As e-commerce, or e-shopping as some call it, continues to
be top-of-mind for consumers, marketers and businesses alike, it is important
to understand how online retailers user web metrics to not only monitor on-site
visitor traffic, but also to improve overall web analytic efforts. These
efforts include on-page SEO, as well. Looking to a real-life example, let’s
discuss online retailer Minted.
Founded in 2007, Minted is an online design marketplace. The company
sources creative content from independent artists around the world in the form
of greeting and holiday cards, stationary, prints and home décor and sells the
best content online directly to consumers. As an early user of crowdsourcing,
Minted holds monthly art and design challenges. According to Minted,
“Challenges are open for both submission and voting, the ‘crowd’ curates
Minted’s product selection by rating products, and Minted utilizes analytics to
evaluate votes” (About Us, 2016). Winners of these challenges get their designs
produced and sold on the Minted website. Designers are paid commission on each
sale. Moreover, “…winning artists and designers have stores on Minted. They can
launch any of their creations into their stores, utilizing Minted’s
manufacturing, fulfillment, and customer service capabilities to run their
businesses” (About Us, 2016). The Minted community of designers and independent
artists span 48 states and 43 countries around the world (About Us, 2016).
Figure 1: Illustration showcasing Minted’s
process of sourcing and selling products (About Us, 2016).
While Minted is primarily an online e-shopping retailer,
they do have one brick-and-mortar storefront in San Francisco called Minted
Local. It is the company’s first-ever physical store and features e-commerce
products, such as art, home goods and stationary (Lee, 2016). Lee (2016) states,
“The boutique also emphasizes the work of California-based artists and offers
original art and one-of-a-kind items (which we’ve never done before!)...Minted
Local also will feature workshops, artists-in-residence programs, styling
services, as well as interactive crafts and complimentary mementos to keep
children entertained while you’re shopping.”
E-commerce
Opportunities and Challenges
Before we dive into Minted’s online strategy and the
analytics they use to guide their business decisions, it is important to
examine the current state of the e-commerce (or online shopping) industry and
how this popular stream has turned the traditional purchase path on its head.
According to Abramovich (2014), “Online shopping retail sales are
predicted to grow steadily to $370 billion in 2017, up from $231 billion in
2012.” Moreover, when it comes to mobile, this channel is expected to dominate
in the e-commerce world. An article by Internet
Retailer explains, “The numbers are already impressive: U.S. mobile
commerce sales last year totaled $104.05 billion, up 38.7 percent from
$75.03 billion in 2014” (Hughes, 2016). So, what does this information mean for
online retailers? A lot of opportunity!
However, while e-commerce is on the rise, it is not going to
be easy for online retailers – as with anything else in life, there are and
will always be challenges. For e-commerce, those challenges surround consumer
expectations and include the demand for out-of-this-world mobile experiences;
cross-channel integration that provides a seamless experience; the constant
need for innovation (which is continuously impaired by upgrade requirements of
platforms); and improved and flawless payment models that speed up the
purchasing process online.
In order for businesses, and specifically Minted, to take
advantage of e-commerce and mobile’s influence on online shopping and to address
challenges as they arise, they need to understand how their website is
performing and use that data to make informed decisions. This is where web
metrics lends a valuable hand. Not only do web metric tools, like Google
Analytics, help improve your site, but they also allow businesses to get to
know their audience – both of which unveil return on investment (ROI) for
marketing campaigns (and more) and help to maximize the bottom line.
Minted’s
Current Web Analytics Strategy and Results
The online retailer currently utilizes Google Analytics (GA)
and employs a robust data collection approach to feed the platform in order to
obtain insightful results that helps them make marketing and business decisions.
When on the Minted website, the data collection approach is easily recognizable through obvious data capturing techniques. These methods include having a comments section via the company’s Julep blog, entering visitor contact information into a pop-up window on the website homepage, filling out an online contact form for more information/questions, signing up to receive a free Minted catalog and regular emails or signing up to participate in any of the design challenges. After making a purchase, current customers’ information is also collected, as you have to create an account with personal information to order products. With regard to specific data collected, each method mentioned requires at least your full name and email address. These techniques, of course, once completed by a visitor, add to their GA profile, and in particular boosts their overall traffic and conversions.
Figure 2: Various Minted.com data capturing methods (Minted, 2016).
In addition to collecting a visitor’s personal information,
Minted also collects information about other people, such as your friends and family
that you provide when using their services. When visitors access Minted through
third party platforms, information is collected that way, as well. According to
Minted, “We may also automatically collect certain information about how you
access or use the Website and our services including, but not limited to,
information about your internet domain address, clickstream information and
other electronic markers and identifiers. We may also collect information
through the use of cookies, web beacons and similar technologies and use
third-party service providers that may use cookies, web beacons and similar
technologies to help operate their services. We also may receive certain
personal information about you from other users when they upload your contact
information to their address book, send you correspondence through Minted
services including Online Invitations and Wedding Websites or perform other
related activities” (Information Collected, 2016).
While Minted collects a plethora of data, they use it to
primarily improve overall customer experience. The company states, “We use your
personal information to fulfill your requests for products and services, to
improve our services, to customize the advertising and content you see, to
share with third parties pursuant to services that we offer to you and to
contact you” (Use of Information, 2016). Furthermore, Minted also takes part in
conducting surveys, sweepstakes, promotions and contests. The data gathered
from these methods is matched up with current customer accounts to also help
provide better customer experiences.
These data collection methods are also part of Minted’s
on-page SEO. They are used as calls to action (CTAs) across pages and house
keywords and keyword phrases, such as invitations, save the dates,
announcements, wedding décor and more. These effective CTAs add to the site’s overall
user experience (UX). In addition, the site is easy to navigate, loads quickly
and features crisp and vibrant imagery that’s laid out in a modern template. Content
across pages is clear and to the point. There are also links included for users
to share products via social networks. Moreover, the site is mobile optimized.
Figure 3: Minted website (Minted,
2016).
It is apparent from viewing Minted’s website that it is
optimized for on-page SEO. Their sophisticated data collection methods work
hand-in-hand with GA, as well. According to Minted Founder and CEO, Mariam
Naficy (2016), “Google Analytics helped us optimize our art marketplace,
resulting in 400% year-over-year revenue growth for our art business.”
Minted utilizes GA to function. According to a “Business
Analyst” (2016) job posting, “All business functions within Minted are designed
to be data driven, and decision making is dependent on critical data being
available to make the decision.” The job description goes on to explain that
the Minted roll will qualify accurate data and support it with analysis in
order to advise the company, which involves “working across functional teams to
gather and synthesize data from multiple sources including the transactional
database, web reporting solutions and islands of data” (Business Analyst,
2016). This role also supports company research needs by designing surveys,
holding focus groups and executing A/B testing. Other job responsibilities that
give great insight into the importance Minted places on web analytics include: tracking
key metric performance against established goals; defining metrics and reports;
understanding transactional and behavioral data; performing ad hoc data
gathering from web metrics tool; and creating different Minted customer
profiles (Business Analyst, 2016).
Recommendations
As evidenced above, Minted already collects a wealth of data
(transactional and behavioral) that feeds their internal CRM as well as their
web analytic tool, GA. In order to improve Minted’s overall web analytics approach,
however, there are a few recommendations they should consider. It would be
beneficial to use the GA platform with others to collect additional data or to
enhance current data. For a web analytic snapshot of the Minted site, click here (SimilarWeb,
2016).
I can’t imagine they aren’t already using social analytic
tools (like Cyfe and Keyhole) to scan their social networking sites like
Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and the Julep blog, but if not, this would be
highly recommended so that they can understand what they need to do to connect
with their audience better and develop and maintain customer relationships. Another
recommendation would be to use metrics that specifically track geographical
data. As an online retailer that crowdsources products from around the world,
it is important for Minted to know where website traffic and purchases are coming
from worldwide to target those visitors effectively. Lastly, emphasis should be
placed (if not done so already) on collecting sufficient mobile data. While GA
tracks from which types of mobile devices websites are accessed from and other
key metrics, utilizing an additional mobile analytic tool would be helpful.
References
About
Us. (2016). Minted.com. Retrieved on June 19, 2016, from: http://www.minted.com/about-us
Abramovich,
G. (2014, May 7). 15 mind-blowing stats about online shopping. CMO by Adobe.
Retrieved from http://www.cmo.com/features/articles/2014/5/6/Mind_Blowing_Stats_Online_Shopping.html
Business
Analyst. (2016). SmartRecruiters.com. Retrieved on June 19, 2016, from: https://www.smartrecruiters.com/Minted/71670715-business-analyst
Hughes,
B. (2016, January 29). What’s next for ecommerce in 2016? Entrepreneur. Retrieved from https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/269933
Information
Collected. (2016, June 9). What is the minted privacy policy? Help.Minted.com.
Retrieved from http://help.minted.com/articles/General/Privacy-Policy
Lee,
H. (2016, May 23). Minted launches minted local (our first retail store!) [Blog
Post]. Minted.com/Julep. Retrieved from http://www.minted.com/julep/2016/05/23/minted-local-san-francisco-retail-store/
Minted.
(2016). Minted.com screenshots. Retrieved on June 19, 2016, from: http://www.minted.com/
Naficy,
M. (2016). Google analytics minted quotation.
Google.com/Analytics/Standard/#Quotation. Retrieved on June 19, 2016, from: https://www.google.com/analytics/standard/#quotation
SimilarWeb.
(2016). Minted.com overview. SimilarWeb.com. Retrieved on June 19, 2016, from: https://www.similarweb.com/website/minted.com#overview
Use of Information. (2016, June 9). What is the minted privacy policy? Help.Minted.com. Retrieved from http://help.minted.com/articles/General/Privacy-Policy
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