From Carting To Purchasing: Tracking Product Journey

Tracking Product Journey
from Carting to Purchasing

15 SECRETS TO PERFECTING YOUR ONLINE STORE
Allaedin Ezzedin
Tracking Product Journey From Carting to Purchasing |1

Table of Contents
Introduction 3
From Viewing to Carting (Marketing KPIs) 5
1 Product Pages Exposure 6
2 Product Rating and Review 9
3 On-site Social Interactions: (Pins, Tweets, Likes, Google+1) 10
4 Add to Cart 12
5 Unsuccessful Add to Cart 13
From Carting to Buying (Merchandising KPIs) 14

6 Conversion Rate 16
7 Conversion Duration 18
8 Cart Item Removal 21
9 Coupon and Promotional Codes 22
10 Payment Method 23
From Buying to Buying More (Loyalty KPIs) 24

PLATINUM
MEMBER
11 Measuring Buyers’ Engagement Over Time 24

12 Measuring Buyers’ Engagement Based on Number of Purchases 26
13 Measuring Buyers’ Engagement Based on Their Spending 28
14 Measuring Buyers’ Engagement Based on Their Gender and Age 30
15 Measuring Buyers’ Engagement Based on Their Visit Intent 32
Final Thoughts #1: Multi-Tiered Segmentation 34

Final Thoughts #2: Tracking Users Across Devices 36
Final Thoughts #3: Multi-Channel Attribution 37
Take Home Action Items 40
i About 41

Introduction
Getting customers through your website’s metaphorical doors is a tough mission! But
keeping those visitors engaged once they’re on your site is an even tougher challenge.
How do you leap these hurdles and create a site that customers both enjoy visiting and
want to keep coming back to? This is a question all marketers and web analysts would
LOVE to know the answer to. Unfortunately, it isn’t something that is easily determined
with a one-size-fits-all answer.
Whether you are the CEO of walmart.com or the owner of a small ecommerce site,
we all have similar expectations of our online store: convert visitors into buyers, and
then turn those customers into repeat buyers who will then advocate for your brand.
This is done by digging deep into your visitor’s behavior and customer’s buying habits
through gathering specific data at given touch points within your website known as Key
Performance Indicators (KPIs). And while these ecommerce KPIs may vary based on the
complexity of your business model and targeted audience, many KPIs are universal for
most ecommerce businesses. These KPIs are the focus of this eBook.
Online stores are product-centric, and the success of these sites is dependent on
maximizing the category and product page exposure, number of social shares, number
of product purchases and the selling price.
In this eBook, we will be constructing a comprehensive product and ecommerce report

covering all needed details about the performance of product pages, and how to use
some of the obvious (and less obvious) tracked metrics to make concrete decisions to
optimize the product pages’ and the ecommerce funnel’s effectiveness.

This eBook will cover:
√√ The top engagement metrics for each step of the purchasing cycle
VIEWING TO CARTING CARTING TO BUYING BUYING TO BUYING MORE
√√ How to architect and implement a measurement solution using Google

Analytics as a measurement platform.
√√ How to analyze the data collected for the different users’ segments.
√√ This eBook also can be used as an unofficial guide to a best practice

implementation of Google’s Universal Analytics.
Disclaimer:
1. Timberland (up to the time of writing this eBook) is not a client of my analytics
consulting agency and is being used as a case study.
2. Data used in this eBook is sanitized data.
3. For technical people: All tracking code shared in this eBook is using the newest
Universal Analytics JavaScript snippet, which is a new way to measure how users
interact with websites. It is similar to the legacy Google Analytics tracking code,
ga.js, but offers more flexibility for developers to customize their implementations.
4. The tracking code snippets provided in this document are meant for website
tracking. Same concepts are applicable to mobile apps tracking. Use the Google
Analytics SDK for Android or iOS to implement the proper syntax.
5. Installing Universal Analytics via Google Tag Manager is an ideal way to implement,
as making changes in the future will be much easier.

STEP 1:
From Viewing to Carting

(Marketing KPIs)
Measuring visitors’ interaction with our product-detail pages is very crucial for site
optimization purposes and bottom-line ROI. It is an important step towards understanding
the true value of our visitors and their behavior.
While any interaction with the product pages up to adding items to cart are considered
micro-conversions, we have to remember that these interactions are the prerequisites
for any macro conversion (e.g. sales) and in most cases will lead to more product
exposure and revenue.
The engagement metrics for the product-detail pages include, but are not limited to:
• Product Pages Exposure

• Product Rating and Review
• On-site Social Interactions: (Pins, Tweets, Facebook Likes, Google Pluses)
• Add to Cart
• Unsuccessful Add to Cart
• Content Depth
• Time on Page
So let’s now go into detail on how you can track a few of the above KPIs in Google
Analytics (GA):

Secret #1: Product Pages Exposure
Looking at the number of page views for product-detail pages may not add real value
if looked at in isolation of other metrics, but your analysis will be incomplete if you
don’t have these numbers handy in your dashboards. Measuring product-detail pages
exposure help answer questions like: How many times have product-detail pages served
as landing pages? Which products are causing visitors to bounce or leave the store?
Which products are viewed the most? Which product lines have more social shares?
Which product categories have the highest conversion rate and which ones generate
the highest revenue? Which product lines within the Men’s and Women’s departments
should we invest in more?
Since our example in this eBook is timberland.com and it sells clothing, footwear and
accessories for men, women and kids, all product-detail pages will be associated with
these three categories as seen here:

Measurement Strategy:
To track product-detail pages and their categories, we will fire a Google Analytics event hit
for each product view and fire multiple Content Grouping hits for the product categories.
Tracking Method: Event + Content Grouping

Event Category: Product Detail Page
Event Action: View
Event Label: <Product Name>
Content grouping 1: <Shop For>
Content grouping 2: <Department>
Content grouping 3: <Product Line>
Examples:
URL: http://shop.timberland.com/product/index.jsp?productId=12310017
Product Name: Men’s Earthkeepers® City Premium Chukka Boot
Event: Product Detail Page | View | Mens Earthkeepers City Premium Chukka Boot
Content Groups: Men >> Footwear >> Boots

Product Name: Women’s Earthkeepers® Wool Pant
Event: Product Detail Page | View | Womens Earthkeepers Wool Pant
Content Groups: Women >> Clothing >> Pants
Product Name: Kids’ Cooling Crew Sock 2-Pack
Event: Product Detail Page | View | Kids Cooling Crew Sock 2-Pack
Content Groups: Kids >> Accessories >> Socks
Sample Code:
</>
ga('set', 'contentGroup1', 'Men');
ga('set', 'contentGroup2', 'Footwear');
ga('set', 'contentGroup3', 'Boots');
ga('send', 'event', 'Product Detail Page', 'View', 'Mens Earthkeepers City
Premium Chukka Boot');
Note: Before you can send Content Groups values to Google Analytics, they must first be
defined in a Google Analytics View (Profile).

Secret #2: Product Rating and Review
Many online shoppers value what others say about the products they are interested in.
It is very common these days to see even offline shoppers walking into Costco, Macy’s or
BestBuy and check online ratings and reviews on products before they buy.
Effectively listening to user-generated content and marrying their feedback with analytics
data is an amazing combination to get the complete picture about the performance of
our product-detail pages and their impact on the purchase cycle.
How to Track Product Rating in Google Analytics

Tracking Method: Event
Event Action: Product Rating
Event Value: <Product Rating>
Sample Code:
</>
ga('send', 'event', 'Product Detail Page', 'Product Rating', 'Womens
Winter Leaf Beanie', 5);

Secret #3: On-site Social Interactions (Pins,
Tweets, Likes, Google +1)
Over the past decade, the use of social media has grown rapidly within the enterprise.
However in most cases social media activities remain isolated from other website data,
which resulted in missing out on the most accurate and detailed picture of customers.
In this eBook, let’s limit our focus to tracking clicks on the social media buttons located
on the product-detail pages, which will allow us to answer questions like: Which segment
of our visitors are more socially engaged? How much love are they bringing back? Which
product lines are shared the most? Which social media we need to invest more in?
How to Track Social Interaction in Google Analytics

Out of the box, GA provides integrated reporting for the Google +1 button. To get social
interaction data for other networks like Facebook, Pinterest or Twitter, we need to
integrate Google Analytics with each network’s social sharing button.
To set up tracking for social interactions, you need to use the _trackSocial method, which
sends social interaction data to Google Analytics. The method should be called once a
user has completed a social interaction. Each social network uses a different mechanism
to determine when the social interaction occurs and this typically requires integrating
with the API for that network’s social sharing button.
Tracking Method: Social

Social Network: Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, …
Social Action: Like, Tweet, Pin, …
Target: <Product Name>

Sample Code:
</>
ga('send', 'social', 'facebook', 'like', 'Mens Cable-Knit Beanie');
ga('send', 'social', 'twitter', 'tweet', 'Womens Earthkeepers Wool Pant');
ga('send', 'social', 'Pinterest', 'Pin', 'Kids Cooling Crew Sock 2-Pack');

Secret #4: Add to Cart
This is the most important user interaction
in the product-detail pages. Obviously, if
users do not add items to the shopping
basket, they will not purchase! Therefore,
tracking users’ interaction with this lovely
button is a must. As you know, analytics
tools do not automatically track clicks on
the Add to Cart buttons unless the link
goes to a unique URL or the button itself is
tagged with tracking code.
If your Add to Cart button doesn’t link to

a unique page, but rather launches an
overlay instead, then you need to fire
an event or a virtual pageview to Google
Analytics indicating that the user clicked on
the button.
How to Track Add-to-Cart in Google Analytics

Event Action: Add to Cart
Sample Code:
</>
ga('send', 'event', 'Product Detail Page', 'Add to Cart', 'Women’s Winter
Leaf Beanie');

Secret #5: Unsuccessful Add to Cart
Some products on timberland.com require
selecting color, size, and quantity before
proceeding into the purchase process. This
could be a possible cause of abandonment,
In this case, I would suggest firing an event
to Google Analytics when an error message
is presented to the visitors informing them
about the missing information.
How to Track Add-to-Cart in Google Analytics

Event Action: Unsuccessful Add to Cart
Sample Code:
</>
ga('send', 'event', 'Product Detail Page', 'Unsuccessful Add to Cart',
'Women’s Winter Leaf Beanie');

STEP 2:
From Carting to Buying

(Merchandising KPIs)
I don’t want to put too much pressure on you here, but the failure of completing
conversions after this point is all yours! For one reason or another, the shopper trusted
your products and dropped few items in the shopping cart and your job now is to keep
every single item inside the cart until they have successfully checked out. Measuring
the shoppers’ behavior and experience during the checkout funnel is very important
to understand. And examining issues such as why some visitors abandon the funnel,
reduce the number of items in the cart, or add more items to their original intended list
can be beneficial data.

Unlike the previous step of the purchasing cycle where we were tracking micro-
conversions, in this step we are going to study the user behavior and experience while
purchasing, which is our macro-conversion.
The KPIs and engagement metrics for this step may include, but are not limited to:
• Shopping Cart Abandonment Rate

• Conversion Rate
• Conversion Duration
• Average Order Value
• Related-Items Performance
• Product Affinity (which products are purchased together)
• Payment Methods
• Shipping Method
• Gift Registry
• Promotion Coupons
Here is how we suggest tracking a few of the above KPIs in Google Analytics:

Secret #6: Conversion Rate
No matter what some may say about this metric, I always say the Conversion Rate is
the most basic, yet most important ecommerce metric to look at. This metric gives a
wonderful performance overview of your store over time. It is an easy metric to share,
and is understood by everyone within the organization. For example, our site was visited
by a hundred people who came after seeing a paid banner on cnn.com and three of
them converted. The conversion rate for that day is 3%. It can’t get any simpler than that!
Be sure to always keep in mind the Conversion Rate metric assumes that every transaction
is of the same value. Therefore, an improved conversion rate may just mean more lower
revenue transactions due to targeting lower value customers.
In Google Analytics, Conversion Rate is one of the standard metrics, and is available
across almost all reports. You just need to ensure that the ecommerce code is fired
properly in all receipt/thank you pages.

Sample E-Commerce Code:
</>
ga('require', 'ecommerce', 'ecommerce.js');
ga('ecommerce:addTransaction', {
'id': '1234567', // Transaction ID. Required.
'affiliation': 'Online Store', // Affiliation or store name.
'revenue': '438.00', // Grand Total.
'shipping': '13.95', // Shipping.
'tax': '1.29' // Tax.
});
ga('ecommerce:addItem', {
'name': 'Men’s Earthkeepers City Premium Chukka Boot', // Product name. Required.
'sku': '5321R', // SKU/code.
'category': 'Men’s Footwear', // Category or variation.
'price': '185.00', // Unit price.
'quantity': '2' // Quantity.
});
ga('ecommerce:addItem', {
'name': 'Women’s Long Sleeve Flower Pattern Shirt', // Product name. Required.
'sku': '5207J', // SKU/code.
'category': 'Women’s Clothing', // Category or variation.
'price': '68.00', // Unit price.
'quantity': '1' // Quantity.
});
ga('ecommerce:send');

Secret #7: Conversion Duration
This metric is one of the KPIs that not many marketers or web analysts know about, let
alone look at. Yet it is a very important report that web analytics ninjas need to have in
order to accurately optimize the conversion funnel based on visitor’s experience and
behavior.
I define the Conversion Duration metric as, “The time is takes a user to complete a
purchase or a Goal from a defined starting event.”
In this eBook, let’s measure two conversion durations for our visitors. The first one I call
“Micro Conversion Duration,” which is the time that users take from landing at the site
to adding the first item into the shopping cart/basket. The second duration is Macro
Conversion Duration, which represents the time users take from landing at the site to
making a purchase.
How to Track the Conversion Duration in Google Analytics

While there are various ways to report the calculated metric to GA, we will use the
relatively new feature, User Timings, to pass the period of time spent in the conversion.

The easiest way to implement this is to create a timestamp at the landing page, and
second when users add an item to the cart for the first time, then create a third
timestamp at the completion of the purchase. Finally, calculate the time delta between
each timestamps and pass it to GA.
Here’s the process:

i. Create a timestamp at the landing page.
t1 = new Date().getTime();
ii. Save the timestamp in the cookies or in the backend.
iii. Create a timestamp at the add-to-cart confirmation page.

iv. Save the timestamp in the cookies or in the backend.
v. Create a timestamp at the end of the conversion.

vi. Calculate the time duration between t1 and t2 and between t1 and t3. (In GA the
time difference between the two timestamps is in milliseconds)
vii. Micro Conversion Duration = timeSpent1 = (t2 – t1)

Macro Conversion Duration = timeSpent2 = (t3 – t1)
viii. Fire the Google Analytics Timing method to track the conversion duration in
GA. (Read more here about Timing https://developers.google.com/analytics/
devguides/collection/analyticsjs/user-timings)
</>
ga('send', 'timing', 'Micro Conversion Duration', 'Add to Cart',
timeSpent1, 'Men’s Earthkeepers City Premium Chukka Boot');
ga('send', 'timing', 'Macro Conversion Duration', 'Product Purchase',

timeSpent2, 'Men’s Earthkeepers City Premium Chukka Boot');

Once this data is collected, the report will consist of the Conversion Duration metrics as
well as the number of Conversions, as seen below.
Go to Content > Site Speed > User Timings to see your data.

Secret #8: Cart Item Removal
As much as we get excited about products that are successfully added to the cart, it’s
also important to monitor those products that are being removed before purchase
completion. If you start seeing a lot of cart removals of a particular item, then maybe
it’s time to reconsider pricing, start a remarketing campaign offering discounts or send
follow-up emails with a promotion to shoppers who didn’t complete the purchase of
that item.
Similar to what we did above for the Add to Cart action, let’s also fire an event to Google
Analytics when users click on the “Remove Item” button in the shopping cart by following
the steps below.
How to Track Remove Item in Google Analytics

Event Category: Shopping Cart
Event Action: Remove Item
Sample Code:
</>
ga('send', 'event', 'Shopping Cart', 'Remove Item', 'Women’s Winter
Leaf Beanie');

Secret #9: Coupon and Promotional Codes
There are a lot of opinions in the industry about whether to include or not to include the
Promotional Code box on the shopping cart page. I personally feel that this box has the
potential of increasing the cart abandonment rate because visitors who don’t have the
promotional code could leave the site to search for one and get distracted in the process
to never come back.
Gut feelings are sometimes one of the best sources of insights for business and for
life, but when it comes to website optimization I like to combine my gut feeling with
data. So let us track the impact of this box on conversion, meanwhile asking certain
questions along the way: Do visitors abandon the process if the promo code didn’t go
through? Which promo code is generating more sales? Is there any impact on revenue
and average order value for purchases with coupons applied verses those without?
How to Track “Successful” and “Failed” Promotional Codes

Apply in Google Analytics
Event Category: Promotional Code
Event Action: Applied
Event Label: <Promotion Name>

Event Category: Promotional Code
Event Action: Failed
Event Label: <Promotion Name>
Sample Code:
</>
ga('send', 'event', 'Promotional Code', 'Applied', 'mothersday2013');
ga('send', 'event', 'Promotional Code', 'Failed', 'mothersday2013');

Secret #10: Payment Method
When you ask your customers to pay online, the payment methods you offer can make
a big difference on the order-closing rate and/or the average order value. Tracking the
payment methods will help us answer questions like: Is there a difference in buying
behavior between consumers who pay with credit cards verses those who pay with
Google Wallet or PayPal? Do buyers who use American Express credit cards spend more
dollars than the ones who pay using Visa? Do visitors who pay using gift cards or store
credits likely to buy more than the available credit?
How to track Payment Method in Google Analytics

Event Category: Payment Method
Event Action: <payment method> (i.e. Credit Card, PayPal, Gift Card, Store Credit…)
Event Label: <Card Name> (i.e. Visa, Master Card, American Express,…)
Event Value: <Order Total> (i.e. 340 for $340.00)
Sample Code:
</>
ga('send', 'event', 'Payment Method', 'Credit Card', 'Visa', '340');

STEP 3:
INUM
From Buying To Buying

PLAT BER
M E M
More (Loyalty KPIs)
Many marketers and web analysts usually stop tracking their visitors once they finalize
their purchase because the ultimate goal of tracking conversions was achieved. True
data ninjas, on the other hand, look at the picture differently! Their interest is always on
people and the relationship their online clients has just started.
The engagement metrics for this step may include, but are not limited to:
Secret #11: Measuring Buyers’ Engagement

Over Time (Cohort Analysis)
One issue we may face with the metrics measured so far is the inability to distinguish
between growth metrics and engagement metrics.
Think about this scenario:
If we’re continuously gaining a lot of new buyers, I can argue that our engagement
numbers will always look positive because those new buyers may stay highly engaged
with our website during their very first purchasing visits. They may view many product
pages, add multiple items to the cart, share items with their social media followers and
buy products. If we just look at the engagement numbers then we would think that we
are doing great and our site is very engaging.
However, our buyers may stop being engaged with our site or buying again from our
store for any number of reasons: not happy with our services, got what they are looking

for, they are not into leaving feedback and rating products after purchasing, already
shared their favorite products with all their social media friends, etc.
As you see, the lack of continued engagement of these one-time buyers is being hidden
by the high numbers of new buyers.
Potential solution in this situation:

Group buyers based on their purchasing date. The visitors who bought in March make
up the March cohort, the visitors who bought in August make up the August cohort,
and so on. We then investigate how each cohort stays engaged with our site over time,
comparing the cohorts against each other to make sure that the online shoppers, for
example, who bought in December are more engaged than those who bought in January.
In order to track the above KPI, we will set a custom dimension for every purchase with
two values: the purchase date and the purchase count.
Configuration:
The Day of Purchase custom dimension is defined in the property settings section of the
web interface with these values:
Index: 1
Name: Day of Purchase
Scope: Session
State: Active
Sample Code:
</>
ga('set', 'dimension1', '20131226');
The third string parameter is the purchase date. In the above configuration, the visitor
successfully confirmed the transaction on December 26th, 2013.

Based on the Number of Their Purchases
(Life Time Value)
Analyzing the users’ behavior based on their level of loyalty (frequency of their purchase)
is another distinguishing factor between great analysts and mediocre analysts. Similar to
what we did in the last section, let’s segment our buyers based on the number of times
they bought from our store. Those who bought 3 times will make up the “3 purchases”
cohort, and those who bought 7 times will make up the “7 purchases” cohort and so on.
Now we can see how each cohort is performing. Which campaign brought more of the
second time buyers? Which visitors’ segment is more active in sharing our products in
social sites? What is the email click rate for the visitors who bought more than 10 times?
Etc.
In order to track the above KPI, we will set a custom dimension for every purchase. The
purchase count value has to be read from the backend (User’s Profile/Account) during
the order confirmation process and get passed to GA through this code. We will set the
value of the custom dimension at the User level to ensure grouping all of the user’s
component sessions and hits together.
Note: The value of the User-Level custom dimension will be applied to all user activities
in current and future sessions, until the Number of Purchases value changes by a new
purchase.
Configuration
The Number of Purchases custom dimension is defined in the property settings section
of the web interface with these values:
Index: 2
Name: Numbers of Purchases
Scope: User
State: Active

Sample Code:
</>
ga('set', 'dimension2', '8');
The third string parameter is the Number of Purchases. The visitor in the above example
purchased 8 times from our store.

Based on Their Spending
We all love big spenders! But in the long run, how do we know the real value of our
visitors and their contribution to the success of our business? Again, if our focus is just to
measure pure conversions, then we really don’t need to go any further. But if our focus
is to measure the lifetime value of our clients and analyze who is really bringing more
business to us, then we need to look at our data differently.
If you divide your clients’ demographics into three different sets of customers base on
their order value: Big Spenders, Average Spenders, and Small Spenders, then you can
truly know over time who is bringing more business than others.
By looking at data within these three segments, you can easily determine the referring
sites that are sending us lots of big spenders, or discover that the Defection Rate among
the average spenders is very low or that most of our big spenders fall under the one-
time buyers or that the big spenders’ cost of acquisition is very high. You might also
discover that small spenders not only have a very good Retention Rate, but overtime
they convert to big spenders and so on.
For these reasons and more, you need to learn more about our favorite spending cohort,
where they’re coming from and how they behave on our site. Once you know where
they come from, adjust and optimize the marketing budget to attract more of them. And
once you know how these customers interact with the site, you can update and enhance
the content to meet their needs.
So How Can This Be Done in Google Analytics?

Similarly to what we did for the last two KPIs, we will set a custom dimension for every
purchase. This time we will pass the User Type to GA during the order confirmation
process. Set the value of the custom dimension at the User Level to ensure grouping
all of the user’s component sessions and hits together. As mentioned before, the value
of the User-Level custom dimension will be applied to all user activities in current and
future sessions, until the User Type value changes by a new purchase.

Configuration:
The User Type custom dimension is defined in the property settings section of the web
interface with these values:
Index: 3
Name: User Type
Scope: User
State: Active
Sample Code:
</>
ga('set', 'dimension3', 'Big Spender');
The third string parameter is the User Type (i.e. Big Spender, Average Spender, Small
Spender)

Based on Their Gender and Age
As visitors interact with your website, tag them with different labels based on some
personal unidentifiable information. At the visitor level, you can set custom dimensions
to segment visits based on values that visitors voluntarily enter in the “gender” and “age”
fields of the account registration form and/or the purchase form.
These custom dimensions will remain attached to the visitors for future visits starting
from the visit in which they filled the form, until they clear their cookies.
Setting the value of “gender” and “age”:

1. Add custom code that takes the gender and age values from the registration form.
2. Pass the two values to the registration confirmation page
3. In the registration confirmation page, add the following code:
</>
ga('set', 'dimension4', 'female');
ga('set', 'dimension5', '30');
Note: If you choose to support DoubleClick Display Advertising, then Google Analytics
by default will present your users’ demographics (age, gender) data under the Audience
section as well as in custom reports

To make data available in GA, you need to:
• Make a one-line change to your tracking code
• Set the enabling options in analytics
• Update privacy policy

Based on Their Visit Intent
I strongly believe that visit intent is the most important segmentation in digital
analytics. That is because we cannot accurately measure and optimize our online store
performance without knowing who is visiting and why they are visiting. Unlike all visitor-
type segmentations that we discussed so far, behavioral or visit-intent segmentations
are not easy to track and measure as they require complex tools and techniques.
Here are few reasons why Timberland visitors may visit the site:
• Buy gift cards

• Buy apparel
• Return an item
• Check order status
• Check gift card balance
• Allocate the nearest Timberland store
• Find the customer service telephone number
• Search for a career at Timberland
How We Track Visit Intent in Google Analytics

Set a custom dimension once we get a clear indication about the visitor’s visit intent.
Configuration:
The Visit Type custom dimension is defined in the property settings section of the web
interface with these values:
Index: 6
Name: Visit Type
Scope: Session
State: Active

Sample Code:
</>
ga('set', 'dimension6', 'Check Order Status');

FINAL THOUGHTS 1:
Multi-Tiered
Segmentation
Now as we have all KPIs needed to start our analysis, I have to caution you that it’s very
dangerous and misleading to look at these KPIs at the site-wide level. In the last section,
you may have noticed, I focused on creating some visitor-level segmentation that we
can use to help us massage our data and read our KPIs accurately.
What is wrong with looking at KPIs at the site-wide level?

Think about this scenario:
If I tell you that the performance of the past Thanksgiving campaign for your online
store is as following:
• Funnel Abandonment Rate: 85%

• Conversion Rate: < 0.5%
• Average order value: $9
You might immediately - after waking up from your heart attack - fire your entire web
team and make executive orders to change the funnel flow and redesign the whole web
store.
But wait!
Let’s apply some segmentation to the above numbers:
• Funnel Abandonment Rate for US visitors is 15%

• Funnel Abandonment Rate for UK visitors is 65%

• Conversion Rate for US visitors is 2.5%
• Conversion Rate for Brazil visitors is 0.3%
• Average order value for first time US buyers is $65
• Average order value for organic search visitors with keyword == “Timberland
return policy” is $5
Hmmmm… now, I think you’re not only considering not firing your web and marketing
teams, but rather sending them to Hawaii for a vacation!
By applying few basic segments, we just found out that our target audience actually
reacted very well to the Thanksgiving campaign and their performance was beyond our
initial expectations.
So before we start laying down the foundations of our analytics framework and deciding
on the KPIs, we need to think about business objectives, who is visiting our site and why
they are visiting us. Once we do that and we do it right, KPIs will be generated based on
real business needs and the data collected will be more actionable and insightful.

FINAL THOUGHTS 2:
Tracking Users Across

Devices
Today, we live in a multi-device world. A typical user nowadays interacts with our online
store using multiple platforms. It is increasingly common for users to view and talk about
our products and services on smart phones and/or tablets, and then make their final
purchase on laptops and/or desktops.
Tracking and understanding the customer’s

journey towards conversion across
multiple devices is another important step
to make the most accurate and effective
marketing and optimization decisions.
With the new Google Universal Analytics,

and its revolutionary shift from visit-centric
analytics to visitor-centric analytics, we
are now able to track customer uniquely
as they engage with our web properties
across various machines.
In technical terms, Universal Analytics allows us to stitch together all sessions that belong
to a single user. Logged-in visitors will no longer receive new cookies for their visits on
different platforms, but only one. All activities will be attached to a unique visitor ID and
the end result is that we see one user using multiple devices and making a purchase.

FINAL THOUGHTS 3:
Multi-Channel Attribution
Web analytics tools, by default, use the “last touch” attribution model to assign credit for
conversions and ecommerce transactions, which means only the last point of interaction
prior to conversion will be granted the credit for conversion.
I know you are not naive to believe that all your August conversions are coming from the
“Back to School” email blast that you sent last month, but your email marketing agency
or your affiliate agency might want you to believe so and provide you with one-side-of-
the-story reports to support their claims.
In order to be able to optimize campaign effectiveness, and accurately calculate return

on investment across channels, we have to look deeply at the various marketing channels
and how they work together to create sales and conversions.
GA’s Multi-Channel Funnels reports answer these business needs in a very simple
way by showing how marketing channels interact with each other. It gives a complete
picture of how our visitors interact with the different marketing campaigns prior to their
conversion visit.
The real value of the Multi-Channel Funnels report will only be achieved on if all marketing
campaigns are tagged. Google Analytics allows pushing campaign-identifying information
by adding tags to the end of the marketing destination URLs. Tags are variables that
contain campaign information. For example, ‘utm_medium=social’ identifies a social

media channel and ‘utm_campaign=back-to-school-2013’ identifies the Back to School
campaign for 2013.
Setting up campaign tags doesn’t require any modifications to the tracking code. They
can be set up manually or by using a tool such as CampaignAlyzer to help append URL
variables.
CampaignAlyzer is a web-based application that acts as a central repository platform

where organizations that are using Google Analytics can store their marketing campaign
values in one database. Marketing agencies and digital marketers across an organization
would have the ability to collaborate in tagging various online and offline campaigns,
and ensure consistency in their campaign tagging.
Example:
Tagging a social update on Facebook for the
2014 “father’s day” campaign:
1. Enter the following variables into the

URL builder:
Destination URL: http://

shop.timberland.com/
product/?productId=15261456
Campaign Source: facebook
Campaign Medium: social
Campaign Name: fathers-day-2014
2. Use the generated link URL in your

Facebook ad:
http://shop.timberland.com/category/index.
jsp?categoryId=4278570&utm_source=facebook&utm_
medium=social&utm_campaign=fathers-day-2014

In Conclusion
We have covered the effective metrics to track data for an ecommerce website. All that
is left to be done now is to aggregate all that data into a comprehensive report.
Now, the top engagement metrics can be taken in at a glance!
PRODUCT Micro Conversions

Name Department Product Views Add to Like Tweet Pin It Average
Cart Rates
Men’s Lightweight Quilted Jacket Men | Clothing | Outerwear 27841 1413 2804 124 14 4
Women’s Earthkeepers® Quilted Vest Women | Clothing | Outerwear 24553 1794 3112 187 5586 3
Women’s Winter Leaf Beanie Women | Accessories | Hats & Scarves 24397 1677 3527 551 3547 4
Junior Mukluk Waterproof Tall Lace Boot Kids | Footwear | Boots 24308 991 900 125 256 5
Men’s Classic Cargo Pant Men | Clothing | Pants 22173 1485 1998 88 212 5
Men’s Falmouth Vintage Plaid Shirt Men | Clothing | Shirts 21804 764 2458 112 787 3
Earthkeepers™ Sonya Small Wallet Women | Accessories | Wallets 21142 1883 4021 450 4563 4
Men’s Half-Button Wool Sweater Men | Clothing | Sweaters 19839 1457 2273 254 425 3
Earthkeepers™ Pathrock 23L Daypack Men | Accessories | Backpacks 18550 1249 2137 304 74 2
Women’s SmartWool® Warm Hat Women | Accessories | Hats & Scarves 17991 911 3824 1241 2936 4
Women’s SmartWool® Star Garnet Gaiter Women | Accessories | Hats & Scarves 17423 1124 1926 45 783 3
PRODUCT Macro Conversions

Name Department Orders Average P r o d u c t P r o d u c t Conversion
Qty Price Revenue Rate
Men’s Lightweight Quilted Jacket Men | Clothing | Outerwear 780 1.2 $128.00 $119,808.00 2.80%
Women’s Earthkeepers® Quilted Vest Women | Clothing | Outerwear 882 1 $98.00 $86,436.00 3.59%
Women’s Winter Leaf Beanie Women | Accessories | Hats & Scarves 640 1 $30.00 $19,200.00 2.62%
Junior Mukluk Waterproof Tall Lace Boot Kids | Footwear | Boots 426 1 $85.00 $36,210.00 1.75%
Men’s Classic Cargo Pant Men | Clothing | Pants 550 1 $65.00 $35,750.00 2.48%
Men’s Falmouth Vintage Plaid Shirt Men | Clothing | Shirts 660 1.2 $64.50 $51,084.00 3.03%
Earthkeepers™ Sonya Small Wallet Women | Accessories | Wallets 333 1 $105.00 $34,965.00 1.58%
Men’s Half-Button Wool Sweater Men | Clothing | Sweaters 927 1 $108.00 $100,116.00 4.67%
Earthkeepers™ Pathrock 23L Daypack Men | Accessories | Backpacks 874 1.3 $90.00 $102,258.00 4.71%
Women’s SmartWool® Warm Hat Women | Accessories | Hats & Scarves 774 1 $32.00 $24,768.00 4.30%
Women’s SmartWool® Star Garnet Gaiter Women | Accessories | Hats & Scarves 698 1 $40.00 $27,920.00 4.01%

TAKE HOME:
Action Items
Executives:
Hire great digital analysts. They are the main ingredient for success.
Digital Analysts:
The days of site-wide level KPIs, treating all site visitors as being homogenous, single
marketing campaign attribution, one-size-fits-all approach, and visit-centric analytics
are in the past.
Today’s digital analytics requires smart analysts who know how to:
• Integrate KPIs into their company’s strategy

• Segment and create different personas for the site’s visitors
• Track users across devices and across marketing channels
• Track and measure buyers’ engagement over time and based on their visit intent
Solution Architects:
Bridging the gap between business requirements and technical capabilities is a tough
job, as measurement technologies and analytics tools keep evolving everyday. It is
important that Solution Architects and Technical Analysts stay at the cutting edge of
the analytics technologies. They need to move beyond tracking clicks within isolated
sessions to tracking visitors’ behavior across sessions and platforms.

About
About Allaedin Ezzedin
i
Allaedin Ezzedin is the analytics manager at E-Nor Inc., an
online marketing consultant, blogger and the founder of
CampaignAlyzer. He has a passion for bridging the gap between
business objectives/goals and web analytics solutions.
Allaedin works with organizations to architect and develop

strategies for successful digital marketing optimization, and
helps clients integrate web analytics into their decision making processes. Allaedin holds
a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Engineering from San Jose State University
and is a Certified Web Analyst by the Digital Analytics Association (DAA).
About E-Nor
E-Nor, Inc. is a leading digital analytics and marketing optimization consulting firm
headquartered in the heart of the Silicon Valley in Santa Clara, with offices in Los
Angeles, Dallas, Tampa, NYC and Brussels. E-Nor’s clients include Fortune 500, as well as
those aspiring to establish a data-driven culture. E-Nor leverages its time-tested digital
analytics optimization framework to bring actionable insights to some of the world’s
most recognized brands including Sony, SanDisk, MIT, eBay, and more.
E-Nor was founded in 2003, and has achieved multiple Google certifications including
Google Analytics Premium Authorized Reseller and Google Analytics Certified Partner.
E-Nor is a Premier Corporate Sponsor of the Digital Analytics Association. Many of
E-Nor’s consultants are frequent speakers at leading industry conferences and publish
regularly on www.e-nor.com/blog as well as leading industry publications.
© Copyright E-Nor Inc. 2014. All rights reserved.
3000 Scott Blvd, Suite 216, Santa Clara, CA 95054 U.S.A.

http://www.e-nor.com

From Carting To Purchasing: Tracking Product Journey

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Tracking Product Journey

from Carting to Purchasing

Tracking Product Journey From Carting to Purchasing |1

From Carting to Buying (Merchandising KPIs) 14

From Buying to Buying More (Loyalty KPIs) 24

11 Measuring Buyers’ Engagement Over Time 24

Final Thoughts #1: Multi-Tiered Segmentation 34

Tracking Product Journey From Carting to Purchasing |2

In this eBook, we will be constructing a comprehensive product and ecommerce report

Tracking Product Journey From Carting to Purchasing |3

VIEWING TO CARTING CARTING TO BUYING BUYING TO BUYING MORE

√√ How to architect and implement a measurement solution using Google

√√ This eBook also can be used as an unofficial guide to a best practice

2. Data used in this eBook is sanitized data.

Tracking Product Journey From Carting to Purchasing |4

From Viewing to Carting

• Product Pages Exposure

Tracking Product Journey From Carting to Purchasing |5

Tracking Product Journey From Carting to Purchasing |6

Tracking Method: Event + Content Grouping

Tracking Product Journey From Carting to Purchasing |7

Tracking Product Journey From Carting to Purchasing |8

How to Track Product Rating in Google Analytics

Tracking Product Journey From Carting to Purchasing |9

How to Track Social Interaction in Google Analytics

Tracking Method: Social

Tracking Product Journey From Carting to Purchasing |10

Tracking Product Journey From Carting to Purchasing |11

If your Add to Cart button doesn’t link to

How to Track Add-to-Cart in Google Analytics

Tracking Product Journey From Carting to Purchasing |12

How to Track Add-to-Cart in Google Analytics

Tracking Product Journey From Carting to Purchasing |13

From Carting to Buying

Tracking Product Journey From Carting to Purchasing |14

• Shopping Cart Abandonment Rate

Tracking Product Journey From Carting to Purchasing |15

Tracking Product Journey From Carting to Purchasing |16

Tracking Product Journey From Carting to Purchasing |17

How to Track the Conversion Duration in Google Analytics

Tracking Product Journey From Carting to Purchasing |18

Here’s the process:

ii. Save the timestamp in the cookies or in the backend.

iii. Create a timestamp at the add-to-cart confirmation page.

iv. Save the timestamp in the cookies or in the backend.

v. Create a timestamp at the end of the conversion.

vii. Micro Conversion Duration = timeSpent1 = (t2 – t1)

ga('send', 'timing', 'Macro Conversion Duration', 'Product Purchase',

Tracking Product Journey From Carting to Purchasing |19

Tracking Product Journey From Carting to Purchasing |20

How to Track Remove Item in Google Analytics

Tracking Product Journey From Carting to Purchasing |21

How to Track “Successful” and “Failed” Promotional Codes

Tracking Method: Event

Tracking Product Journey From Carting to Purchasing |22

How to track Payment Method in Google Analytics

Tracking Product Journey From Carting to Purchasing |23

From Buying To Buying

More (Loyalty KPIs)