E-commerce store owners should be highly invested in using data analytics to inform their online marketing strategies going into 2018. Consulting data analytics is the best way for e-commerce store owners to understand what’s gaining real traction on their sites, as well as what marketing trends and shifts in customer behavior are important to recognize for their businesses.
Consulting data analytics is also the best way for e-commerce store owners to land more conversions. Chances are, if your e-commerce business isn’t using data analytics to inform your marketing strategy, your competition is. Below are five types of data analytics that will benefit your e-commerce business and inform your marketing strategy to stay ahead of the competition.
1. Use data to learn about your audience
Data analytics about your audience will provide you with in-depth insights about their demographics (age, gender, occupation, income, where they’re located in the world, and what languages they speak). Audience data can also tell you what types of technology (Mac vs. PC, desktop vs. mobile) members of your audience are regularly using to access your site and online marketing campaigns.
Audience data can allow e-commerce business owners to adjust how they advertise and conduct their shipping options, based on their audience’s locations. It will also allow e-commerce business owners to rethink the topics they’re covering and how their marketing content is being displayed on devices, based on data about their audience’s sessions and the types of technology they are using.
2. Use acquisition analytics to find out where your traffic is coming from
Acquisition data is valuable for any online marketing strategy because it offers information about how visitors found you online and how they arrived at your site. With acquisition data, you will learn more about which online marketing channels are driving the most visitors to your site, as well as which channels are driving the most conversions or sales.
With acquisition data, e-commerce businesses will be able to see first-hand which online marketing channels are working, and which ones aren’t. Are more customers finding your e-commerce site via search engine inquiries, paid ads, blog posts, other sites linking to your site, email campaigns, social media posts or campaigns, or something else? Acquisition data will let you know which marketing channels are the most profitable for your e-commerce business and which channels are generating the most traffic to your site.
3. Examine user behavior and locate friction points
Data about how your users behave once they’re on your e-commerce site is critical. Knowing what marketing content they click on, what products they’re most interested in, what products they end up buying, as well as how long they’re present on your site looking through your inventory, can help you continually enhance the performance of your page, as well as the way you market certain products.
If users are leaving a page quickly or don’t often scroll through your inventory, then you may need to consider how quickly your pages load, as users will only wait for a page to load for a few seconds before leaving. If users, on average, are leaving a particular page too quickly, it could also be a sign that the content is confusing to them or that they’re not finding what they were looking for quickly enough. Ultimately, behavior analytics will tell you what parts of your e-commerce site can be improved to increase customer engagement and conversion rates.
4. Maximize conversions with CRO: Conversion Rate Optimization
Analyzing data surrounding your conversions—how and when online users are converting into actual customers on your e-commerce site—is perhaps the most important type of data to consider when compiling a marketing strategy. You should analyze how long it takes for the average user to convert into a paying customer.
Do they typically buy something after one visit to your site, or does it take multiple visits? Do they convert more often at different times of the month or year? Knowing these things can influence your marketing messaging and how you decide to engage with your users and prospects. You should also be aware of things like the average revenue your e-commerce site receives per transaction, and the number of products the average customer orders per transaction.
This data will help you recognize if offering better quantity discounts, or if removing shipping costs when customers meet a minimum dollar amount, will benefit your marketing strategy.
5. Use paid marketing channels to drive traffic
Data about your paid marketing activities will help you determine your specific ROI (Return on Investment) for different paid marketing campaigns. For instance, you could gather data for how much revenue your social media ads generated, then see if the revenue earned was greater than the amount spent on creating and promoting the ads.
You can also determine ROI for revenue generated via email campaigns and pay-per-click ads. In 2017 and beyond, data is becoming one of the most important assets for an e-commerce business to collect and analyze. Be sure to consult the five types of data analytics listed above for your marketing strategy so that you can always stay one step ahead of the competition.
