How optimization across channels improves data-driven performance

Big data has shown an enormous influence on retail over the past few years, resulting in an increased demand in automation and data management tools. Still, finding the right digital tools and tactics for your eCommerce can be a real challenge. It is not only about identifying the channels that can help you to get the most out of your data, you also have to keep in mind that a clever integration of various channels will boost your performance to the max.

A perfect example and a real savior to improve your online sales is the combination of feed management and analytics. Google Analytics is indispensable for any online shop, but are you aware of the full potential of these data insights? Do you want to learn how coupling analytics and feed management can deliver valuable input to assess your online appearance, the performance of your items per channel, or the behavior of your customers?
Find yourself significantly more informed about data-to-insights and multichannel commerce after reading this blog.

The advantages of feed management

A data feed management tool, such as Channable, is an online solution to simplify listing and advertising your products and services on more than 2500 platforms, including price comparison websites, affiliate networks, and marketplaces. Your items can either be imported directly from your eCommerce platform (via plugin, feed, or API) or with the help of an XML or CSV file. Within the feed management tool, the imported product data is optimized, enriched, and filtered by using smart if-then-rules to prep it for the export to a variety of different channels. In addition to feed management, all-in-one tools offer additional features supporting your PPC automation, order syncs with marketplaces, or the integration of Google Analytics.

A perfect team: How does the integration with Google Analytics work?

The prerequisite to get started with the data duo that will open your eyes is an account in Google Analytics. Click here for a clear guide on how to set up your Analytics integration with Channable.

Evaluate your online performance on different levels

With the standard version of Google Analytics Ecommerce you gain an understanding of your overall product and sales performance, while an extended version (Google Analytics Enhanced Ecommerce/EE) offers even more granular data as well as more digital marketing insights. In Google Analytics EE, Shopping Behaviour and Checkout Behavior describe your shoppers’ actions in terms of product views and stages within the purchase journey. These analytics offer you valuable action points for comparisons between markets or the analyses of pre-purchase drop-off points.

“Further reading: more detailed information on Google Analytics EE & whether you need it for your online shop.“

The analytics display within your feed management account adds to this smart decision making process for your future channel selection, product listings, and ad creation. You can view how the items from your feed perform on different levels, such as channel, product category, brand, or even product.

By understanding how your items perform, you can identify exactly which products work for which platform, and then for which customer target group.

A nice example of performance data on a specific level is the revenue per channel. Within a feed management tool interface, graphs visualize the revenue you have generated per sales channel, and usually the time frame can be adjusted based on which insights you are interested in.

Identify your high and low performers

You can easily determine which products are your best or worst performers with analytics. Google Analytics offers a conversion tab with detailed eCommerce reports, such as the product performance and a variety of other stats and information about your product catalog.

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A feed management tool can provide you with a cleaner overview. At a glance, you get user sessions, transactions, conversion rate, bounce rate, and revenue per item. For example, this is how the item-level performance is visualized within Channable:

High and low performers can be identified by cross referencing these analytics. For example, a high bounce rate doesn’t necessarily mean the product is a low performer. Coupled with a low conversion rate, gives you a better insight.

In addition, each channel can have different high or low performers. A comparison site that is used more by people between 15 - 30 will have different buyer preferences to marketplaces specifically for +60 year olds. But everyone needs i.e. sun cream, just a different SPF.

Data-to-insights becomes insights-to-action

Due to the fact that the item performance is expressed by a variety of values in a feed management tool, you maintain a 360 degree understanding of your items. To interpret the online behavior of your customers, stats concerning user sessions per item can, for instance, be considered based on duration. Find out how much time your audience spends on your product pages before completing a purchase, and optimize your eCommerce strategy.

Moreover, data from analytics can be added to your data feed and the creation of rules and labels. You can, for example, automate the exclusion of low performers from product ads or push your high performers even further. The following rule is a nice example of how to take advantage of your newly gained insights:

Custom labels can help you to structure and adjust your bidding and budgets for Google or Microsoft Ads. You can create custom labels based on analytics data to help you refine your bidding strategy. The screenshot below illustrates this possibility with an example of a custom label based on conversion rate:

With the help of rules based on analytics insights, even broad and dynamic product catalogs can be maintained and managed based on item performance. Enabling you to take cross-channel optimization to new levels and actively align your business activities with your data insights!

Future forecast: What are the next steps in omnichannel commerce?

Up until now, there are a few limitations that withhold the full power of an integration of analytics and feed management. For instance, time frames cannot be customized per channel within a feed management tool, but only for the general overview of all active channels.

But good news is ahead: Channable Insights is coming! Based on customer feedback, such as the time frames per channel and a demand for imports of external insights like cost data. Channable Insights will combine various kinds of performance data from revenue and over orders to production costs, to provide an overview for ROAS and profit stats.
Stay tuned for more news about the Insights release.

Are you curious about the possibilities of omnichannel integration? Then create a Channable account or use your existing one to connect it with your Google Analytics. Feel free to contact us for further information or to discuss your options!