Data is one of the most essential components of running an eCommerce business. It helps you understand customer behavior, sales trends, and the overall situation of your business. And all of this is necessary if you want your brand to be successful.
However, getting hold of the correct data is not as easy. There are multiple platforms, channels, and data streams, which makes this task complex. What’s even more difficult is to gather insights from whatever data you pull.
And this is where the eCommerce analytics tool comes in. These tools make it easy for eCommerce businesses to gather, analyze, and interpret data from various sources under one roof.
But the software market is crowded, which makes it difficult to choose the right eCommerce analytics tool for your brand. In this blog, we solve this problem for you. Below, you’ll find all the crucial things you should consider before investing in an eCommerce analytics tool.
Recap: What is an eCommerce analytics tool?
An eCommerce analytics tool is software that gathers, analyses and interprets all the customer and sales-related data you need to run an eCommerce business.
It helps you understand things as granular as individual customer behavior to things as data-heavy as market trends.
Using an eCommerce analytics tool, you can identify patterns, and based on those patterns, you can find new opportunities and fix the leakages in your business.
Here are some of the benefits of using an eCommerce analytics tool:
It helps you get a complete view of your eCommerce performance, which keeps sales trends, customer demographics, and product performance into account.
You get data from all the platforms in a single dashboard.
You can track the performance of your business by tracking metrics like AOV, conversion rate, CLV and much more.
Helps you in marketing using customer segmentation and behavior analysis.
Your decision will be more impactful because they’ll be backed by data rather than your guesswork.
And the best part is you’ll always be a step ahead of your competitors who don’t use data for their decisions.
Factors to consider while choosing the best eCommerce analytics tool
You can only pick the best eCommerce analytics tool when you’re sure what you want out of that tool. It can be plain numbers or numbers with recommendations. When you’re sure what your goal is, make sure that the eCommerce analytics tool you pick offers the following:
1. Features and capabilities
A software is defined by the features it has and how accurate they are. Here are some of the features and capabilities that your eCommerce analytics tool must offer:
Website traffic tracking
You have maximum control over the customers who purchase directly from your website rather than from a marketplace. This makes it essential for you to have an eCommerce analytics tool that gives you a complete dissection of your website traffic.
Your analytics tool should show insights into the traffic sources, including organic search, direct visits, referrals, and paid campaigns. It should also offer metrics such as page views, unique visitors, bounce rates, and session durations for you to understand the effectiveness of your website in attracting and retaining visitors.
Sales tracking
Effectively tracking your sales allows you to monitor and analyze your eCommerce revenue streams precisely.
Your eCommerce analytics tool should offer real-time visibility into sales performance. This sales performance can have metrics like transaction volumes, order values, conversion rates, and average order sizes.
Moreover, it should allow you to segment sales data by product categories, customer segments, and geographic regions to identify trends and opportunities for optimisation.
Customer behavior tracking
To optimize your store for user experience, it’s essential for you to understand customer behavior. And it’s important because how many conversions you get is directly proportional to the user experience.
A competent eCommerce analytics tool will always give you a clear picture of different aspects of customer behavior, like browsing patterns, product interactions, cart abandonment rates, and repeat purchase behavior.
Once you track these metrics, you can identify friction points in the customer journey and find solutions to enhance engagement and loyalty.
Marketing campaign tracking
Do you want to evaluate how your campaigns are performing across multiple channels? Marketing campaign tracking is the feature that you must look out for.
Make sure that your analytics tool can attribute sales and conversions to your marketing touchpoints. It can be email campaigns, social media ads, or even search engine marketing — you should know the origin of the sale.
It’s a bonus if you also get advanced features, like A/B testing and cohort analysis. These features allow you to measure how different marketing strategies impact your KPIs.
Classification and filtering based on impact
You don’t necessarily keep a close watch on every eCommerce metric. Your priority should be tracking the metrics that have the maximum impact on your business goals. And how do you identify these metrics? Well, your eCommerce analytics tool should do this identifying task for you.
It should allow you to categorize metrics and segments based on predefined criteria. Criteria can be anything like high-value customers, top-performing products, or profitable marketing channels. You should also have the option to filter the options to drill down as deep as you want to go.
Attribution
Attribution modeling is a crucial component of analytics for understanding the contribution of each marketing touchpoint to the overall conversion process.
The eCommerce analytics tool you choose should support attribution models, like first-touch, last-touch, and multi-touch attribution, to accurately assess the effectiveness of your marketing efforts.
It should also provide insights into the overlap and synergy between different marketing channels, allowing you to optimize your budget allocation and maximize ROI.
2. Platform integrations
The effectiveness of your eCommerce analytics tool depends on its seamless integration with multiple platforms and data sources.
Seek a tool with extensive integration capabilities to access data from various eCommerce platforms, payment gateways, advertising networks, and third-party apps.
Ensure it supports Shopify, WooCommerce, Magento, or a mix of platforms with native integrations or APIs for data extraction and synchronization. It should also integrate with marketing tools like Google Analytics, Facebook Ads, and Mailchimp to consolidate data in one dashboard.
Through comprehensive platform integrations, your analytics tool can provide a complete view of your eCommerce ecosystem for valuable insights and informed decision-making.
3. Ease of use
Having a user-friendly interface is crucial for maximizing the effectiveness of your eCommerce analytics tool. It should be easy for everyone, from the setup process to generating reports and interpreting data.
It should come with features like customisable dashboards, drag-and-drop functionality, and guided workflows to support efficient data analysis. Moreover, it should also be easy for the team to share the dashboards and reports with other members and stakeholders.
Make sure there is adequate documentation and support to assist users in overcoming any challenges they may encounter. Prioritizing ease of use empowers your team to utilize the tool fully and make informed decisions.
4. Custom report building
The right eCommerce analytics will always offer complete customisation features to build custom reports tailored to your specific requirements and preferences.
Look for features such as drag-and-drop report builders, customisable templates, and dynamic filters that allow you to create reports that align with your unique business goals and KPIs.
You should also have multiple data visualization options, like charts, graphs, and tables, to communicate insights to stakeholders effectively.
Looking for the best eCommerce analytics tool? Meet Graas
Graas is a comprehensive eCommerce analytics tool that comes with all the essential features and capabilities we discussed above.
With intuitive dashboards that provide a single source of truth, Graas makes sure that your data don’t work in silos and you get a holistic view of your eCommerce business.
Its integrations ensure seamless connectivity with multiple data sources, while API integrations guarantee the accuracy and reliability of data.
Graas also offers real-time access to insights, allowing you to make quick decisions, supported by in-depth analysis and scientific attribution models.
The best part is that numbers are not all you get. You also get the recommendations to improve your numbers.
With data-backed insights, Graas can take your business to new heights. Sign up for free today!