Web Analytics: Mining Customer Data to Create More Relevant Ecommerce Websites

[mandy]

It’s on the key metric of conversion that web analytics has been earning its keep in retail. Boosting the rate of conversion tops the to-do list at virtually every online retailer, and analytics has emerged as a key tool for not only measuring but also managing conversion rates.

While the meaning of conversion statistics is widely understood by online retailers, web analytics can also track virtually every other aspect of a customer’s interaction with a site. A recent survey by The E-Tailing Group found that 46% of online retailers queried rated conversions as an important use of their web analytics package...

41% said tracking shopping cart abandonment was an important use of web analytics, while 40% cited search marketing, 35% mentioned measuring the user experience, and 32% use analytics to track visits to specific landing pages they’ve set up for search marketing.

30% use analytics data to refine site navigation, 28% to increase average order values, 20% mine analytics to find new product opportunities, and 17% use analytics to check the effectiveness of the category and product classifications on their sites. 13% look to analytics data to help reduce return rates and 10% to test the effectiveness of e-mail promotional landing pages...

full article: http://www.internetretailer.com/article.asp?id=26923