World Wide Web for Business Activity: Web Design and Analytics
Trust is a critical part to doing business. Without trust a customer will not be motivated to continue to perform tasks on a website and will abandon the application all together. It has been proven that some of the ways companies can establish trust is by offering a FAQ page which addresses concerns up-front; or publishing information that is already known as “true” which will make a website/business seem more credible (Schaffer, 2009). Other research shows that redesigning purchase flows that enable customers to complete transactions by clicking through only a few pages diminishes frustration which leads to cart abandonment. Other innovated solutions include personalization technology that matches relevant information, products, and services to a customer's specific needs, making it easier for customers to accomplish their goals.
User-Centered Design Approach
Another critical process to the success of online business is taking a user-centered approach to offer better user experiences that are persuasive, engaging and trustworthy. This is accomplished by understanding the customer’s emotional triggers through the science of cognitive psychology. This approach has proven to create usable and useful product and services that influence and change online human behavior (Schaffer, 2009). UX teams are leaning on web analytics to understand how effective a new feature or application is. They accomplish this by monitoring a user’s ability to achieve goals. For instance, UX teams can track user progression through a purchase funnel flow; or see if a certain page is being visited; or if a specific link is being clicked on or not; and finally, if data is being inputted into a specific form. Other ways UX teams use web analytics is to investigate potential issues with navigation, content, or visual design. For instance, they may use web analytics to determine if a page element is not loading properly; or if certain content is not effectively explaining a process; and if layout, color, or graphics are distracting users from taking action. Finally, UX teams can use web analytics to discover navigation problems which may include finding out if users are navigating to the right pages or not; are certain forms being abandon; and if a new feature is being used or not (Cardello, 2013).
Another important aspect that businesses must focus on is product strategy. Highland Capital Partners, experts in marketing, explain that today’s business world is a wi
nner-take-all marketplace. Being good at many things is not enough anymore in today’s marketplace. A business must make efforts to carefully determine exactly what they are good at by narrowing their offerings, and pushing forward to achieve excellence in that something (Davis, n.d., 2014). Web analytics can help businesses define what they are good at, giving them focus on how to move forward to achieve excellence. However, hardware technology has evolved, impacting how customers use and view the web, creating a new evolution called Web 2.0.
Web 2.0
Devices will continue to play a role in the future; therefore, products and services should be responsive to all platforms. Thus, it is critical for businesses to have the ability to measure customer activity from a marketing perspective on multiple devices. Jim Sterne, an expert in web analytics, explains that in the past, it was important to know if people were actually visiting your site (Sterne, 2007). Specialists were hired to study log stats that recorded page views and hits (Rapoza, 2010). These log files would take hours and possibly a day to generate. Imagine ̶ it was only eight years ago when the main criteria for investing in web analytics was about how many types of reports were offered and how fast they could be generated. Then, JavaScript was developed and embedded into web pages with the ability to send site activity data to a web analytics application. Even better, the captured data was almost real-time information about what was happening on a site. JavaScript opened the doors to the current software-as-a-service model that is the most popular way to deliver web analytics.
Jing Suk, analytics manager at media and information company Thomson Reuters, explained that the main criterions for a web analytics application today is if the web analytics application can help businesses understand what the collected data means, what are the actionable insights, and most importantly, how can this data help them take an action? The answer to the question is predictive analytics.
Predictive Analytics
Predictive analytics utilizes various statistics, data mining, modeling and machine learning techniques to identify patterns and predict future actions. This is critical to predicting customer and market behavior. For instance, predictive analytics may be used to vary pricing based on purchase behavior, and deliver the right promotion with the right customer. Other industries use predictive analytics such as banks to improve their decision-making when it comes to fraud mitigation, collateral management and liquidity. Human services organizations such as the military are using predictive analytics to predict human behavior such as military suicide. Predicative analytics is quickly changing the way businesses make decisions because they are able to see the future.
References
Bell, F. (2007, October). Web 2.0 Devices | Entrepreneur.com. Retrieved from http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/186778
Cardello , J. (2013, November). TRUSTe Research Reveals More Consumers Concerned about Business Data Collection than Government Surveillance. Retrieved from http://www.nngroup.com/articles/analytics-user-experience/
Davis, B. (n.d.). Why Just Being Good Isn't Good Enough Anymore. Retrieved 2014, from http://www.hcp.com/why-just-being-good-isnt-good-enough-anymore?topic=101982
Greer, R., Kenner., & Jannie, O. (1999). Online Shopping Is Changing the Retail Landscape. Journal of Family and Consumer Sciences, 91(3), 69.
Pereira, M. (2014). TRUSTe Research Reveals More Consumers Concerned about Business Data Collection than Government Surveillance. Retrieved from http://www.truste.com/about-TRUSTe/press-room/news_us_truste_reveals_consumers_more_concerned_about_data_collection
Rapoza, J. (2010). Web Analytics: A New View. InformationWeek, (1286). Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com.proxy.cityu.edu/docview/818743419/5757CD7CEF24CDBPQ/2?accountid=1230
http://search.proquest.com/docview/818743419?accountid=1230
Sterne, J. (2007). WEB ANALYTICS: ASK THE EXPERTS. B To B, 92(5), 29.
