The following post will provide an
overview on how organizations are using both traditional web metrics and social
media measurement tools to gain insight on consumer behaviors and how that
data, if used correctly, can drive conversions, campaign strategy and insight
on ROI. Examples have been
included to help reinforce the importance key metrics and the value of the
process as a whole. The report
concludes with a few suggestions on emerging tools that could add additional
insights and the needed edge to remain competitive in the rapidly growing world
that is online retail.
Web Metrics and Consumer Behavior.
Online
retail is booming. This is evident
in the 1.98 billion spent by online shoppers this past cyberMonday, boasting a
massive 17% increase from 2011. (srds.com, 2012) Online marketing analytist eMarketer
projects online sales of apparel and accessories in 2012 will reach $40.9
billion. (Harriss, 2012) Forrester
Research expects online retail sales in China to hit $160 billion by 2015.
(Bell, Choi, Lodish, 2012) According to Google 57% of apparel shoppers begin searching
for clothes online and that four out of ten shoppers prefer to make their final
purchase online. (Harriss, 2012) Research by IPG Media Labs reveals that
shopper satisfaction at retail stores is declining 15% per year. (Grunsteidl, With
online retail only capturing around 10% of all retail shopping in the U.S.
(Swartz, 2012) there is room for even more growth and innovation in the online
retail arena.
An outcome
of this rapid growth in online commerce is it has opened the door to an
unprecedented amount of consumer data. How that data is managed and leveraged
will have a significant impact on the long-term success of the company.
Collecting
and managing this data is not an easy task. DBD Media conducted a survey of 50
e-commerce sites and found that “73% of businesses are inflating traffic
in their reports, while 67% haven't integrated social media tracking.”
(Charlton, 2012)
Ventana Research, a leading
benchmark research and advisory services firm, released a report that shows
that only 34% of retail companies are satisfied with their analytics process
and that 71% of retailers are still using spreadsheets as their primary data
analysis tool. (spotfire.com, 2012)
Other key challenges are highlighted in this section of marketing
optimization company Monetate’s infographic on big data.
The main challenge to big data is
internal communication. That is a much larger systemic problem within
organizations. Web analytics can’t solve that problem but it can address the
needs of the other four challenges, which when broken down to their core, is a
reflection of the company not using the right tools, not using the tools with
enough frequency, not using the tools correctly, or all of the above. The
following list provides three essential features of Google Analytics that
online retailers could leverage to gain more insight on consumer behavior.
1.
Custom campaign urls – Googles URL builder allows retailers to customize URL links
so campaigns and promotions can be tracked. For example many retailers are sharing links on their
Facebook page. This tool will
allow the retailer to tag that link with a specific code so that it can be
tracked and separated from the rest of the traffic. This provides insight on customer behavior and the
success of the campaign. A small non-profit like Children’s Relief
International is using both email and facebook to share their most recent
campaign, the Compassionate Christmas, a catalog of giving options to help key
projects this holiday season.
To gain a stronger
understanding of how their campaigns are working they should use the URL
builder and tag their key urls so they can measure engagement and
conversions. It will help them
know if their supporters interact with email over social networks and if one of
these channels has a higher conversion rate than the other.
2.
Advanced Segments – We’ll start of this
definition with a fun quote, “If Analytics’ default measurements are a broad
viewpoint on your entire website’s performance, Advanced Segments is a pair of
high-power binoculars that allows you to hone in on a very specific point of
interest.” (Brugueras, 2012) This
tool provides retails the ability to focus on key behaviors, which if tracked
and measured correctly can result in actionable data. Here is an example. WBC,
a packaging retailer in the UK, was considering redesigning their e-commerce
site. They used advanced segments to track how their customers interacted with
their site and where improvements could be made by tracking micro-conversions
such as brochure downloads and on-sites searches. They also tracked which products were the most popular.
These products would later be profiled on the front page of the newly designed site,
which boasted a 12% increase in conversion rates. (Google Analytics Team,
2012)
Another example
would be if the retailer were trying to track the effectiveness off a social
media campaign across multiple regions of the country. The retailer could
select a landing page from the drop down menu and then add the regions they
want to poll from. Advanced Segments provides the ability to customize and dive
into the details of customer behavior, an important tool for long-term success.
(Brugueras, 2012)
3.
E-commerce tracking – This extremely useful tool
tracks sales and conversion metrics and then allows the retailer to compare
this information with the rest of their data which can be segmented by campaign,
region and a wide range of other options to help gain a better understanding of
customer behavior. The tool can also track what sales did not happen and chart
abandonment. This is a more advanced technique but by creating a second
e-commerce profile to the add-to-cart transactions (the first profile is the track
real transactions profile) the retailer can begin to gather a wide range of
insights on consumer behavior like completion and abandonment rates which can
result in helping make key strategic decisions, like when to offer a coupon or what
popular products should live on the homepage. (Iyengar, 2011)
The downside of this tool is it can be tricky to implement unless you
are on Wordpress or Blogger where plug-ins are provided. Some instructions on the process can be
found at Nick Iyengar’s blog cardinalpath.com (http://www.cardinalpath.com/advanced-google-analytics-e-commerce-tracking-just-in-time-for-the-holidays/)
The three
tools listed above lean heavy into measuring traditional engagement methods
like page visits, conversions, micro-conversions, and tracking clicks. Companies are comfortable engaging with
this kind of information because it can be turned into actionable data
relatively quickly. However the question has to be asked, does this focus
provide deep insights on the customer? Maybe. It certainly provides enough to
drive decisions on user experience and site design, but does it provide the
deep insights of how the consumer feels about the brand, at a personal level? It
is hard to tell at best and this is where measuring social media engagement can
become important. Google Analytics has released a set of social media tools
that will allow retailers to gain insights on what customers are saying about
the brand and how social media conversions can impact business goals.
A company
that has success in measuring social media engagement is Chico’s.
Chico’s FAS is a specialty retailer
of woman’s apparel that operates more than 1,100 boutiques and 125 outlets.
Each of their four brands, Chico's, White House | Black Market,
Soma Intimates and Boston Proper maintains its own e-commerce web site. The
company has begun to track social media engagement to better understand what is
being said about these brands and where people are saying it. As the data is
gathered it is filtered and applied to their core decision-making process.
(Pappas, 2012)
Before Chico’s FAS began measuring
social media engagement they created 5 overarching goals:
1. See the bigger picture,
understand how social media conversations affect business results, and apply
this intelligence to decision making;
2. Enhance internal social
media reporting strategy;
3. Identify key influencers;
4. Ensure more timely responses
to customers and maintain our high standard of customer service; and
5. Better allocate time and
resources spent on social media management. (Pappas, 2012)
Once these goals were established Chico’s began to
gauge campaigns like the public response to a TV advertisement profiling a well
know celebrity. They captured snap shots of web conversions from Facebook,
Twitter, blogs and other media outlets in real time as they listened for key
words, at specific locations that would resonate with their target audience.
This data was filtered in real time and then shared with the marketing, PR and
customer service departments so strategies could be adjusted based on consumer
behavior and feedback. Chico’s was
not using Google Analytics do this but this could have. Google Analytics offers
range of tools that allows businesses to track social media engagement. Googles
Social Reports help companies get a stronger understanding of consumer behavior
and ROI on social media engagement. A clear breakdown of these reports can be found at
SocialMediaExaminer.com. (http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/google-analytics-social-reports/)
There are additional resources that can help companies like Chico focus in on a
key social media platform like Twitter. Twitter is proving to be a significant
player in social media and companies may benefit from taking a deep look into
how the company is leveraging this platform to engage consumers, influences and
even the competition.
TweetStats is a resource that provides a clean user interface and a
significant amount of historical data. Known for its pretty graphics and ability
to provide the aggregate number of tweets sent each month, which can be broken
all the way down to the time of day, this free resource is fast becoming one of
the most popular third-party twitter applications on the market. TweetStats offers other resources, like
helping a company like Chico identify their influencers by showing top users
behavior, mentions, and retweets across all interfaces (web, smart phone,
tweetdeck, ect). It offers a Tweet
Cloud feature that identifies the most common words and hash-tags used
throughout the brands tweet history. This could be a useful resource for a
company like Chico that is trying to track the four brands at once. Finally
TweetStats can provide insight on the competition as it allows users to check
the status of their competitors. By gathering this data and cross examining it
with their own Chico’s can gauge how they are matching up to the competition. (Pring,
2012)
Conclusion:
Tools like TweetStat do not have the massive backend
like Google Analytics or other proprietary web metric software but that does
not discount their usefulness.
Measuring social engagement to gain insight on customer behavior will
provide crucial intelligence around the customers needs, wants, interests and
why they are making the purchase.
This data combined with traditional e-commerce metrics can become actionable
information, business intelligence that will drive product innovation, campaign
strategy, customer support initiatives, and clear insight on ROI. Both are needed to be successful.
Wilson
Raj, Global Customer Intelligence Director at SAS believes that
retailers armed with this combination of intelligence can develop brand campaigns
that will strengthen brand loyalty, repeat purchase and overall sales.
“Retailers must concentrate not just on selling products but offering
real-time, personalized brand experiences across the social channels. Those
retailers that focus on these experiences will do very well.” (Pappas, 2012).
Finding the right balance between tracking traditional metrics and social media
engagement will continue to be a challenge but the need for this data is
driving innovation and that is making the process that much more interesting.
The industry is still trying to figure out how all of this should work. It is
fun to be a part of the process!
References:
Bell,
David., Choi. Jeonghye., Lodish. Leonard. (2012, September 18) What Matters
Most in Internet Retailing. Retrieved on December 10th, 2012 from http://sloanreview.mit.edu/the-magazine/2012-fall/54116/what-matters-most-in-internet-retailing/
Brugueras.
Jamie. (2012, May 14th) Using Google Analytics advanced segments to
find actionable data. Retrieved on December 10th, 2012 from http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/3533-Using-Google-Analytics-Advanced-Segments-to-Find-Actionable-Data
Brugueras.
Jamie. (2012, October 4th) 6 Essential Google Analytics Features for
Every Retailer. Retrieved on December 10th, 2012 from http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/3758-6-Essential-Google-Analytics-Features-for-Every-Retailer
Charlton.
Graham, (2012, October 19th) 80% of nline retailers are using Google
Analytics incorrectly. Retrieved on December 10th, 2012 from http://econsultancy.com/us/blog/10925-80-of-online-retailers-are-using-google-analytics-incorrectly
Grunsteidl.
Alexander, (2012, September 11th) Four Keys to Surviving the Future of Retail.
Retrieved on December 10th, 2012 from http://www.fastcodesign.com/1662269/four-keys-to-surviving-the-future-of-retail
Iyengar.
Nick. (2012, December 14th) Advanced Google Analytics e-commerce
tracking – Just in time for the holidays. Retrieved on December 10th,
2012 from http://www.cardinalpath.com/advanced-google-analytics-e-commerce-tracking-just-in-time-for-the-holidays/
N.A.
(2012, December 4th) Big Data Analytics: High Stakes for Retailers. Retrieved
on December 10th, 2012 from http://spotfire.tibco.com/blog/?p=16094
Pappas.
Lorna, (2012, June 9th) Chico’s extends its customer insights with
social media analytics. Retrieved on December 10th, 2012 from http://www.retailtouchpoints.com/shopper-engagement/1672-chicos-extends-its-customer-insights-with-social-media-analytics-
Pring.
Cara, (2012, July 17th) Staying afloat in the sea of twitter
analytics. Retrieved on December 10th, 2012 from http://www.ignitesocialmedia.com/social-media-analytics/twitter-social-media-analytics/
Swartz.
Jon, (2012, September 8th) Why Shopping will never be the same.
Retrieved on December 10th, 2012 from http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/tech/news/story/2012-08-05/future-retail-tech/56880626/1
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