Web & Social Analytics

The role of web analytics in e-commerce: Insights for online retailers

Market research shows that 20.8% of global retail sales will shift online by 2023, increasing to 24% by 2026. You can tap into massive unstructured data through your website, social media, and competitor analysis to increase your sales.[1]
People are shifting to online shopping for convenience, discounts, product reviews, easy checkout, and the convenience of returning the product.

This article will explain how you can use web analytics to boost your sales.

Important metrics to track using web analytics

Online retailing is a fluid business where the demand for a product may rise or fall sharply at short notice. These metrics will help you track the website performance and adapt accordingly –

Page visits or sessions

The more page visits and sessions, the more potential clients are visiting your website. However, traffic is a relative metric and depends on the quality of visitors. Low traffic with high-quality visitors can give you better business than high traffic with low-quality visitors.

Source of traffic

Monitor the source of the traffic to adjust your marketing strategy. For example, if you are seeing high traffic from email campaigns, you can retarget those customers and convert them to buyers. You can run ads in that area if you are getting good-quality traffic from a geographic location.

Website conversion rate

This is the percentage of people who complete a critical action on your website. It could be purchasing a product, subscribing to a newsletter or e-zine, or enrolling in an online course.

Bounce rate

Bounce rate shows the percentage of people who visit only one page on your website and leave. One must understand the bounce rate in both its facets. A high bounce rate may indicate low engagement. But it could also indicate that the customer is getting all the information simultaneously.

Repeat visit rate

This shows how many people are visiting your website regularly. Usually, a repeat visit rate above 30% is good, and anything below 20% shows that your website content or product needs improvement.

Monthly unique visitors

This is the number of new visitors each month. It shows how effectively your website attracts new customers, which is important for business growth. A healthy website will usually show a steady rise in monthly unique visitors.

Unique e-commerce metrics

E-commerce businesses have unique metrics such as cart abandonment rate, average order value, and the average number of products per sale. The cart abandonment rate indicates the number of people who used the cart but exited without buying.

Benefits of web analytics for e-commerce businesses                 

Using analytics effectively is a magic wand that shows you the gaps and helps you get ahead of your competition. Here are the benefits for e-commerce businesses –

Build a robust supply chain

Customers buy online for convenience and lower prices. That is why your supply chain should be robust, with enough products that you advertise on your website. Analytics helps you forecast the demand so there is never an under or oversupply.

Detect fraud

Analytics detect patterns based on customer behaviour and warn you of any unusual activity. You can send automatic emails or messages to customers asking them to verify their identity or seek approval before processing a transaction.

Predict the market forces

Predict future trends based on several market forces such as the season, demand, category of products, etc. Merchants know what future sales will look like and adjust their inventory. They can also adjust their marketing tactics.

Set a competitive pricing

The demand for a product or service determines its price in the e-commerce market. Analytics not only tell you the current demand but also the pricing of your competitors. Use predictive analysis to understand pricing trends and drive more business.

Personalise recommendations and shopping experience

Showing related products or directing the customers to the page of their interest can significantly increase the chances of a sale. Analytics track customer behaviour and advise on how you should build your website or structure the products.

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How can Infosys BPM help?

Infosys BPM provides actionable insights from unstructured online data using deep domain expertise, analytics, machine learning, hyper-automation, and AI to transform the analytics journey. Using this technology you can understand customer behaviour, enhance the experience, increase revenue, and optimise spending.

> Read more about web and social media analytics services for e-commerce at Infosys BPM.