or scale back their investment with these companies.

References:

C, M. (2012, 26 Janurary). Google Analytics funnels definition. Retrieved July 1, 2012, from

http://www.onbile.com/info/google-analytics-funnels-definition/. 

Google. (2009, 19 May). How to Setup Goals in Google Analytics. . Retrieved July 1, 2012,

from http://analytics.blogspot.com/2009/05/how-to-setup-goals-in-google-analytics.html. 

Insightr. (2010, 03 September). Two Google Analytics filters that will fix problems with double          

counting of pagenames. Retrieved July 2, 2012, fromhttp://insightr.com/blog/2009/9/3/two-google-analytics-filters-that-will-fix-problems-with-dou.html#ixzz1zTA8jyoy .

Lockard, L. (2012). How to Set Up Google Analytics Goals & Conversion Tracking. Retrieved

July 2, 2012, from http://www.lizlockard.com/how-to-set-up-google-analytics-goals-conversion-tracking/.

Spreadbury, P. (2011, 08 April). IMPORTANCE OF GOALS – GOOGLE ANALYTICS.

Retrieved July 1, 2012, from http://www.justsearchseo.co.uk/analytics-2/importance-of-goals-%E2%80%93-google-analytics.html.