They may not be exciting, but analytics are crucial when setting up an e-commerce site.
At the minimum, you should set up Google Analytics on your site to see where the majority of your traffic is coming from and what items on your site people are looking at the most.
Another thing that is a must do is set up funnels that track how far along in the checkout processing people get. Typically, you check out process has these steps
- Add product to cart
- Go to cart
- Review cart
- Input payment information
- Confirm payment information
- Thank you for purchasing!
With these funnels, you can quickly see where you might be losing potential sales. For example, if you see that you lose 80% of your shoppers at the “input payment information” step, you might conclude that you’re asking for too much required information, your required information confirmations are confusing, you need to combine steps, or there is a bug at this step.
Finally, install a heat tracking system such as CrazyEgg.com or ClickTale.com. This will tell you where people are putting their mouse on your site. You might find the the most important thing people look for is too far down the page. Then you could move it higher to get more conversions.
Track your analytics for success.