You’ve just spent the past year implementing a new e-commerce platform. You flip the switch and revenue is down twenty percent. You realize you are facing your worst nightmare. How do you wake up?
A Forrester report from early 2011 states that 49 percent of online retailers are planning to re-platform their e-commerce solution within the next two years. If a typical technology cycle lasts three years, and it takes two years to choose, implement, and fine-tune a suitable alternative to your current platform, it’s safe to say that companies are perpetually in a re-platforming mode.
If you have decided to do a re-platforming project, prepare not only for customizing the e-commerce platform to your needs, but also to measure the results of the new platform against the old one. Read the rest of this entry »
Filed under analysis of variance, analytics, AOV, Conversion Rate, e-commerce replatforming, ecommerce replatforming metrics, email marketing campaign, Forrester report, PPC, revenue per visitor, traffic, traffic profile, traffic sources
We are pleased to have Melinda Byerley as a guest blogger for Building Keystones.
Melinda is an e-commerce marketing and general management veteran, having held roles at eBay, PayPal, Check Point Software, and Linden Lab (Second Life). Most recently, she was the VP Marketing and Product for PlantSense, an internet device startup in the gardening space. She holds an MBA from Cornell University Johnson Graduate School of Management.
You can follow Melinda on Twitter at @melindabyerley; or visit her LinkedIn profile.
There’s a saying, “Climate is the contents of your wardrobe; but weather is what you put on today.” When it comes to web analytics, long term trends represent the “climate” and daily performances represent the “weather”.
Now, we all love launching new products, testing their performance, improving marketing efficiency and staying on top of our numbers. We don’t have to wait weeks for market data; we get it immediately, almost in real time.
So, which side of this situation have you been on?
Big VP: (sending email at 6 AM on Monday morning): “Hi! I’m on a flight to New York this morning and preparing for exec staff; and was checking our web analytics dashboard. Why is traffic down 10% today? What’s wrong? Need to know ASAP!!!”
Web Analyst: (pre coffee, checking email from bed, muttering to self): “Oh no! I was planning on spending this morning with the weekly dashboard and fixing some tags on marketing’s landing pages. Crap. Looks like another long day at work. Better get going early!”
Web analytics providers make it easy to monitor your metrics from anywhere, even from your mobile phone in bed (admit it, you do it too!) They can send automated alerts that would make a derivatives trader envious. The graphics are crisp, clear and gorgeous. It’s like a real world video game.
But, in many instances, the web analytics data that looks so credible is inaccurate. And even when it is accurate, focusing too narrowly on data can be an utter distraction from your company’s long term strategic goals.
Why?
Because all web analytics data is wrong. Read the rest of this entry »
Filed under cookies, Google Analytics, long term trends, Omniture, web analytics, website performance
Business intelligence (BI) is a system of goals, processes, and software applications that lead to better business decisions. Growing your business requires the development of a BI system that helps you manage and optimize organizational, departmental, and individual performances.
In the era of “big data“, business are generating loads of data. Attempting to sift through all this information and gain insight into your business performance can often lead to an overwhelming sense of confusion. A business that properly manages its data, however, can leverage this information glut into a powerful decision making tool. An important way to accomplish this goal is through business intelligence.
Remember that you cannot simply rely on a tool like Google Analytics to support your BI needs. Analytics should certainly make up a part of your overall BI structure. However, there are important pieces of information that analytics cannot provide. For those cases (which we demonstrate later in this post), you must incorporate a BI solution to drive improvements in your business.
Without a BI system, your business is like a jigsaw puzzle, only you don’t have the box with the full picture on it and you don’t know how many pieces are missing. If you are a high level decision maker, not having that big picture in place can have serious consequences. If your company is experiencing negative trends in any segment of the business, you want to be able to make quick, informed decisions that reverse those trends.
In order to make good decisions, you need consolidated, up to date data. Further, you want data that can be easily visualized without having to pore over hundreds of spreadsheets. A well thought out business intelligence strategy fulfills these needs.
Business requirements vs. IT requirements
Michael Smith is a member of the IBM Business Analytics market strategy team. During a Focus Event about business intelligence, he stated that one of the key questions to ask before implementing a BI solution is “What information do I need to make my business run better?” Read the rest of this entry »
Filed under business intelligence, E-commerce business strategy
