Nordstrom is a department store that is known for their impeccable customer service.  In addition to their dedication to customer service in their physical stores, they have also extended to various offshoots of the original department store.  These include their discount store, Nordstrom Rack, and related NordstromRack.com and Hautelook, their online flash sale webpage that requires membership.  This online store offers sales on products for a limited timeframe.  Trunk Club is another Nordstrom related platform, where the items are picked out and shipped to the customer’s door by a personal stylist via a subscription service. 

The Nordstrom Instagram account is set with a separate platform with Like2Buy, where users can click on an item and instantly be linked to purchase the item.  With this technology, it makes the purchase process even easier for customers as they admire an item on Instagram.  It also helps the brand’s SEO with multiple links placed in their social media.

With all these various forms of Nordstrom, the brand is able to build a more robust profile of their customers.  They are able to collect data via the web but also combine it with point of sale systems, social networks and various other shopping tools such as the texting.  They did try an experiment of tracking actual customer movements in their store via the WiFi signals, but that got a generally negative response with people feeling that this tracking was too intrusive. 

One unique use for the data that is collected is a project where program manager for product reviews and ratings at Nordstrom Inc. is leading a team that is analyzing the reviews of products, customer questions, surveys, etc. to look for commonality.  The team is, “trying to tie all of this together to get a better understanding of what our customers are saying -- what are the themes and trends in the areas that are working great and in the areas that aren't working great” (Laskowski, 2014) to benefit the customer.   This proactive research is looking to help customers before they even realize that they need help. 

Sales Associates are also benefitting from the data collection with the ability to build the customer profiles.  A Sales Associate can understand a customer based on their behavior shown by the data from web analytics. 

One issue that many e-commerce pages struggle with is truly tracking the customer as an individual.  For example if a husband and wife share a home computer, they could potentially be tracked as one consumer when in reality they are two completely different consumers.  Having the ability to track these two as separate entities would be helpful to an e-commerce page, specifically one like Nordstrom that sells products for males and females.  Additionally, the knowledge of if a purchase or search is for the customer or for someone else would be helpful.  A consumer may be searching for something as a onetime purchase, but may have other interests.  This onetime purchase and search still counts in a profile for them, but in reality does not reflect their interests.  If web analytics systems could have a way of understanding personal purchases versus purchases for others, this would be helpful. 

References:

5 SEO Tips for 2015. (2015). Retrieved November 21, 2016, from https://www.bigfin.com/blog/5-seo-tips-2015/

Beath, C. M., Ross, J. W. & Sebastian, I. (2015). Why Nordstrom's Digital Strategy Works (and Yours Probably Doesn't). Retrieved November 21, 2016, from https://hbr.org/2015/01/why-nordstroms-digital-strategy-works-and-yours-probably-doesnt

Laskowski, N. (2014). Nordstrom digs into 5-star customer reviews and finds a shipping problem. Retrieved November 21, 2016, from http://searchcio.techtarget.com/feature/Nordstrom-digs-into-5-star-customer-reviews-and-finds-a-shipping-problem

Van Rijmenam, M. (2013). How Fashion Retailer Nordstrom Drives Innovation With Big Data Experiments. Retrieved November 21, 2016, from http://www.smartdatacollective.com/bigdatastartups/140826/how-fashion-retailer-nordstrom-drives-innovation-big-data-experiments

Wolfson, R. (2013). Retailers Using Big Data: The Secret Behind Amazon and Nordstrom’s success. Retrieved November 21, 2016, from http://www.bigdatanews.com/profiles/blogs/retailers-using-big-data-the-secret-behind-amazon-and-nordstrom-s

You have all the information from Google Analytics.  Demographics on your customers’ locations, ages and event interests.  Now what do you do with that information?   You can rewrite content, rework some of the pages, and even choose how you market and what social media platforms.  Now you can even customize your email marketing campaigns for your audience.  MarketTraq is an email marketing system that integrates Google Analytics for customization of email messaging.  Ben Lavely, from Endai, parent company of MarketTraq, has a brief description below:

In his description, Ben explains that while Google Analytics is a great tool for webpage consumer behavior tracking, MarketTraq is able to track customer behavior via email.  Tracking the registration conversation rate for consumers that receive the newsletter after signing up versus those that did not is an example of the information MarketTraq is able to provide according to Ben. 

MarketTraq providers marketers with the ability to customize email copy, subject and images based on Google Analytics.  M-blocks are the “intelligent rules-based dynamic content technologies” (MarketTraq) that allow the system to create the specific content on a per viewer basis.  The marketer is able to create one email, but use the M-blocks to personalize each email based on the user’s specific segments.  This makes the emails relevant to the reader and in theory, increases the chances that the reader may open and react accordingly to the email.  Personalization is key in successful email marketing programs and MarketTraq uses real time API Google Analytics integration to create the pertinent messages.  MarketTraq also tracks all emails and sales with Google Analytics to create a customer history.  Marketers can then use this history in future campaigns for that consumer. 

The system also has its own funnel system, Email Engagement Score, which helps marketers quantify which leads should have higher sales efforts.  This score is measured by consumer reactions to emails sent and subscriber behavior. 

MarketTraq also offers some additional services such as newsletter and survey management.  The system can also manage the mailing list for a company.  With the option for assistance from email marketing experts and support offered 24/7, MarketTraq seeks to provide additional aides for system optimization.   Going beyond the simple customization of emails, MarketTraq collects the information in order to build a database history. MarketTraq’s SitePreserver allows the marketer to email the consumer if the cart is abandoned and remind them that they have potential purchases waiting.  Clients of MarketTraq include WeTv, citi, Ruth Chris Steakhouse and Mitchell’s Fish Market. 

MarketTraq would be helpful for a company that is using Google Analytics and is looking for an email management system.  This systems helps the user translate the findings in Google Analytics into measurable actions while also building a client database based on behavior.  Rather than just seeing the information in the dashboard and perhaps making a few website changes, marketers are able to concentrate that information for an email marketing push.  With the influx of email messaging that consumers receive on a daily basis, it is important for a company’s emails to be meaningful and impactful.  With MarketTraq, companies are able to personalize their email messaging, benefitting both consumer and marketer. 

References:

MarketTraq. Retrieved November 14, 2016, from http://www.markettraq.com/

MarketTraq Email. Retrieved November 14, 2016, from https://www.google.com/analytics/partners/company/6567874860679168/gadp/5693417237512192/app/5766466041282560/listing/5754903989321728

MarketTraq·Email for Google Analytics. (2009). Retrieved November 14, 2016, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7T3ZHzeJqQc

Review of MarketTraq Email. Retrieved November 14, 2016, from http://www.capterra.com/email-marketing-software/spotlight/97808/MarketTraq Email/Endai Worldwide

Is Clicky the way to track?

Clicky is a popular alternative to Google Analytics that has many similar features, but also some unique reporting that sets it apart.  Clicky prides itself on real time analytics on every report that is run.  Similar to Google Analytics, Clicky can provide reporting on various parts of analytics with times and actions for users.  Segmentation of users is available, along with segmentation by multiple variables.  This is helpful for marketers that are looking for common similarities among the brand’s website visitors.  Goals and conversations along with campaign tracking are also available in Click, similar to Google Analytics.  This feature helps with the tracking of campaigns and measurement of webpage successes.  Marketers can also look at multi day tracking in both systems, which helps spot trends in the data over a specific period of time.  One of the other similarities is that both have customizable dashboards for easy marketer use.  These dashboards can be pre-populated to give the important statistics and data at first glance.  While both are free initially, Clicky does have a charge for a webpage over 3,000 views or for any additional webpage.  Additionally, there is a cost for additional features and higher webpage views with Clicky, including options for monthly and yearly plans.  Clicky provides a breakdown of the comparison with Google Analytics on their webpage, a snapshot of which is seen below:

In addition to the features listed above, Clicky also has some additional assets that a marketer could find helpful and insightful.  Clicky’s tracking allows for custom data to be connected to visitors along with historical tracking.  This really creates a detailed profile of the visitor for the marketer.  Another feature of Clicky that marketers may like is that it blocks spam, to ensure that statistics and measurements are accurate with real users.  Additionally, Clicky features heatmaps tracking user sessions for those that complete a goal.  These heatmaps help Clicky users understand their visitor’s path through the webpage for individual visitors as well as a per page view. 

Click also notifies the client when the site is offline for any reason.  This reduces downtime of pages and lost data because of a possible malfunction with the page.  Proactive efforts like this can lead to more accurate data and no loss of revenue.  Clicky can notify the user of a downed page in various manners, with client’s choosing the quickest mode of communication.  In addition to downtime alerts, Clicky informs,”users of specific events, based on triggers, so you never miss out on important information. Triggers include new visitors, goals, campaigns, searches, referrers, IP tags and custom data” (Angeles, 2014), allowing the users to be notified of the events they deem important. 

 Clicky is also very easy to view in mobile form for analytics on the go.  Again, this is mode allows the client to pick and choose the way that they are seeing their analytics and allows them freedom to view their information on different devices.  There are four different mobile apps that can be used for viewing Clicky on the move.  Additionally, Clicky has a few plug-ins for popular blogging platform such as Wordpress.  Many of Clicky’s features such as this are geared towards client convenience.  Clicky seems to be more user focused that Google Analytics which is information focused. 

As with every comparable analytics tool, Clicky has some drawbacks.  The main issue with Clicky is that many of the premium features are additional costs.  Spy, where a marketer can in real time watch people that are on their webpage, is one of these unique features that is an additional cost.  Heatmaps are another innovative feature that are only included in the paid account types.  Custom account aside, the highest cost for Clicky is $159.99 or $19.99 per month for the Pro Platinum account that includes all the features.  Most marketers could find easy justification for this price based on their revenue gained from the analytics insights Clicky provides. 

One feature mentioned is posed as a negative for Google Analytics.  Google Analytics leaves a footprint that can be viewed, “anybody can do a View Page Source from their browser and find out what your GA UA code if you have Google analytics installed” (McFadden 2015).  It would be interesting to test this to see if this is verified.  It would be up for debate if this could be a negative as analytics tracking is generally accepted or understood.  With Google Analytics as the main analytics tracking system, there are many tutorials and guides.  Clicky isn’t as popular so the support material is more limited for this system. 

Overall it is important to research and understand a web analytics system before purchasing.  It may be worth testing one and then testing the other, weighing the pros and cons of each.  This is the best way to understand if the web analytics tool is right for that webpage. 

References:

Angeles, S. (2014). 3 Google Analytics Alternatives (and Why You Should Use Them). Retrieved November 06, 2016, from http://www.businessnewsdaily.com/6090-google-analytics-alternatives.html

Clicky. Retrieved November 06, 2016, from https://clicky.com/

Connell, A. (2015). 8 Google Analytics Alternatives. Retrieved November 06, 2016, from https://www.searchenginejournal.com/9-google-analytics-alternatives/92071/

McFadden, K. (2015). Why I use Clicky Instead of Google Analytics. Retrieved November 06, 2016, from http://smartbusinesstrends.com/clicky-review/