Wayfair: Building Consumer Relationships in an Online World

Businesses use various analytics to establish consumer profiles, understand consumer behaviors, and encourage engagement.  Brick and mortar analytics may vary in comparison to online retailers, but the overall goal remains the same – increased sales and satisfied customers. 

GOAL

Wayfair is an online retailer of home goods.  The company was founded as a customer-oriented company, a difficult task for an online only retailer.  In order to properly follow through with this concept the company needed to create a relationship with the consumer through online methods. 

APPROACH

Using various web analytic tools and optimization tools, the company successfully found a way to properly profile Wayfair consumers while encouraging engagement and developing relationships. 

WAYFAIR

History

Wayfair is one of the largest online retailer of home goods.  The company was founded in 2002 by Niraj Shah and Steve Conine under the name CSN.  Rather than concentrating on one particular item, Shah and Conine saw a need for an online retailer that sold lots of little things (Wehrum, 2012). The duo decided the best way to reach numerous markets was to create 200 niche markets, each with its own website. The websites ranged from hotplates.com to allswivelbarstoolscom.  The thought process was driven by consumer website searches.  If someone wanted a barstool that swiveled and entered this into the search engine, chances were the allswivelbarstools.com would appear (Wehrum, 2012).

“CSN Store’s growth was a testimony to the power of web analytics, target marketing, and near perfect execution” (Wehrum, 2012).  From an early start, Shah and Conine understood the importance of analytics.  In the early years, these analytics were limited but the duo found a way to use the data to create more efficient search options.

In 2011, the company decided to merge all of the niche markets into one large retail site, Wayfair.com.  Ultimately, the company wanted to provide the consumer with a single website that was easily to navigate and make purchase. Along with new consumers and sales, Wayfair.com created large amount of user data to be analyzed to create a better consumer profile.

Data Analyzing and Optimization

Wayfair is a growing company that takes pride in its online presence.  Just as a brick and mortar store would observe consumer behavior, Wayfair finds ways to analyze and observe online behaviors.  The company looks to various analytic tools to provide consumer profiles, possible web improvements, and conversion rates. 

In 2008, Wayfair enlisted the help of SiteSpect, a web optimizing solutions company to pinpoint website concerns and user behavior.  SiteSpect provided technology that allowed Wayfair to use non-intrusive multivariate testing to measure conversion optimization.  This technology was used to test and analyze consumer behavior during the purchase process to increase conversion rates.  The funnel analysis provided insight into which aspects of the purchase process presented obstacles for the consumer (SiteSpect, 2008). 

Wayfair also used the technology to acquire information from consumers on site content changes.  By using this technology, Wayfair increased their conversion rate and addressed issues within the site content to better the visitor’s experience.

Recently, Wayfair announced record sales results for 2013, with sales in excess of $1 billion.  The increase in sales can be accredited to numerous factors, including web analytics (Moore, 2014).  Many of the tools, content, and interactive features were created from analyzing consumer behavior. 

Data analytics can be used to reinforce search engine optimization techniques, improve customer engagement, measure marketing success, and ultimately offer suggestions on ways to deliver a more responsive service to meet the demands of the consumers (Bowden, 2014).  Businesses should use analytics to understand consumer preferences, obtain consumer behavioral impressions, and adjust to the needs.   Wayfair is an example for businesses who may be looking to create stronger customer relationships through data mining. 

SUGGESTIONS

Wayfair’s website design has been created with personalization in mind.  The company could use location data or previous purchases to provide a personalized shopping experience.  The site itself is clean and easily navigated with two call to actions which encourage engagement.  The call to actions can also be used to track visitor actions and follow through by tracking events.

The website provides numerous items which are categorized by use, furniture collection, room use, and brand.  Tracking consumer involvement with specific brands could prove beneficial to the company in evaluating consumer trends and possible brand associations.  The company encourages relationship building with a loyalty program, which can be found in small print at the top of the page.  This loyalty program could be used more effectively if it were located in a more visible location on the website.  This would also be a great way to acquire personal data that could be combined with web analytics to provide a more precise consumer profile. 

In my opinion, the company has successfully created a website that encourages engagement.  With bright colors, beautiful décor and easy navigation, the website appears as an interactive catalog. 

CONCLUSION

Wayfair is a great example of a company that has learned to use website analytics to create a loyal consumer relationship. Wayfair’s success can be attributed to understanding specific consumer needs, personalizing features, and providing an easy to use website (online storefront), all of which are used to establish consumer relationships both for brick and mortar and online stores.  

Google: Do No Evil or The New Evil

Everyone should be concerned with privacy issues on the web.  And unfortunately, Google products are not exempt from this concern.  For a company that once considered its unofficial motto “Do No Evil”, times may have changed and the company may be  “The New Evil” to many consumers worried about online rights and privacy.

Google Products and Data Collection - Consumer Beware

Google uses many of its products for data collection.  YouTube provides Google with user information in regards to video choices and searches, and when signed in with Google+, demographic information.  All of which is cross-referenced and used to create a user profile.  This is just one of the many ways data collection is used to create “virtual” consumers and users.

Organic search terms, online behaviors, and email tendencies are all used by Google to create ads that are more effectively targeted towards the user, offers that are based on previous purchases and searches, and Google preferences that are more appealing. Google users must understand Gmail, Google Search, YouTube, Google analytics, and other Google products are offered free of charge.  Yes, free, well maybe.  There is a price for everything and Google provides excellent free products in exchange for user data.  “Consumer beware”, with all of the great perks of Google, come a few minuses.  Online users must decide what they value the most, a great online experience, or their personal data.  

Gmail

Email has became a must have for most users and Gmail provides an excellent email program.  Google developed a robust and easy to use email program that millions of people use for their personal and business use.   Once a user uses their email program, it makes it very hard and often many times very expensive to make a change.  This has been done intentionally by Google to attract users and in turn, sell more ads.  Not only have they made their email user friendly, they have developed Google documents, Google maps, and have integrated their tools into smartphones (Kang, 2012).  Once again, with such a great service, comes a price and another “consumer beware” - users must understand privacy policies and adjust accordingly when using Google services.

Online Discrimination

Has Google’s mass amount of information gathering lead to online discrimination?  Google analytics provide both in-depth and basic user analytics.  Device usage is a fairly basic metric within Google analytics, but when used by certain companies, this metric is anything but basic. 

The Orbitz controversy is a great example how companies can use basic metrics in ways that effect consumer and often promote user discrimination.  Orbitz Worldwide used information gathered from online behaviors to conclude that individuals who use Apple’s Mac computers spend as much as 30% more a night on hotels than other device users.  Using this information Orbitz chose to use real time analytics to make room choices that will appear available to the user.  And, as you guessed, Mac users were presented with rooms that were 13 percent more expensive than PC users after this information was analyzed.  The company is also using the device metric to present specific hotels to different device users.  This decision is based on the information gathered from user bookings and type of device used (Mattioli,2012). 

In the case of Orbitz, is this discrimination or proper market segmentation?  As a Mac user, I was put out with this finding, but as a consumer, a company that can eliminate choices that I would not make may save me time and effort, but not money in this case.  This also led me to question the ethics involved with data collection and analyzing.

Ethical Concerns

Is the information gathered by Google about its users ethical?  It seems to me we are headed toward a world where there is no privacy.  But are companies like Google the problem or are the users who provide the information at fault?  I believe the blame lies with both.  Google actually knows more about us than many of our closest friends.  Google has every email you have sent or received, every event you have posted in calendar and every search you have made.  They also have all your pictures or documents you have stored on Google.  Users have to be proactive and demand a clear and easy to understand privacy policy (Ghitis, 2012).  Users should also have a way to opt out of having to provide information they see is too personal.   The bottom line is that users must proceed with caution and use their best judgment before giving out their information when choosing to use Google’s products. 

The Future of Google

Google recently purchased DeepMind, a company that specializes in artificial intelligence.  Soon after the purchase Google decided to form an ethics board to make sure artificial intelligence will not be abused.  This may be a good decision, but it should also make users of Google a little nervous.  This sends the message that Google feels artificial intelligence could be abused and its uses must be carefully thought out.  This new technology allows for computers to begin thinking more like humans (Tsukayama, 2014).  A technology many feared for years may be upon us soon with the help of Google. 

As a consumer and computer user, I must respect the advances Google has made over the years and I am curious to see the advances Google will make in the artificial intelligence field. But until then I will be content knowing my information is being used to tailor websites and ads to my interests and to make my vacation 13 percent more expensive than PC users.  Thanks Google.  

Choosing a Web Analytic Tool Provider

Choosing a web analytics provider can prove to be a difficult task.  With the number of providers, the vast data that can be compiled, and finding the best fit for an organization, this task can become overwhelming.

According to Kaushik, a three-bucket strategy can be used most effectively for comparing these providers.  Each bucket contains providers that have similar tools, while each of the three buckets represents different aspects of analytics.  

Bucket One

These are providers are well known, provide lots of data, and have overlapping services.  Examples include: Omniture, Coremetrics, and Webtrends

Bucket Two

Bucket two contains providers that are the alternative to buckets one and three.  These providers are less popular than the providers in the remaining buckets, but each offers important analytics for various marketing campaign metrics.
Examples include: Net Insights, XiTi, and ClickTracks

Bucket Three

This bucket contains the two largest search engine providers.  Both offer free services and are very commonly used by all Internet users, including businesses, bloggers, and personal pages. 

Examples include: Google Analytics and Yahoo! Web Analytics

A business can make a well-informed choice by choosing a provider from each bucket to incorporate into the analytics test. 

Comparing Web Analytic Tools – Google Analytics vs. Web Trends

Web Analytic Tools

Each provider offers an array of tools that can be used to evaluate web traffic and metrics (Ankit, 2014).  The most common tools that are offered by the most popular providers include visitor metrics, page metrics, SEO information, keyword data, referral traffic metrics, geo-location, and behavior metrics.  All of these are important metrics when making decision about design and marketing campaigns. 

Deciding which tools may be the most useful to an organization can assist in making the best choice for a web analytic provider.  Tools that measure ROI, allow for cross-referencing, analyze visitor behavior, and accurately track online campaigns can be the most important for a marketer.  

Google Analytic Tools

Google Analytics is the most common provider of web analytics, with 57.3% of websites using these tools.  Google provides a robust analytical suite, free of charge (unless choosing the premium option), with easy to navigate reports, customized dashboards, and cross-referencing options (Ankit, 2014).   Google analytics breaks these reports into four sections: audience, acquisition, behavior, and conversion reports (P.I. ReedSchool of Journalism, 2013).

Each report segment provides valuable information for business operations.  Audience reports provide valuable data about visitors.  Acquisition reports provide information about traffic flow, while behavior reports are used to provide insight on site’s functionability with user, and conversion reports provide information in regards to completed action (transactions, email signups, etc.) (P.I. Reed School of Journalism, 2013). 

WebTrends

WebTrends is an alternative choice to Google Analytics.  WebTrends was the first company to offer web analytics.  They understand the importance of analytical data and have provided services for Coca-Cola, Toyota, Microsoft, and the New York Times (Ankit, 2014).  

 The analytical company provides solutions that assist organizations with multi-channel measurement, conversion optimization, campaign optimization, and collaboration optimization.   Multi-channel measurement provides organizations with information on increasing conversions and revenue and understanding consumer motivations.  The conversion optimization uses multivariate testing, A/B testing, advanced segmentation and targeting to increase customer experience optimization, landing page optimization, and properly personalize the website.  WebTrends uses search engine tools can be used to effectively analyze and improve search engine marketing, Facebook campaigns, and ad spend optimization, while collaboration optimization can be used to link internal engagement and collaboration to real business value by measuring employee consumer interaction (WebTrends, 2014). 

WebTrends can be effectively used by organization to optimize online presence, user experience, and overall business operations.  But, unlike Google Analytics, this optimization comes with a price. 

Audience Insight

Google Audience Analytics 

For a marketer, the audience category used by Google Analytics provides an overview of visitors based on demographics, interests, geo location, behavior, technology, and mobile metrics.  This information is critical in understanding the online behavior of users visiting an organization’s site.  These tools provide insight into who is visiting your site, the location used to access your site, the engagement level of the site, which technology (browser and providers) are being used to access the site, and mobile metrics based on types of devices.  These tools are very important in creating a profile of the online user.  This, in turn, can be used to create campaigns that will effectively reach and engage the audience.  

Google Anatlyics provides an easy way to use this information in cross-reference with other data, create a dashboard for quick analysis, and analyze this data in comparison to previous reports with an easy option to transfer data into Microsoft Excel. 

WebTrends Optimization

WebTrends understand the needs of the marketer.  The analytics tools cover three important marketing tiers: web marketing, social media marketing, and mobile marketing.  WebTrends provide audience insight by providing data about what visitors are doing on each of your pages, while providing demographic information, psychographic information (likes and dislikes), and geographical location.  WebTrends also uses heat maps as a quick way to show user activity on a site.  This provides valuable information in regards to user behavior on the site.  This can assist in conversion rates, behavior data, and website design. 

WebTrends provides valuable information that can be transferred into Microsoft Excel for comparison.  The audience data acquired is specific to that organization and ultimately “owned” by the organization.  The optimization features WebTrends boasts about are very helpful, and can be used in a user defined dynamic user interface.  WebTrends UI is more advanced and appealing than Google Analytics, but not as user friendly overall (WebTrends, 2012). 

Overall, Google Analytics provides valuable information for FREE.  That is a hard comparison to make when price may be a factor.  Based on dashboard and reports, Web Trends provides a dynamic user interface that wins for most eye appealing.  As for data, both do a great job providing audience insight, with WebTrends offering better optimization statistics and tools designed for the marketing world, and Google provides the best deal financially, with a strong geo-location and technology metric option.

Web analytic providers should be chosen based on the needs of the organization.  Price, depth of information, user data, online presence, and advertising campaigns should all be considered when choosing the most effective provider for an organization.