Any time there is a major update in your analytic tagging, such as necessary new variables or javascript changes that require references to new Javascript code, it can take ages to ensure that all of your tags are updated properly. Verifying large sites by hand is nearly impossible.

To ease this process, you can use the scanning capability of WASP Pro. This simple tool will automatically crawl your entire website and provide a detailed report of which pages have not been updated or are missing tags altogether.

Let me show you how WASP Pro does this. First, you define what you want to scan, including how many pages you want to scan, maximum depth, and even rules as regular expression to filter pages in or out of your scan.

Once the scan is complete, you can view a report that shows you all of the analytic solutions detected and the number of pages that have the solution integrated.

If you click on the tagged pages, you will see a list of all the pages with those tags, in a table format. If you click on the missing pages, you will see all the pages missing those tags. In the example below, we clicked on the missing pages for Omniture SiteCatalyst.

We also have what we call the “upside down” view. Instead of looking at the data at the page level in a table, we give it to you at the tag level using a tree. You can drill down into every single variable and value in order to see what page have those values. If we take our Omniutre SiteCatalyst example, you can see specifically what pages are tagged with what version.

And of course you can always export any of the data in .csv format to analyze in other tools such as Excel.

Naturally, once you have your report you can use the interactive functionality of WASP to diagnose the pages that are causing you problems and make sure all your pages are properly tagged.

Feel free to contact us for an interactive demo.

WHO RUNS ANALYTICS

In the last year, the use of clickstream analytics tools rose by 10% in the online retail space. External research confrmed a 9% growth in clickstream analytics technology in 2009, which suggests that technological growth is in line with market consumption.

Breakdown by Vendor

When the results were broken down by vendor, the use of Google Analytics increased by 19% — more than twice as much as the next leading vendor. Google Analytics is a free product, unlike the ones from Omniture and Coremetrics, which surely accounted for at least some of its growth. Among paid products, Omniture gained the most ground through 2009, confrming that these tools have a great deal of value.

Is one tool enough?

% of the Top 500 Sites Running Clickstream Analytics by Number of Tools

In the last year, the share of retail websites running more than one clickstream analytics tool increased by 9%, begging the question— why is one tool not enough? Are retailers comparing results from multiple tools to ensure accuracy of the data? Or, does no existing product satisfy all retailing analytics needs?

% of the Top 500 Sites Running Clickstream Analytics by Number of Tools

In January 2010, online retailers who were using more than one tool were almost certainly using Google Analytics. Results suggest that Google Analytics is the easy (and fnancially justifable) choice among retailers, but it is not always the frst choice among customers who are looking for specifc functionality and can afford it.

Other website tools

The second most popular tool, after clickstream analytics, was an advertising network (Ad network), used by approximately one-third of online retailers to host ads. Testing tools, such as Google Website Optimizer and Omniture Test and Target, came in third, followed by Search Engine Marketing (SEM) tools, such as ChannelAdvisor and comScore. Voice of Customer (VOC) tools, such as iPerceptions’ webValidator and 4Q Survey, were used by 8% of retailers (incidentally, a signifcantly higher use compared to other industry sites). Targeting, such as Amadesa, and Recorder tools, such as ClickTale have low adoption rates in this market. Social sharing tools, such as RPX and AddThis, are also on the rise, with more sites wanting to integrate social media components, liaise with social media/networking sites, and generally create a sense of community.

Conclusion

Running clickstream analytics tools is becoming increasingly important for major online retailers. Google Analytics is the most popular tool, and has gained signifcant market share. Still, there is evidence that paid products still have a safe hold. Based on the premise that retail websites predict behavior in other industries, the use of additional analytics tools will continue to gain momentum. Finally, as clickstream tools reach market saturation and retailers reach the limit of insights gain through these tools, they will increasingly turn to other analytics solution such as Testing, SEM, VoC to enhance the effciency and quality of their online experience.

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