Using analytics to improve an online presence

Every retail business starts with an idea of what its customers want.

Catering to those who visit you is the foundation on which a solid premise is built, but this can be a complicated task. It's impossible to completely predict what each person will want, and the changing market will only exacerbate this issue.

This challenge applies to every part of the retail experience, where we need to constantly consider the best direction, physical layout, and advertising effort. In the changing online world, the complications grow even broader.

Quickly evolving technology means it’s easy to get left behind in the online realm, but this can be addressed. Using analytics, it’s possible to guide your online presence down paths you might not have considered on your own, for better customer interest, retention, and relationships.

Getting started

If you've never looked into analytics before, they're not quite as intimidating as they seem at first.

Once you learn the basic concepts, it's easy to see and read the results and determine how they interact. For an example of some of the basic types of analytics, consider the examples explored here.

The easiest of these analytics on this page are simple page views. This is the number of times a page is viewed in total, including when somebody views a page and then returns.

Unique page views do not combine multiple visits, instead measuring which pages were viewed by a single visitor in a single session.

Key metrics also include bounce rate, which is the number of visitors that leave after viewing a single page, and traffic sources, which reveal where visitors have come from. When combined, analytics paints a picture of what people go to, where people stay, why they come, and when they leave.

These operate with the greater landscape of e-commerce metrics we mentioned at RTIH before, where engaging on all fronts is the best way to get ahead.

Analytics in action

Once you understand what analytics mean, the next step is understanding how to interpret them. Sometimes analytics will be easy to read, painting a direct direction in which you should move.

Other times, they could point to a more indirect element that could require experimentation before you understand the reasoning behind it.

Direct examples are easiest to illustrate with relatively simple non-retail websites like BBC News.

It’s the duty of this website to consistently update with the latest stories. The idea is to inform, but behind the scenes, analytics make updating this website more complicated.

Each news article will attract a certain number of clicks, which shows what people want to read. This can mean altering the placement of articles on the main page to boost viewership and maximise interaction.

The BBC cares more about giving an open view than just relaying the most shocking or attention-grabbing stories, however, so popularity needs to be balanced against the truly important events. If they don't, they'll end up more like the Sun, which is popular, but not well respected internationally.

For retail websites, the easiest examples can be found in big names like Amazon or Ali Express. Returning visitors to a certain item could indicate that a customer is narrowing down their choices, weighing other goods against that choice.

If this is a pattern seen regularly, a retailer could sweeten the deal on certain items, slightly reducing the price, or offering other rewards to make their decision the most enticing.

Experimentation could be most useful when looking at traffic from outside sources. Services like online casino reviews are a popular modern example of how much outside traffic matters.

A website like Online Casino Reviews NZ compares a range of contemporary casino websites, offering insights into bonuses, free spins, wagering requirements, and more. If one of these websites had access to metrics from the reviews, they could experiment with the different reviewed features, to see which would maximise visitor count.

Understanding and appreciating how analytics work is crucial in getting a business working online at maximum efficiency, and it's never a process that's ever done.

As markets and goods evolve, your online presence will have to follow suit, experimenting with new paths and leveraging analytical insight to keep pace. This can be a challenging pursuit, but it can't be ignored in the landscape of modern retail business.