Shop.com is an e-commerce
retailer that offers a comprehensive shopping experience on the web. According
to the company’s Web site, you can compare the best online stores on the web in
terms of price, shipping methods, and delivery schedule options to determine
which works best for your needs and budget (Shop.com). This helps provide a
more complete picture of all shopping options all in one place so there is no
need to go to multiple stores.
Shop.com |
The company switched their
Web analytics platform to Google Analytics because it was free, easier to use,
and was fully configured to gain actionable insights. One of Google Analytics’
certified partners, Blast Advanced Media, worked with the Shop.com to
understand their business goals and analysis objectives and develop a custom
tracking strategy for easy access to reports containing actionable insight.
According to Google, “the
transition to a custom Google Analytics configuration met all of their existing
reporting needs as well as met new reporting goals that weren’t previously available.
Shop.com gained better visibility into their many SEM traffic sources and
millions of products in their marketplace. The end result was a successful
implementation that exceeded Shop.com’s expectations (Google.com).
With Google Analytics fully implemented,
Shop.com now has the information they need to make timely business decisions in
order to improve their on-site experience and conversions. The platform now
provides many benefits to the site including:
- Free access to data with no ongoing yearly licensing fee
- Custom reporting, conversion funnel and analysis features with no cost, saving Shop.com thousands of dollars
- Fully integrated multiple Google AdWords accounts, providing consolidated insight to the marketing team
- A more intuitive interface
- Reduced training costs
- Ease of access to information for multiple departments
- Easy to setup separate data views for those with limited access levels
(Google.com).
Additional Tools for Shop.com
There are many additional
tools and data collection methods that Shop.com could use to improve their
overall web analytic efforts. These tools and data collection methods include
the following:
Chartio: According to the GA summary page, Chartio provides a great visualization interface for data. Connecting GA to Chartio is easy with just a simple one-click authorization. Once connected, you can use Chartio to “go far beyond Google’s own interface to work with your data, building custom visualizations of your site traffic and conversions through an intuitive drag-and-drop interface” (Google.com).
You can also use Chartio “alongside the world’s
most popular databases” and “build entire dashboards of data from different
sources, and even layer disparate data from the same chart” (Google.com). The
app really improves the way companies can visualize data.
Shopalytic: Since Shop.com
is an e-commerce retailer, having a tool like Shopalytic that will send
detailed reports and infographics on sales data would be useful to the company.
According to the Google app summary page, “Shopalytic turns your key Google Analytics E-commerce metrics into
easy-to-understand reports and infographics. You can subscribe to a variety of
reports and have them delivered to your inbox every week, month, or quarter
(Google.com).
Custora: Another tool that could help Shop.com is an application called
Custora. According to the Google app summary page, “Custora helps retailers understand who
their best customers are, where they come from, and how to keep them coming
back. Custora brings predictive power to your Google Analytics data. Segment
your customers by Campaign, Source, Medium, Keyword (and more) to find out
where your best customers come from” (Google.com).
Barillance Behavioral
Targeting: Along with Shopalytic and Custora, Shop.com
could also benefit from implementing the Barillance Behavioral Targeting
application. This tool “allows e-commerce marketers to extract
under performing customer segments from GA data and increase the conversion
rates of these segments by showing them relevant and personalized messages and
offers” (Google.com). With this tool, Shop.com can create a more personalized
shopping experience for their customers, which will in turn increase their
conversion rates.
Sprout Social: Shop.com
will need an application to help them with social media engagement and generate
social analytics reports. Sprout Social is an excellent, low-cost service that
will help the company do just that. The platform helps companies effectively
manage social channels and provides an exceptional customer experience. By
integrating with Shop.com’s Google Analytics, the company will be able to see
their web traffic in relation to their social media activity on a single
dashboard (Google.com).
According
to PC World, “The thing that makes SproutSocial stand out is the clarity of its
interface and its general simplicity. Feature-wise, it's just as useful as Nimble,
and even better than MultiMi or HootSuite, but unlike these well-known
services, SproutSocial has almost no learning curve, and is a joy to use from
the second you open an account to the minute you finish working for the day”
(Lancet, 2013).
Moz Analytics: All e-commerce websites can benefit from SEO
and social media optimization software in order to effectively increase web
traffic and sales, especially when up against stiff competition. Moz Analytics
is one of the best tools Shop.com can use to improve their SEO and social media
efforts. The platform allows marketers to track their online content, search marketing,
social activity, brand mentions, and inbound links all on one platform (Moz.com).
When integrated with Google Analytics data, Moz has the ability to track and
rank keyword searches and traffic (Patel, 2013).
Conclusion
In
conclusion, Shop.com has already seen a lot of success with the implementation
of its web analytics platform, Google Analytics. With the addition of several
tools and data collection methods such as Chartio, Shopalytic, Custora,
Barillance Behavioral Targeting, Sprout Social, and Moz Analytics, the company
will be able to improve their overall web analytics efforts. Shop.com will also
be able to increase sales and web traffic with these tools, which can help them
stand out against the competition.
References:
Google.com. Shopalytic.
Retrieved February 23, 2014 from http://www.google.com/analytics/apps/about?app_id=5885170347409408
Shop.com. SHOP.com switches
from Omniture to Google Analytics for better insights, conversions and value.
Retrieved February 22, 2014 from https://www.google.com/analytics/customers/
Google.com. Sprout Social.
Retrieved February 23, 2014 from http://www.google.com/analytics/apps/about?app_id=1240001
Lancet,
Y. (2013, July 8). Review: Sprout Social, a social management dashboard you'll
truly enjoy using. Retrieved February 23, 2014 from
http://www.pcworld.com/article/2043003/review-sproutsocial-a-social-management-dashboard-youll-truly-enjoy-using.html
Moz.com.
Moz Analytics. Retrieved February 23, 2014 from http://moz.com/products
Patel,
N. (2013, September 30). How Google’s move to 100% (not provided) helps you
become a much better marketer. Retrieved February 23, 2014 from
http://www.quicksprout.com/2013/09/30/how-googles-move-to-100-not-provided-helps-you-become-a-much-better-marketer/
Shop.com. About us. Retrieved
February 22, 2014 from http://www.shop.com/aboutushome-t.xhtml