Grow Your eCommerce Business with Analytics

1. Grow Your eCommerce Business with Analytics Whether they’re shopping for groceries, electronics, or apparel, eCommerce continues to make shopping easy and convenient for online consumers. Online shoppers are even willing to pay more for a better shopping experience. According to Statista, global eCommerce sales are projected to reach $7.4 billion and comprise close to 25% of all retail sales by 2025. Having said that, there is ever-increasing competition in the eCommerce space. Online stores that collect and utilize data from their business operations are better positioned to grow relative to their competitors. According to this Forbes article, companies that have adopted data-driven predictive intelligence solutions reported a 40.38% increase in their revenues in just three years. As online stores generate large data volumes, effective analytics can help drive eCommerce revenue and profit. Let’s take a moment to explore the value of eCommerce analytics. What is eCommerce Analytics? Simply put, eCommerce Analytics is the means of making sense of existing customer or business data for businesses selling products or services online. It is the process of collecting data from different areas of eCommerce operations, which can impact the online store and the customer experience. For instance, eCommerce analytics can look at multiple industry metrics like bounce rate, customer acquisition cost, sales funnel metrics, and the most effective SEO keywords.

2. How does eCommerce Analytics provide businesses with a competitive advantage? Fundamentally, analytics can help to improve decision-making processes, customer relationships and business outcomes. In addition to providing valuable customer insights, analytics tools have been developed to help process customer orders, streamline order-to-cash management, and improve order fulfillment. Depending upon specific business requirements, there are multiple categories of eCommerce Analytics, including: ● Target audience, where analytics provides insights into target audience profiles including demographics (age, income, location, spoken language), devices used for online shopping, shipping options chosen, etc.

3. ● Customer acquisition, which focuses on the marketing channels bringing shoppers to your site (i.e., traffic) and the channels driving the highest conversions. ● Customer behavior, providing insights regarding which products customers are buying, time spent by users on your site, and pages with the lowest bounce rate. ● Conversions, understanding factors that are driving actual purchases, and which online shopper journeys are most effective at converting shoppers into customers. Next, let’s discuss how analytics can help grow your eCommerce business. Five ways that analytics can help grow eCommerce

4. 1. Product recommendations A recent Salesforce study found that while product recommendations comprised just 7% of any website traffic, they generated 24% of all orders and 26% of revenue. Similarly, the conversion rate for visitors clicking product recommendations was 5.5x times higher than for visitors who did not click recommendations. Popular tools and platforms like Netflix and Amazon are good at recommending products based upon the individual’s past behavior and personal interests. The same can be achieved on any eCommerce store. Using AI and machine learning algorithms, technology can be leveraged to track the user’s online behavior and make appropriate recommendations. 2. Market basket analysis Market basket analysis (MBA) is the process of identifying products that are typically purchased together. A simple example is that of a consumer buying a shampoo and conditioner. Similarly, there is a popular legend about grocery stores finding out (after performing MBA) that men often buy beer when they buy diapers. Market basket analysis uses data mining to increase sales by understanding customers' purchase patterns and then using that knowledge to improve customer experiences, increase average order values, and optimize marketing campaigns.

5. 3. Customer sentiment Recent studies have shown that customers are likely to spend 140% more on brands that provide them with a positive experience. On the other hand, unhappy customers typically share their negative brand experience with 16 other people. Customer sentiment refers to the positive and negative emotions that online consumers have when engaging with any brand. Data-driven customer sentiment analysis provides valuable insights into what consumers say about your brand on online forums and social media platforms. With more customers "expecting" a response within 60 minutes of posting their comments, sentiment analysis can help shorten the response times and quickly address customer concerns. 4. Merchandising Returned products cost American retailers around $284 billion each year. eCommerce merchandising is all about how online stores sell their products to consumers. This includes critical elements like product placement, product images and videos, effective branding, and much more. Apart from product recommendations, AI and machine learning algorithms have evolved to help process customer requests and provide augmented reality-like experiences. For example, AR mobile apps allow online consumers to "view" products in context (e.g., furniture in a room) as part of the shopping journey. An interesting case study is retail brand Nordstrom opening a 3,000

6. square-foot store (without any merchandise) used only for try-on and tailoring of online purchases. 5. Customer retention According to Microsoft, 58% of American consumers will switch to another seller following a poor customer experience. Conversely, 89% of consumers are likely to make a repeat purchase following a positive brand experience. The takeaway is that while eCommerce must always be concerned with customer acquisition, customer retention is an important driver of success. Analytics helps measure repeat purchase rate (RPR), which is among the most crucial metrics for understanding the success of your customer retention efforts like reward and loyalty programs, customer outreach programs, customer service initiatives, etc. Conclusion In summary, the efficient use of eCommerce analytics can deliver multiple benefits like improving the effectiveness of your digital marketing campaigns and personalizing your customer experience. At EnFuse Solutions, we specialize in providing customized digital solutions that solve key eCommerce pain points. With our range of eCommerce services, our team can help you improve business processes and outcomes that are crucial for your sustained success. If you are looking to enhance your eCommerce business, don’t hesitate to call us.