Data has often been called the oil of the 21st century, and for good reason. Google, Facebook, and Amazon are among the most successful companies of our age thanks to their dominance in data. They analyze every tiny little thing visitors do on their sites and figure out how they can use that information to squeeze out as much value as possible from every single customer. It’s time you joined the big boys’ club by borrowing a trick from their bag.

In an ideal e-commerce experience, a customer (say Jonah), would come in, find the product he wants, view the images, read reviews, and add it to his cart. He would then add a few more products, fill in his shipping details, pay, and wait for delivery. In a few days he would return, write a glowing review, and buy more stuff. Sadly, this ideal situation rarely happens.

Customers drop off at all points of the conversion funnel. Some leave the site immediately. Others browse products but never add any to their carts. Even more visitors add products to their carts but never take them though checkout. Others will start filling out the checkout forms and just abandon them halfway.

Behavioral analysis allows you to monitor how visitors interact with your site elements and the points at which they stop that interaction. You get to know what regular customers buy and when they buy it. All this information allows you to optimize your page elements, tailor your marketing messages, improve user experience, and increase conversions.

 

User behavior tools

In-house behavioral analysis tools are fine if you have the budget and technical expertise but commercial tools are cheaper and quicker to implement. With a tool like Hotjar, Lucky Orange, and Full Story, you can start looking at recordings of user sessions and identifying your usability issues.