Category

Analytics & Data

Our coverage of analytics recognizes that data drives ecommerce but collecting that data and interpreting it can be confusing. Our huge library of Google Analytics articles ranges from basic setup to the sophisticated interpretation of on-site activity of visitors and customers. We also analyze data security, blockchain topics, and ancillary tools such as Google Tag Manager and Google Data Studio.

Analytics & Data
Using Google Analytics for Continuous Improvement

April 28, 2021 • Morgan Jones

There is no shortage of articles on tips and tricks for improving Google Analytics. This article, however, will focus on using Google Analytics for its main purpose: driving continuous improvement in your business. To help, I've assembled a Data Studio template tailored to ecommerce.
Analytics & Data
Charts: U.S. Direct-to-consumer Sales 2018 to 2020

April 22, 2021 • Anna Kayfitz

The growth in U.S. direct-to-consumer ecommerce sales continues, albeit at a slower rate. In 2018, year-over-year growth was 56.6 percent. In 2020, it was 24.3 percent.
Analytics & Data
Is Marketing Just an Art?

March 30, 2021 • Armando Roggio

Modern commerce marketing can be data-driven and repeatable. At some companies, however, marketing is unplanned and unorganized. This came up during a recent job interview when a candidate said, "Marketing isn't construction work. It is not workmanlike. It is more like art." But is it really?
Analytics & Data
How to Name Product Categories

December 8, 2020 • Anna Kayfitz

Category names on an ecommerce site have a huge impact on organic search rankings and on-site conversions. To determine the right names: Start by listing all categories on competitors' sites and marketplaces. Next, add additional category names that may apply to your products. Then determine the search volume for each term.
Analytics & Data
Cookieless Browsers Will Upend Ad Tracking

November 11, 2020 • Armando Roggio

Trends toward greater consumer privacy may force ecommerce marketers to change methods of measuring performance, including turning to "marketing mix modeling," a 70-year-old technique. Most digital marketers depend on some form of multi-touch attribution modeling to measure the effectiveness of their various promotions.
Analytics & Data
Introduction to Google Analytics 4

October 21, 2020 • Morgan Jones

Google Analytics has come a long way since it launched in 2005. Version 4 is the latest iteration. It enables the blending of online and offline user activity into one reporting stream.
Analytics & Data
7 Google Analytics Tips for Measuring Organic Search

September 23, 2020 • Jill Kocher Brown

Search engine optimization relies on the ability to measure performance. Google Analytics can make the task easier. What follows are seven tips to help.
Analytics & Data
Using Google Tag Manager to Track Visitor Interactions

August 3, 2020 • Morgan Jones

Online merchants need data to drive decisions. An example is tracking visitor activity. In this post, I'll review how to set up the reporting of common site interactions using Google Tag Manager.
Analytics & Data
Using Google Analytics to Track Site Changes

July 7, 2020 • Morgan Jones

The ability to measure changes to pricing, shipping, and other items is essential to successful ecommerce merchants. Google Analytics has features to document and track changes to provide critical feedback. Annotations in Google Analytics allow you to document change history.
Analytics & Data
3 Data Visualization Tools — Basic to Robust

June 16, 2020 • Rebeca Pop

Charts and maps can increase the effectiveness and expressiveness of data. Microsoft Excel in 1985 was the first of many visualization tools to help communicate data. Many visualization tools have emerged since then. In this article, I will evaluate three of them.
Analytics & Data
Using Internal Data for New Products, New Customers

June 11, 2020 • Anna Kayfitz

Ecommerce merchants miss opportunities by not utilizing their data. New products, new customers, upsells, cross-sells — internal data can provide insights on all of them. In this post, I'll address data sources to help merchants grow their business.
Analytics & Data
Understanding ‘Sessions’ in Google Analytics

June 1, 2020 • Armando Roggio

The word "session" in an English dictionary reads something like "a period of time devoted to a particular activity." It could be, for example, an individual working on a specific task or goal. Google Analytics uses the term "session" in a similar manner.
Analytics & Data
Using Filters in Google Analytics

May 24, 2020 • Morgan Jones

Accurate data is essential for decision-making. Google Analytics can provide that data, but it may need a bit of sanitizing. Filters in Google Analytics can remove data impurities. In this post, I'll introduce Google Analytics filters.
Analytics & Data
How to Pace Monthly Ad Spend

May 8, 2020 • Anna Kayfitz

Choosing marketing channels is only the first step in digital advertising. Equally important is assigning a budget and then managing the spend based on performance. In this post, I'll provide a framework.
Analytics & Data
Using Google Analytics to Respond to Covid-19

April 28, 2020 • Morgan Jones

Google Analytics can identify pandemic-related problems and opportunities for your ecommerce business. I'll explain in this post.
Analytics & Data
How to Manage, Visualize KPIs for Ecommerce

April 26, 2020 • Anna Kayfitz

This post will offer a framework for identifying, tracking, and visualizing key performance indicators. It applies to all company sizes — big and small. Start by establishing the most important metrics for your business.
Analytics & Data
Workarounds for Errors in Google Analytics

March 26, 2020 • Morgan Jones

One-hundred percent of all Google Analytics implementations have broken at some point. The impact can range from minimal to extreme. An ecommerce example is when sales as reported by Google Analytics does not align with actual results from a shopping cart.
Analytics & Data
6 Ways Geography Impacts Ecommerce Conversions

February 26, 2020 • Anna Kayfitz

Merchants are typically aware of the states or countries where their customers reside. Many variables can impact sales or performance by region. In this post, I'll address six of them.
Analytics & Data
Using Data Studio to Convert Multi-currency Reports

January 28, 2020 • Morgan Jones

Google's Analytics’ conversion of currencies is straightforward. However, setting the conversion date to equal the date of the transaction may not be an option, forcing merchants to convert currencies manually. Google Data Studio can solve this manual conversion hurdle.
Analytics & Data
Removing Personal Data from Google Analytics

January 10, 2020 • Morgan Jones

Google Analytics prohibits the collection of personally identifiable information. Users of Google Analytics should detect and then delete the PII if necessary. I'll explain how to do that in this post.
Analytics & Data
7 Ways Big Data Will Impact Ecommerce in 2020

January 8, 2020 • Anna Kayfitz

As ecommerce grows, so does the data that is stored. Only a fraction of that data is utilized, however. But data scientists are getting better at merging, standardizing, and analyzing. What follows are my data predictions for ecommerce for 2020.
Analytics & Data
Using COUNTIF, COUNTIFS in Google Sheets to Sort, Analyze Data

December 31, 2019 • Armando Roggio

Whether you're researching keywords, reviewing lead sources, or analyzing customer attributes from a CRM export, Google Sheets' COUNTIF and COUNTIFS formulas can help. Recently, a multichannel retailer wanted to analyze five years' worth of lead and conversion data.
Analytics & Data
7 Ways to Analyze Black Friday, Cyber Monday Sales

December 5, 2019 • Anna Kayfitz

Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales are complete. Marketers should scrutinize the results for insights on future promotions. There are multiple approaches. In this post, I'll review seven ways to analyze the results from Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
Analytics & Data
Predicting Profits from Black Friday Promotions

November 22, 2019 • Anna Kayfitz

The Black Friday weekend is near. Many merchants will lower prices, add promotions, and compete in one of the biggest retail days of the year. By analyzing prior year results, merchants can estimate current-year sales and profits and the impact of promotions.
Analytics & Data
19 Free Tutorials for Google Analytics

November 18, 2019 • Sig Ueland

Google Analytics may be the most important application to understand the behavior of your visitors. And whether you’re a beginner or an experienced user, there are many free resources to help. Here is a list of free tutorials for Google Analytics.
Analytics & Data
5 Ways Data Science Drives Ecommerce Revenue

November 5, 2019 • Anna Kayfitz

Data science is the processing and analysis of large datasets — structured or unstructured. Tweets from customers and prospects is an example of unstructured data. Here are five data-science uses to drive ecommerce sales.
Analytics & Data
Google Analytics: Introduction to Cross-device Reporting

October 15, 2019 • Morgan Jones

There has been a seismic shift in website traffic in the past several years, from desktop to mobile. Google Analytics has rolled out the beta version of cross-device reporting to inform merchants of how their shoppers are interacting via multiple devices.
Analytics & Data
16 Business Intelligence Tools for Ecommerce

October 11, 2019 • Anna Kayfitz

A business intelligence tool can provide helpful data to make critical, daily decisions. There are many such tools to choose from. In this post, I'll list popular business intelligence tools that I'm familiar with and offer my perspective on each.
Analytics & Data
How to Choose KPIs for Your Ecommerce Business

September 24, 2019 • Anna Kayfitz

Key performance indicators apply to many aspects of an ecommerce business. Examples include marketing KPIs to track, say, coupon redemptions or return on investment from advertising. In this post, I'll offer tips for building your ultimate KPI dashboard.
Analytics & Data
How to Determine Survey Size for Meaningful Results

September 5, 2019 • Anna Kayfitz

When conducting surveys by email, polling on a website, or approaching people on the street, the main hurdle is knowing how many responses to collect. The following formula can predict the necessary sample size based on your population, such as users, email addresses, or potential customers.

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