e-commerce analytics

Photo by Shoper

A successful business strives to understand customers more and refine its marketing strategies. This drives data-driven decisions while remaining competitive amidst the market forces. Among these, e-commerce analytics are some of the strong pillars that drive efficiency to boost revenue generation. While bringing efficiency to your marketing and boosting revenue generation, it will ensure you do not miss out on any opportunities. This article outlines five mistakes you should avoid in e-commerce analytics:

Ignoring Data Quality

Even the best analytics strategies go off the rails if the data quality is subpar. Inconsistent, incomplete, or wrong data leads to the organization making wrong decisions and, therefore, costs them in terms of time and resources. It’s essential to ensure the data is accurate and implement regular audits and standardized data entry and validation procedures.

Incorrect product tagging, or that of promotions, could lead to inaccurate analytics that would make it challenging to truly judge a campaigns success. With high data integrity, the insights you obtain will be fundamental to the performance of your business, therefore helping you to make informed decisions.

Focusing Solely on Vanity Metrics

While page views, follower counts, and impressions sound great, they usually aren’t indicative of the actual performance of your e-commerce store. These “vanity metrics” show superficial data without giving insight into actionable items. It is best done by monitoring the key performance indicators-conversion rates, the average order value, and customer retention rate.

By focusing on actionable metrics, you can draw meaningful trends and patterns. For instance, pointing out if the conversion rate is falling would lead you to take actions, like optimizing checkout processes or targeting cart abandonment.

Not Choosing E-commerce Platforms

The efficient platforms have excellent features, including built-in analytics integration that makes the collection and reporting of data seamless. By settling for a platform that lacks strong analytics, you limit your capacity to gain critical insights. For example, when using the WooCommerce platform, it’s important to assess whether it can integrate with other tools such as Google Analytics. This integration provides valuable insights from your client base, giving you a clear image of how your store is performing.

Platforms that provide poor customization support may limit your ability to create the best value from data tracking. Choosing a platform that can scale with your needs and one that is fully featured ensures effective collection of data, analytics, and realization as the business starts to grow and expand.

Overlooking Mobile Analytic

A good part of online shopping is done via mobile devices, making it worthwhile to prioritize mobile-specific data. Mobile users also tend to exhibit very different browning and purchasing behaviors than desktop users. 

Among all important metrics, very close attention must be paid to the mobile bounce rates, load times, and conversion rate. Optimizing the mobile experience will unleash the growing segment of customers rather than create any potential barriers to purchase.

Not Acting on Insights

Data collection is only half the battle; the real value lies in applying those insights to improve your e-commerce strategy. Too often, businesses get into the trap of analyzing data, not acting upon findings. That lack of action alone might be an opportunity for growth and optimization that can be missed.

Establish a mechanism for converting the insights into actionable strategies. For instance, consider implementing reminders or enhancing payment options if the data shows high cart abandonment rates. You could create a schedule to give you consistency in acting on the insights.

Endnote

E-commerce analytics is the best tool for remaining competitive in an online marketplace. Having avoided all common mistakes, you ensure that analytics are leveraged effectively to set the business up for continued growth and success. It is not in gathering data but in actionable insights that drive results.