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Managing Director at BeCheeky.com
24 September 2008 11:25am
Can anyone (clients only please!) recommend a really good but not stupidly expensive analytics package that works well for retailers and can help with merchandising etc? I'm a big believer that different analytics packages suit different industries - for example, HBX (now part of Omniture) is great for Publishers / news & media sites.
I'm currently using Google Analytics and I feel we've grown out of it. So if there's any retailers out there (esp. pure plays) who are getting real benefit from their analytics then I'd be really interested to know what's good and what's not!
I'm looking for marketing acitivty tracking, user behaviour and merchandising performance metrics mostly - and of course all that stuff that I don't know I need yet!
I believe Coremetrics are strong in retail but they're also quite an outlay when the business is used to getting this information free!
Your thoughts and advise are appreciated...I've got the Analytics Buyers guides but some hands-on experience advice would be great. Thanks!
E-Business Consultant at Dan Barker
24 September 2008 12:35pm
hiya, James,
I'll put some brief advice in here. If you want a longer chat, post your details & I'll get in touch (don't worry - not pitching!).
My advice is: these packages look like off-the-shelf products but they're actually not. The devil is always in the implementation. A good implementation of a mediocre analytics package will help you more than a badly implemented 'great' package.
For what it's worth, I manage emarketing for a £multi-mil-a-month website & have used 'the big 5' of these packages. Here's the worth/enjoyment I've got from our each in order of 'loved' to 'not-loved-all-that-much':
I used the first 4 for in excess of 12 months, the 5th only for a couple of weeks.
If I was you, I would speak to someone about improving the way you're using Google Analytics.
Failing that,
1. Put together a list of your KPIs & objectives & get Omniture & Coremetrics in to pitch. They have rate cards, but, depending on your worth to them as a client, they can be very flexible.
2. Get a full breakdown of contract costs. There may be extras thrown in that you just don't need that can knock the price down.
3. Whoever you go with, be very particular about your implementation & make sure it does exactly what you need.
4. Do factor in support/consulting, especially if you're not spending time on it yourself & don't have an in-house analyst.
Hope that's of use!
daniel
Managing Director at BeCheeky.com
24 September 2008 12:52pm
Gosh thats REALLY useful, Daniel, thanks! I may well contact you again, I'm off to AdTech on Thursday to check out some suppliers and I'll also have a good long think about what my objectives are, as you susggest. I am using MinuteSteak for my PPC campaigns and they're currently looking into way to improve the implementation of the GA tracking, we're also running Kenshoo alongside and there are some discrepancies. Thanks again. Justine (under my boss James' account...!)
Director at Angel Internet Ltd
24 September 2008 12:58pm
If you want to try leverage Google Analytics better, you could talk to one of the following official partners:
http://www.ga-experts.com/
http://www.ivantage.co.uk/web-analytics/web-site-analytics.htm
http://www.screenpages.com/ecommerce/analytics.asp
If you want a DIY alternative to Google Analytics you could apply for the Woopra beta. Woopra is a free analytics tool with real-time stats and live chat built in. As it's in Beta, there is a wait to get approved.
* * * Web Retailer - UK eCommerce Software Directory * * *
Senior Account Manager at Nedstat
08 October 2008 14:21pm
Hi James and Daniel,
Have any of you come across Sitestat? It's not showing in Jame's top 5 which is a shame. From Daniel's requirements and Jame's multi-step advice, it fits particularly well with user behaviour, PPC/SEO/SEM campaign ROI, segmenting the data to look at specific user groups but mostly, comes with a business consultancy implementation project that will spend the required time helping you identify your KPIs and guide you using industry expertise and best practices. Nedstat was at Ad-Tech a couple of weeks ago, and has a large number of large and small retail clients such as Zavvi, B&Q, WM Morrisson, Panasonic, ICI etc. If you'd like to discuss further, do get in touch. (sorry for the small pitch but I couldn't not reply to this)