What are Shoppers Doing on your Site

Understanding the needs of your customers is a big step forward in growing your store and your profits.  There are a number of inexpensive ways to do so.  If you have not already, sign-up for a Google Analytics account.  It is completely free and very feature rich.  Just install the tracking code on your pages and you are ready to do.  Google Analytics is so valuable because it shows you how your visitors get to your site, where they go once they get there, how long they spend on each page, their geographic area and more.  One of the major advantages to using this tool set is the ability to track navigational paths.  This will show you the exact path visitors click through on your site.  The reason it is important is because it can help you identity potential bottlenecks or high drop off areas.  In the case of an e-commerce site, they can make a huge different in sales and profits.  Another great tool is from Clicktale.  Analytics will get you a long way in understanding the behavior of your visitors but this tool takes it even further.  Clicktale is a tool that allows you to saved recorded visits from customers on your website detailing their every behavior such as scrolling, clicks, keyboard input, mouse movements and more.  By adding a small amount of JavaScript to each page you wish to track, you can watch precisely how visitors interact with your site as if you were standing right there.  Understanding visitor behavior plays a big part in growing your e-commerce store and the combination of Google Analytics and Clicktale can provide that valuable information.