A 15% Month over Month Increase in Sales Volume, Thanks to ClickTracks

Ask John Hess, CTO at online medical equipment company Med1Online (www.med1online.com) what he uses ClickTracks for and chances are, he'll ask you "How much time do you have?" Responsible for all of the technological aspects of this up-and-coming online retailer, John turns to ClickTracks on a regular basis for insights in the areas of web site usability, PPC advertising effectiveness and how natural and paid search visitors compare. He recently had a chat with Amy Hooker, ClickTracks' PR maven, about his experience with ClickTracks Pro.

Amy Hooker: Thanks for spending some time with me today, John. Have you seen quantifiable results from using ClickTracks?

John Hess: Certainly. As an organization, we recognize the value of web site analytics. Since the day we launched our web site, we've been collecting and analyzing online customer interaction with it. ClickTracks Pro has been instrumental in performing that analysis and helping us to not only identify, but also to prioritize web site changes. Through the use of ClickTracks, we're realizing a 15% month over month increase in sales volume.

AH: So what sorts of things are leading to that increased sales volume? Are they the same things you're tracking and understanding with ClickTracks?

JH: We use ClickTracks to track and gain insights on a number of different areas of our web site. For example, we've spent a considerable amount of time learning about visitor behavior in the context of web site usability. ClickTracks has shown us how visitors navigate through our web site category structure. From that analysis, we're now updating our category structure to minimize the number of clicks to reach certain product classes, making it easier for customers to find and buy the items they're looking for.

Another area in which ClickTracks has proven invaluable involves our internal search (as opposed to Google or Yahoo searches that lead to our site). ClickTracks allowed us to create a search effectiveness metric, which provides a high-level picture of how well search is working for our customers. As a result, we're in the process of improving our search algorithm, result rankings, and presentation of search results.

We've also used ClickTracks to get a better idea of what's happening during the checkout process. We've consulted ClickTracks' Funnel Report, and are optimizing our checkout process to reduce customer abandonment by implementing a more streamlined process and enhancing customer feedback.

AH: Wow! That's quite a laundry list of ClickTracks tasks. Any other areas?

JH: A couple more. ClickTracks has helped us ascertain, rather than guess, the "value" of our customers who originate from different sources (SEO vs PPC). Through ClickTracks, we have gained tremendous insight into how these classes of customers behave, and where we as an organization need to invest our marketing dollars (SEO website enhancement vs. PPC).

And speaking of PPC, we're also using ClickTracks to analyze the effectiveness of our PPC campaigns. Through ClickTracks analysis, we're optimizing our PPC landing pages to maximize product sales.

AH: Have you been surprised by anything ClickTracks has brought to light?

JH: Indeed. I'm constantly surprised by what I find during our investigation of web site behavior. Generally, these epiphanies are the result of relatively complex analyses where we leverage compound labels, though on occasion they're the result of a basic analysis.

Our most recent surprise was when we realized that some fundamental changes we'd made to the web site dramatically reduced the number of natural search visitors. Though the analysis, we were able to identify the root cause of the issue and remedy the problem.

AH: What about your on-site search. Find anything interesting there?

JH: Yes. We had a feeling that even though we offer multiple paths to products on our web site, that visitors would rely on our search functionality as the main way to find products. Through analysis, we found that to be the case. This has prompted us to focus upon search efficacy, as well as to enhance the other navigation paths to products.

AH: What changes have you made as a result of your ClickTracks analysis?

JH: All of them? Seriously, all of our web site changes, both in the look and feel as well as the underlying logic, leverage ClickTracks to either justify the change or to understand the impact of the change. In particular, we've made changes to the structure and content of PPC landing pages, search engine algorithm and results pages, navigation structure, Terms and Conditions language, home page elements and SEO-specific web site elements-all as a result of ClickTracks analysis.

AH: Sounds like ClickTracks is the web analytics tool you've learned to count on. Any parting words for those considering ClickTracks?

JH: I've used a variety of web site analytics tools in the past, and I choose to use ClickTracks as a tool for our marketing activities based upon its undaunting interface. Although uncomplicated, the quality of the results and the depth to which a user can perform analysis through the use of labels is nothing short of remarkable.