In this third of a 5-part series on B2B ecommerce success strategies, Kristina Harrington, president and chief operating officer of GenAlpha Technologies, tells why and how using analytics makes a B2B ecommerce site more useful to buyers and profitable for sellers.

B2B ecommerce success. Kristina Harrington GenAlphaTechnologies Headshot2

Kristina Harrington

Having an ecommerce site is an important step toward long-term success, but without being able to analyze the site it will never reach its full potential. So that’s why after a successful Step 2 – Implement Ecommerce, we move to uncovering product and customer insights using analytics. This will allow you to determine valuable information on who has been to your site and what products are converting so that you can continue to make small adjustments to increase ecommerce value for everyone.

Analytics gives you the ability to be proactive instead of reactive.

The Benefits of Analytics

Everyone has a general idea of what analytics technology is, but how does it really benefit your business? The insights you gain and the decisions you make because of it are critical to increasing customer satisfaction and growing the bottom line.

Analytics breaks down data from an ecommerce site into easily digestible reports that allow for faster, more efficient decision-making. You’re able to track if people are coming to your online store and, most importantly, if they’re turning into conversions. It also allows for insights into returns to help determine whether there is a disconnect between what customers want and what they’re being shown on the site.

Better Understanding your Customers

The ultimate goal of an ecommerce site is to increase customer satisfaction and analytics has a large role in making that a reality. An analytics platform gives you the ability to see who is coming to your site, or maybe more importantly who isn’t.

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Are there people who were once active on the site but are now inactive? What are the reasons behind that and how do you get them to be active once again? Analytics gives you all the information needed to understand these customers and make changes to attract them back to your site.

How to Use Analytics

One of the best ways to properly use analytics is to create segments for your customers and products. It will help to determine who’s an active user, who’s abandoning their cart, if someone is an at-risk user, and much more.

This data is a game-changer for any sales staff and puts them in a much better position before they have to make a call to a customer. It is all about optimizing your online sales potential and creating as much value as possible.

Analytics gives you the ability to be proactive instead of reactive. Is a product that normally sells well not being searched for online? It could be time to do some email marketing or a promotion on your website.

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Over time, analytics will gather insights related to products you are selling and not selling, buyers who are buying and not buying, and a lot of related data on the success of promotions, which products are being returned, and which channels are having more success, and so on.

These insights can help you understand if you need a better inventory plan, a different price point, or better content and information.

About the Author

Kristina Harrington is the president and chief operating officer at GenAlpha Technologies, which provides digital commerce technology for manufacturers. Prior to joining GenAlpha, Kris worked for more than 10 years in leadership positions at two large multinational original equipment manufacturers, Bucyrus International and Caterpillar, supporting the mining industry. In her various positions, she worked with internal stakeholders, dealers, and customers to deliver business results both in aftermarket and equipment sales. She can be reached at [email protected].

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Sign up for a complimentary subscription to Digital Commerce 360 B2B News, published 4x/week. It covers technology and business trends in the growing B2B ecommerce industry. Contact editor Paul Demery at [email protected] and follow him on Twitter @pdemery.

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