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14 Data Segmentation for Ecommerce WEB PROFITS
Set ing this upon the customer’s return to your site aſt er the fi rst purchase, is going to require some program- ming to read cookie information on the client machine. Not an exact science, but it will work to gather the data on repeat visits to the site, where they may not make a purchase. The other option,
although it, too, has limita- tions, is to set the variable on the order thank you page, after their second purchase. Although this will more clearly set a trig- ger for the Event, it will not fi re the Event if a previous customer returns to the site and does not make a pur- chase. T erefore, you lose some valuable data insight on what their behavior was in their return visit, because you set the variable based upon the purchase rather than the return.
4) Tracking Purchase History
Tracking purchase history is not as easy as the previous mentioned methods. For this to work, your technical team will need to develop a program that categorizes customers based on the number of purchases made. In general, they would need to create some code on the server capable of reviewing a customer’s purchase history, then set the custom tracking variable accordingly. For stores without access to their own source
code, including anyone using hosted shopping carts like Amazon, Yahoo!, etc., you are going to be out of luck get ing this type of segmentation to work. For those with the opportunity to alter their shopping cart source code, here is the code snippet for how you might accomplish this:
_gaq.push([‘_setCustomVar’,5,’PurchaseHistory’,’ 1-3’,1]);
Without this level of detail, you are only getting a small part of the overall picture of how your business is performing.
T e above snippet drops the visitor into a bucket of those who have made a purchase at least once with your store, and up to three times maximum. You would set addi- tional segments as needed, altering the above line for each “bucket” you want to track; for example, those that have purchased four to seven times, eight to ten times, etc.
Conclusion
All ecommerce stores imple- menting Google Analytics should be using Custom
Variables and Event Tracking, to segment data for mea- suring the behavior pat erns of their visitors. Without this level of detail, you are only get ing a small part of the overall picture of how your business is performing. Also, keep in mind that the four suggested variables mentioned are by no means the only available options. T e more information you know about how your visi- tors interact with your website, the bet er your ability to make informed business decisions that move your company toward its objectives.
Eric Leuenberger is an ecommerce expert, founder of Ecommerce Amplifi er, and owner of Voom Ventures, LLC, whose products and services help stores increase traffi c, maximize ROI, decrease expenses, and increase revenue. He can be contacted online at
www.voomventures.com, or by phone at 1-866-602-2673.
Find other great ideas for running your business at:
www.wholesalecentral.com/wholesale–news 16 May 2012
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