If you're thinking of finally getting an analytics package to help you make sense of your scattered site data, you're in luck as three vendors recently announced new releases and services.
ShopSite, Inc., a provider of e-commerce shopping cart and catalog software for small- to medium-sized businesses, announced the release of its new ShopSite Version 8.2 , adding support for Google Analytics, as well as Sitemaps and Base.
The new version will implement Google Analytics on all generated pages including the shopping cart. Merchants can now easily use Analytics to track visitors and sales flow to learn how they can improve their site and optimize their marketing efforts.
ShopSite now also supports Google Base. With one click a merchant can submit their products to Google Base to make them searchable on both Google and Froogle.
With the new Sitemap support, merchants can automatically create a Sitemap when they publish their store. The Sitemap lets Google know about all store pages, the first step in indexing. The Sitemap standard is also supported by Yahoo and Microsoft.
A Gaggle of Google Support In addition to supporting the above Google services, ShopSite also improved its Google Checkout integration by adding Google Checkout support for real-time shipping quotes from UPS or FedEx.
The upgrade also includes image-management improvements. Within ShopSite the merchant can resize a product image or have ShopSite automatically create thumbnails. Product thumbnail images can also be displayed in the shopping cart and search results pages.
ShopSite is server-based software that works with existing Web browsers, which means that merchants do not need to download or install anything on their desktop in order to create and manage a ShopSite store.
Information Utopia from Infopia Infopia this week also announced the launch of Infopia Analytics, designed to provide merchants with an overview of their business performance across all online channels as well as the ability to make better-informed decisions.
"Without measuring our business performance, we could only guess how well we were doing and what needs to be fixed," said Ted Goudie, owner of Expert Gameroom. "With Infopia Analytics, we have a simple, powerful and effective solution to answer key questions such as: why we are performing at the present level and what needs to be done to improve."
Bjorn Espenes, chief executive officer of Infopia, says the new analytics service will provide concrete benefits, such as increased profitability by focusing on best-selling products, greater operational efficiency by making better-informed decisions and higher customer satisfaction through targeted offers.
Key features of Infopia Analytics include:
Operational Reports: library of reports on operational metrics for listings, products, orders and more.
Performance Analytics: information on current as well as historical profitability and business activity.
Web Site Analytics: complete support for Google's free analytics package.
eBay Market Data: pricing, keyword and category information to enhance your selling strategy with HammerTap's PowerWeb tool.
Mercado Integrates Interface, Information Finally in analytics news, Mercado 4.0 also made its debut. The upgrade automates the integration of analytics, inventory data and customer reviews into merchandising strategies Web shop owners can execute on-the-fly.
One key feature of the upgrade is the interface, which now offers what the company calls a Merchandise Console. Web shop owners can use it to set up automatic product-ranking formulas based on dynamic variables such as inventory levels, conversion rates and product freshness.
Act Now: Big Retailers Slow to Adopt SEO In other e-commerce news, a study released yesterday shows that right now the market is ripe for small e-tailers to take business away from the big players — if they keep their SEO campaigns in top form.
A study by Internet-Engine, an Internet marketing company, involving the three leading search engines — Google, Yahoo and MSN — found that big-box retail sites are represented in only five percent of the searches.
Internet-Engine's findings, which included visiting and categorizing over 2,000 search results, found that consumers were six times more likely to be pointed toward independent or Internet-based retailers than to major brick-and-mortar retailers.
The study analyzed search results for 10 representative categories such as watches, baby strollers, digital cameras, iPods, plasma TVs, power drills and snow blowers, and the poor showing by national retailers was consistent across all categories.
Thom Disch, Founder and CEO of Internet-Engine said, "The data show that the big box stores are not participating in search-marketing programs such as those created by Google or Yahoo. Smaller e-commerce-savvy companies, comparison shopping Web sites and product manufacturers are generating a much greater search presence."
Debra L. Zahay, professor of interactive marketing at Northern Illinois University and Acxiom Corporation said, "Quite often larger companies do not optimize their sites for specific key words, relying more on branding. For example, Wal-Mart consistently ranks high in terms of online retail traffic just by the power of its brand."
As a result of the continuing growth of online sales, the passive approach to search marketing that many national retailers are taking is likely affecting their sales, says Zahay. This may not always be the case, however, so wise Web shop owners should take advantage of this window of opportunity in which to attract and retain new customers.
Cashing In On Valentine's Day Finally, as Cupid prepares to strike, Shopzilla.com released figures from its BizRate Research study comparing gender attitudes and such about Valentine's Day, and regardless of which sex thinks what, it may be useful information you can use in your marketing campaigns.
The report states that "men are going mushy over Valentine's Day." According to the comparison-shopping site's study, "Men are more likely than women to find romance important on Valentine's Day with 83 percent of men thinking this way vs. 77 percent of women. Specifically, more men than women say Valentine's Day is 'very' important to them — 13 percent of men compared to 8 percent of women." The findings are attributed to men "finally getting" Valentine's Day while women, used to years of disappointments, are now "playing it down."
Of course, what's really important to online shop owners is how much money customers are willing to spend. The average person plans to spend $42.31 on Valentine's Day this year, according to the study, while those in domestic partnerships plan to spend the most ($55.94), followed by married people ($47.85) and singles ($34.54).
In its survey in which participants were given a list of choices from which to choose, men favored the following gifts: romantic dinner, 54 percent; tools, 14 percent; massage/spa treatment, 14 percent; sports event tickets, 11 percent; a day with buddies, 4 percent; hunting trip, 3 percent. Women, who were allowed to pick multiple gifts, naturally, tapped the following as favorites: card, 60 percent; romantic dinner, 58 percent; flowers, 51 percent; jewelry, 40 percent; massage/spa, 25 percent.
Michelle Megna is managing editor of ECommerce-Guide.com.
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