The PeC Review: Woopra Promises Real-Time Web Analytics and Behavior Tracking

Woopra is an innovative web analytics suite that promises to vastly improve the information that website owners can collect and monitor.

As customers return to your store, Woopra begins to track behavioral profiles, allowing online merchants to monitor individual customer behavior over time and develop site-usage patterns. The information Woopra captures could then help online stores improve content and conversions based on how customers respond.

Each week, “The PeC Review” looks at products or services that could help an online merchant. Our goal is to both rate and identify those products. This week, I took an early look at the Woopra Beta. While the tool is not yet widely available—it is limited to a private beta test—its potential earned it three and a half out of a possible five stars in this “The PeC Review.”

The Hoopla about Woopra

There has been a lot of hoopla about Woopra in both the media and Internet-enthusiast circles. In fact, while I had some awareness of the tool from articles like Eric Enge’s “Real-Time Analytics with Woopra” and, much more recently, The Labanese Inner Circle’s “Woopra–Better than Google Analytics?”, it was my friend Eric (not Eric Enge) that got me to take a real look at the tool. Eric is one of Woopra’s testers, and he was tripping over himself to praise the tool. The key for Eric was the real-time data.

Data As It Happens

It wasn’t that long ago that site owners had to wade through reams of log files to glean strategic information about site traffic and visitor behavior. More advanced analytics tools made it much easier to monitor visitors, find referrers, find operating system information, or even discover which browsers users favored. But Woopra, which is currently free, promises to provide that sort of data in real time, as it is happening. What to watch a visitor navigate through your new navigation system? Do it now.

Visitor Tagging

Because it offers real time data, Woopra allows users to “tag” visitors tracking their movements through the site hierarchy.

“Webmasters can respond faster to sudden influxes in traffic and help monitor trends in search and traffic patterns,” according to the company. “Woopra helps web owners generate content based upon customer needs and trends now, not after the fact.”

Proactive and Reactive Chatting

Woopra has a built-in chat tool that can be deployed as a “click-to-chat” that allows site visitors to initiate chat sessions, or as a proactive chat tool that lets store owners or a representative start sessions. Combined with Woopra’s customer tagging and real time data, this chat feature could be a powerful merchandising tool.

Comprehensive Statistics

Woopra also has all of the basics covered. The tool tracks 40 different visitor events and activities, making it as comprehensive as some enterprise-level analytics tools.

Still a Beta

Unfortunately Woopra is not yet widely available, rather it is—as I mentioned—only available in a private beta. But watch for this powerful tool to go mainstream soon.

Summing Up

Woopra may represent the first of the next generation of web analytics tools, providing real-time site traffic information and reporting. It has the potential to give ecommerce merchants strategy-changing data right now, and for that it earned three and a half out of a possible five stars in this “The PeC Review.”