What are the Best Analytics for Ecommerce?

Ecommerce businesses will be well aware that shopping trends shift daily. The ability to adapt and anticipate changes in the market is vital for growth and ensuring you stay ahead of the competition. Analytics will play an essential role in a brand’s success, helping them to create better content, assess the impact of their marketing tactics, and most importantly, boost sales.

They say that knowledge is power, and once you know more about certain trends, spikes in demands, and customer preferences, you’ll be able to rework the site better to generate a higher level of profit.

But what analytics should eCommerce businesses be looking out for? Your marketing decisions are driven by data, so it’s good to know what metrics to measure and which key performance indicators (KPIs) will help you stay ahead of the curve. Read on as we explore the best analytics for eCommerce.

What is eCommerce Analytics?

Ecommerce analytics help you get a better picture of the behaviour of your users.

They will help you understand where the users came from, how much time they have spent looking at a particular product, and whereabouts on the site they spend most of their time. The gathered data will help you gain a deeper knowledge of customer expectations and give a comprehensive view of what drives revenue.

Investing in robust eCommerce analytics will also let you know which marketing campaigns are no longer profitable, allowing you to manoeuvre as a brand into potential new directions while saving you both time and money.

What are the Key Areas of eCommerce Analytics?

When it comes to eCommerce metrics, it can be extremely overwhelming for first-timers to know exactly what information to gather and how to analyse it. But knowing how to optimise the core metrics to understand where you’re going right or wrong with the online business is the key to success.

Website Traffic

Website traffic is a handy analytic to track as it details how customers are finding your site, their demographic details and the pages they have been visiting.

A tool such as Google Analytics will be extremely useful in tracking this data and comparing different traffic sources. If you know the number of people reaching your site organically compared to those coming from a referral or social media channels, you’ll be able to get a better perspective on how well advertising is working.

Sales and Revenue

For eCommerce business owners, the bottom line will almost always be whether you’re reaching your financial goals.

That’s why you should always consider using analytics to track completed transactions. This will give you a significant insight into how customers have gone about making their purchases and how they’ve ended up landing on specific pages to find the item they want. You’ll also be able to see the site’s total transactions, conversion rate, average order value, and top-selling products.

This data will then give you a reason to tailor the site to generate more revenue by presenting the right products to the correct users.

Social Media

A social media analytics tool, such as Hootsuite or Sprout, can help you determine if your social media pages increase conversions and drive your business forward. Anyone can set up a Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram page, but if it’s not supporting your campaigns effectively or helping you draw in the right customers, you’re going to want to do something about it.

Correctly tracking and monitoring your social interactions is crucial to understanding your audience. You’ll regularly need to measure the page’s engagement levels, learn more about the site’s level of influence, and check how far your content is reaching.

Marketing Campaigns

When spending time, effort, and money putting together a marketing campaign, it is good to know that you’re able to track its success. One of the best things about digital marketing in eCommerce over traditional marketing methods is your ability to track the effectiveness of your campaigns and provide a detailed evaluation for managers.

Being able to show conclusive proof of the number of consumers who have visited your store and the cost per lead and cost per acquisition will go a long way in showing the value of a campaign.

If you want to give this a go yourself, Wishpond is a great place to start. This is a simple analytics tool for campaigns that allow users to create landing pages and contests, get new leads and customers, and grow their email lists.

Another Awesome Article: eCommerce Trends to Follow

Shopping Cart Abandonment

Shopping cart abandonment is a long-standing hassle for many eCommerce sites and certainly is not sector-specific. If you’re finding that many users leave online purchases unfinished with products not making it to the checkout, you will want to spend some time analysing the data before the situation gets worse.

Analytics will help pinpoint exactly where in the checkout process customers are deciding to leave your site and if there are any difficulties or issues with the website that are causing them to abandon their order.

Customer Retention

Customer retention analytics will provide predictive metrics of why customers might churn and gives you an insight into how to prevent it. By using historical data such as churn indicators and usage trends, you’ll be able to uncover patterns within a specific segment of customers to stop them from heading over to the competition.

Customers are also less likely to churn if they are similar to your primary target audience. We recommend doing some work comparing your existing client base’s features and characteristics and ensuring your marketing towards their needs.

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