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
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.
Analytics & Data
How to Audit Integration of Google Analytics, Ads

September 4, 2019 • Morgan Jones

Google Ads is an important platform for online merchants. Google Analytics is another. Combining the two provides rich, actionable data to grow traffic and sales — assuming that tracking is set up correctly. In this post, I'll provide an audit process to confirm proper integration.
Analytics & Data
10 Ways Bad Data Hurts an Ecommerce Business

August 13, 2019 • Anna Kayfitz

Data is essential for ecommerce businesses. Order quantities, shipping addresses, sales history, marketing performance — all rely on accurate data. Thus missing or inaccurate data can harm a business. Here are 10 ways that poor data can reduce ecommerce performance.
Analytics & Data
Using Google Analytics’ Learning Resources

August 12, 2019 • Morgan Jones

Google Analytics is sophisticated and comprehensive. Getting started — logging in, using the menu, viewing the reports — is straightforward. But interpreting the data can be difficult. Fortunately, Google Analytics offers many learning resources to help.
Analytics & Data
Need Data for a Key Decision? Try These 8 Sources

July 16, 2019 • Anna Kayfitz

Data drives most businesses. But what happens when you lack data to make a critical decision? How do you collect the data, and at what cost?
Analytics & Data
Google Analytics: Common Mistakes from Ecommerce Merchants

July 5, 2019 • Morgan Jones

Google Analytics provides impactful data that can help ecommerce merchants. But installed incorrectly, Google Analytics can produce inaccurate reporting. In this post, I'll address common mistakes from merchants in installing Google Analytics and analyzing its data.
Analytics & Data
7 Gaps in Google Analytics That Require Additional Tools

June 23, 2019 • Morgan Jones

Google Analytics is a powerful, free web analytics platform. However, it has gaps that are better served by other tools. I'll address those gaps and tools in this post.
Analytics & Data
Using Attribution Modeling in Google Analytics

May 24, 2019 • Anna Kayfitz

Marketing attribution is the process of identifying sources or channels that led to a desired outcome, such as a sale or a subscription. Google Analytics offers attribution modeling at Conversions > Attribution > Model Comparison Tool. There are a handful of models to select from.
Analytics & Data
Use Market Basket Analysis to Boost Cross-sales, Average Order Values

May 9, 2019 • Anna Kayfitz

Market basket analysis is based on the idea that a customer who buys product A is likely to buy product B, too. The model seeks to find relationships among purchases — a customer who buys pasta likely needs pasta sauce. The model applies at an item level or to a group of items or categories.
Analytics & Data
Analyze Click Paths in Google Analytics to Improve Conversions

May 8, 2019 • Morgan Jones

Monitoring the navigation of visitors can help ecommerce merchants identify bottlenecks to the checkout page. There are two ways to analyze paths in Google Analytics: Behavior Flow and Navigation analysis.
Analytics & Data
How to Merge Data from Multiple Sources into a Single Platform

May 1, 2019 • Anna Kayfitz

Migrating to a new customer management platform may require merging multiple data sources or adding a new source. In this post, I’ll review how to merge multiple sources into a ...
Analytics & Data
8 Ways to Improve Marketing Automation for Ecommerce

April 8, 2019 • Anna Kayfitz

Marketing automation can do more with email than send mass deployments and track opens and clicks. Marketing automation can integrate email with your customer management platform to create relevant campaigns. In this post, I'll review eight ways to accelerate an ecommerce marketing automation program.
Analytics & Data
Using Alerts in Google Analytics for Slow Site Speeds

April 4, 2019 • Morgan Jones

I’ve addressed site speed reports in Google Analytics. Site speed is critical for conversions and, increasingly, for search engine rankings. In this post, I’ll explain how to set up Custom Alerts in ...
Analytics & Data
Using Google Data Studio to Report Gross Profit by SKU

March 18, 2019 • Morgan Jones

In "Using Google Analytics to Track Profitability by Product," I explained how to import product cost into Google Analytics to calculate gross profit for each item sold. It was a tricky exercise. I received feedback and questions. In this post. I'll break the process down by using Google Data Studio and data blending.
Analytics & Data
Google Analytics: Tracking Sales When Multiple Sites Use a Single Checkout

February 26, 2019 • Morgan Jones

Larger ecommerce companies sometimes create multiple branded websites that feed into a single checkout. For those companies, tracking which site generated the business — revenue — can be tricky. In this post, I will provide a method for reporting the “source of business” metrics in Google Analytics.
Analytics & Data
Using Excel to Forecast Sales, Expenses, More

February 10, 2019 • Anna Kayfitz

Forecasting sales is useful for many reasons, such as inventory management, investor relations, and setting expense and marketing budgets. But producing accurate forecasts can be confusing. In this post, I'll explain how to generate forecasts using Microsoft Excel.
Analytics & Data
SEO: Monitoring Traffic from Domain Mergers, with Google Data Studio

January 27, 2019 • Hamlet Batista

A common practice among retailers is creating microsites to target different audiences. The strategy can produce strong conversions because the user experience is simpler and more relevant. Unfortunately, it is not usually helpful for organic search rankings.
Analytics & Data
18 Basic Metrics to Review at Year-end

January 15, 2019 • Anna Kayfitz

This is the time to conduct your year-end analysis to help plan for 2019. Here are some basic metrics to analyze, to see what worked and what didn't.
Analytics & Data
Google Analytics: How to Track PayPal Transactions

January 11, 2019 • Morgan Jones

“PayPal Payments Standard” is popular, but it can be challenging for Google Analytics to report the sale. Using PayPal Payments Standard, customers leave the merchant's website for their account at PayPal. After they complete payment, PayPal redirects them back to the return URL provided by the merchant.
Analytics & Data
Fine-tune Google Analytics for a More Profitable 2019

December 24, 2018 • Pamela Hazelton

If there is one new year's resolution for boosting ecommerce conversions in 2019, it's to get your store's analytics in order. Otherwise, you will never understand the impact of changes to your site. You’ll also miss out on potential target audiences — long-term, loyal customers.

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