5 eCommerce Analytics Tools to Drive Growth
Like any other business, the secret to growth for eCommerce companies is to have access to detailed analytics that enables you to understand your customers – and their onsite behaviour.
But with so many tools available on the marketing, how do you find the right tool to suit your needs?
In this blog, we take a look at 5 analytics tools that provide detailed customer and prospect insights and actionable intelligence designed to optimise customer journeys, personalise your offering and drive higher levels of conversion right across your store.
As well as considering:
- What is an eCommerce analytics tool?
- Why do analytics matter in eCommerce?
- 5 eCommerce analytics tools to consider
What is an eCommerce analytics tool?
Setting up an attractive eCommerce online store to showcase your products is a really significant undertaking.
But simply building it and getting it live online isn’t going to guarantee that your sales levels go through the roof.
What is essential, is understanding how prospects and customers get to – and interact with – your store so you can drive your sales pipeline.
Ecommerce analytics tools enable you to take a data driven approach to assessing interactions right across the customer journey.
From assessing exactly where the best prospects are coming from, to why and how they are converting – and, just as importantly, not converting.
Armed with this type of information, you are in a much better place to assess trends and changes in customer behaviour, improve the customer journey and drive higher levels of conversion to boost your revenues.
Why do analytics matter in eCommerce?
There are a number of key reasons why analytics are important for eCommerce companies, including:
Improve the effectiveness of your acquisition strategy
Driving traffic to your eCommerce shopfront is vital for your growth.
But it can be an expensive task, particularly at a time when CPAs are increasing exponentially.
The lingering impacts of the pandemic, the cost of living crisis and the combined impact of iOS 14.5 and the impending death of third-party cookies have combined to place unprecedented pressure on media costs.
And by their very nature, and lower funnel focus, Google Ads and Facebook advertising have driven up CPAs there.
An effective eCommerce analytics tool will not only enable you to assess what campaigns and media channels are working for you – but also help you identify lower cost CPA opportunities which exist further up the funnel.
So, you can drive customer acquisition more effectively.
Better understand your audience
A good eCommerce analytics platform allows you to segment your audience into measurable customer cohorts based on a wide range of criteria, including:
- personal characteristics and attributes
- website or app browsing habits
- previous purchase history
So, you can refocus your marketing efforts on them in everything from channel and campaign planning to customer journeys on your website and post-sale follow-up.
Optimise your conversion rate
User data from across the customer journey is powerful when you can see it all together in one place.
By centralising it all into an eCommerce analytics platform, you can boost conversion rates by:
- building a comprehensive funnel view of customer journeys and conversion paths including where customers drop out of the process
- using data driven techniques like A/B testing of content, assessing the ROI of your media options and improving the quality of your checkout pages
- adjusting site-based journeys based on ‘hard’ conversion analytics data and not relying on gut feel
Improve the customer journey and experience
One of the side effects of the explosion in online shopping has been a huge surge in the expectations of online shoppers, as they increasingly looking for a good online shopping experience.
By leveraging the data from your eCommerce analytics platform you can visualise, assess and build the type of experience they are looking for, including:
- Creating a more personalised user journey based on user interactions
- Provider offers and incentives that make more sense to prospects
- Drive repeat purchase and referral based on granular data analysis and making the right offer at the right time
5 eCommerce analytics tools to consider:
1. Corvidae
Corvidae is a cookieless attribution and analytics platform that enables eCommerce businesses to optimise their customer acquisition through their online store.
It breaks down data silos and unifies your data into one single view that lets you understand what is driving conversion right across your marketing mix – including providing proactive suggestions for reallocation of spend.
Pros and Cons of Corvidae
Pros
- Provides eCommerce businesses with a better AI-driven analytics view of the entire customer journey.
- Gives a clear view of the effectiveness of your acquisition campaigns at a channel, campaign and individual creative level so you can boost your acquisition strategy.
- Enables you to spot lower cost CPA opportunities further up the funnel which means you get more customers for less.
- The AI-driven approach continually learns over time which means campaign spend is optimised across your eCommerce site on an ongoing basis.
Cons
- Corvidae works best when it has enough data and digital touchpoints to ingest. So, eCommerce businesses who are spending less than £250,000 per year on digital advertising may not be best suited for this tool.
How much does Corvidae cost?
Corvidae offers custom pricing based on the level of data within your business and add-ons including integrations. If you’d like a free quote, get in touch with our team.
Who is this tool for?
Performance marketers in eCommerce businesses who are looking to optimise their spend, identify which channels are delivering the best ROI and to find cheaper media opportunities further up the funnel.
2. Google Analytics
Google Analytics (GA) is one of the better known data analytics tools and is a comprehensive eCommerce analytics platform that provides detailed information on website performance and user behaviour.
It provides the capability to measure a wide range of metrics from simple traffic and page views to more sophisticated engagement and conversion reporting.
For users using the Google Ads platform, it offers easy integration and an enhanced eCommerce module which enables detailed tracking right across the customer journey.
Pros and cons of Google Analytics
Pros
- Track and report on customer behaviour at every stage of the funnel – before, during, and after a purchase.
- Detailed reporting capabilities across everything from average order value to cart abandonment behaviour analysis and affiliate ROI tracking.
- Can identify where in the purchase journey you are losing potential customers.
Cons
- There is a steep learning curve associated with GA which needs time and resource allocation.
- Recent concerns around lack of GDPR compliance and illegality in the EU.
Pricing
Google Analytics is available from free (new users of GA will be given an instance of GA4). However, there is also a paid for version for enterprise users called Analytics 360 which offers advanced customization, scalable tools and enterprise-level support. Tailored pricing for this is available on demand.
Who is this tool for?
The free version of GA is likely to appeal to small or medium-sized eCommerce companies making a start on their analytics journey.
3. Shopify Analytics
Shopify is a complete and powerful eCommerce platform that lets you start, grow and manage your eCommerce business.
The integrated analytics capabilities in the platform enable you to analyse customer behaviour, monitor the value of sales across channels, identify where prospect and customers are coming from and monitor trends over time.
Pros and cons of Shopify Analytics
Pros
- Is relatively quick and easy to get started compared to other tools.
- Allows you to track revenue trends, campaign effectiveness, optimize advertising spend and improve ROI.
- Their analytics are less complex than other more heavyweight tools.
- Enables you to track everywhere you sell including not only online but offline too.
Cons
- A deep level of customization of the solution is hard for those looking for more granular analytics.
- If you decide to move on it is not easy to migrate your data from Shopify.
Pricing
Shopify plans start from a basic plan for Individuals and Small business for £25 per month with basic reporting capabilities and slightly higher credit card rates than the Small Business version (£65 per month) and Medium to Large Business version (£344 per month) which feature incrementally lower feeds and, in the case of Medium to Large Businesses, a custom report builder.
Who is this tool for?
With built-in tools that help you build your store, generate your business name and logo, domain generator and dropshipping services Shopify is going to naturally appeal to small and medium-sized businesses. As you scale, the lack of customized reporting capability might be a limiting factor, however.
4. Woocommerce Analytics
Woocommerce Analytics is a free, open-source reporting and data analysis plugin that WordPress users can use to power the analytics on their eCommerce stores.
It provides Sales analytics capabilities and reporting across products, stores, revenue and couponing. With the capability to start from free and also upgrade to Enterprise Commerce level which includes dedicated account management and priority support.
Pros and cons of Woocommerce Analytics
Pros
- Relatively quick and easy to set up and begin reporting on your eCommerce activity.
- Provides the capability to drill into your data and identify your best performing segments relatively easily.
Cons
- There is limited capability for customization of analytics.
- If you want to build analytics out at scale you are going to need expert help.
- Like other WordPress plugins there is no dedicated customer support for the free version should you run into problems with the tool.
Pricing
Despite the fact that the plugin is free it is likely that you will incur costs in getting your instance of Woocommerce up and running – with a modular approach to pricing that includes yearly add-ons for services like hosting starting at $56.56 annually and credit card %age payments per transaction. Enterprise pricing is available on request.
Who is this tool for?
By default, this is going to appeal most to small and medium-sized businesses who are already using the WordPress platform. Although it is possible to scale with expert support.
5. Hotjar
Hotjar is a heatmap and survey analytics tool that enables you to take a data driven approach to assess what your customers are up to on your eCommerce website.
Pros and cons of Hotjar
Pros
- You can use the user journey data to better understand behaviour on your eCommerce site and improve conversion.
- Helps you to build a conversion funnel to better understand the buying journey.
- Provides a wide range or proven integrations with best-in-class tools including Google Analytics, Unbounce, Zapier and more.
- Feedback on user support is good.
Cons
- Is largely limited to on page analytics data and doesn’t extend to detailed analysis of the effectiveness of channels and campaigns.
How much does Hotjar cost?
Pricing ranges from a free Basic package which allows up to 35 daily sessions through to a Scale offering for €213 per month which includes more detailed filtering and segmentation capability. Plus priority support.
Who is this tool for?
Marketers, product teams and UX designers who are focused on building and enhancing user journeys that optimize conversion on their eCommerce store.
Looking to review your eCommerce analytics options?
Talk to us about how Corvidae can help you optimise your eCommerce campaigns and acquisition spend. Request a demo here.
