You need hard figures for real insights into who, how and why is using your website. Use analytics to measure and optimise web traffic and effectiveness.

The “build it and they will come” mantra is fine for Kevin Costner but in the fierce environment of online operations it is fool hardy not to have strategy (informed by data) behind your web presence.

Understanding the source and the behaviour of your users will help you get the best out of your website, generate more leads and hopefully help you fulfil your online objectives.

Web statistics have long been used to track where visitors are coming from (geographically and online) what language they speak, how often they visit and what browsers they use. There’s a barrage of software available, although, in its new 2012 incarnation, Google Analytics includes information for web strategists to use as part of their arsenal including ‘real time’ data.

SEVEN WAYS TO HARNESS WEB ANALYTICS

Track user behaviour by measuring pages per visit; average time on site; bounce rates. Create events to track such as enquires, conversions, downloads, how many scrolled all the way to the end. See what parts of the site are attracting the most users, getting them to stay, such as landing pages or campaigns. This allows you to adapt the site and content strategically rather than on an ad-hoc basis

Goal flow allows you to evaluate a conversion funnel and identify processes that aren’t working or that are too fiddly for most users to bother with.

View top keywords and search terms to spot trends based on different criteria that you select – including visits, bounce rates and pages per visit.

The ability to monitor the average page load time you can make sure your site is running smoothly as delays result in lower conversions.

Examining mobile web analytics enables you to cater your site according to what devices, smart phones and tablets people are using. This is a crucial consideration when building your web’s functionality and useability.

Gauge users’ level of social engagement with your site by tracking what content and pages inspired social action: such as shares, retweeting and likes. We recommend plugins such as Sharethis and AddThis sharing plugins to boost traffic and for which Google Analytics is a complimentary tool.

Personalise areas such as dashboards so your users can quickly access the statistics that relate to their area of responsibility. Or create separate areas for different campaigns or target groups.

Our advice is to employ analytics to put strategy, backed up by figures, behind your site and to ensure it is functioning at its optimum and designed for your business’ needs.

Want help building your website and powering analytics to get the best results?

Contact Us

Thanks for all your hard work, good luck and as you said to us, we say “So long, farewell, auf wiedersehen, goodbye…”

He is sad that Design Industries is going on holidays until 3rd January but is looking forward to seeing you all (and working hard) in 2012!!

He wants to thank-you for a great year and says enjoy the break!

PS For  any urgent matters please contact support@di.net.au

Undeniably, Asia is ripping shreads off the failing economies in the US and Europe.  Economic giant China is storming ahead – now it no longer just manufactures our tech products (like iphones) but has their own growing, ferocious demand for smart phones and tablets. While the fastest growing technology brands in Asia are streaking ahead, western companies are also reaping the benefit of the ‘red’ dollar.

China now delivers Apple the most revenue after the U.S and this continues to grow. When the iphone was launched in China in 2009 – it was then just two percent of Apple’s revenue – now it (and Hong Kong and Taiwan) are 12 per cent of Apple’s full-year revenue for 2011. This was hard to grasp in 2009 when it was launched in China as you can tell by the reactions on Gigaom at the time.

Chinese-made and owned brands like Huawei being sold for a fifth of the price of Apple phones combined with the bans on wi-fi made the success of the iphone seem unlikely – yet the rapidly growing middle class is changing this…rapidly.

As a flow-on effect, online stores are now increasingly being accessed through mobile and the Chinese average spend increasing.  Australian eCommerce sites should take a leaf out of the book of the Chinese eCommerce site, Yihaodian. Boasting 120,000 goods for sale, same-day delivery in many areas and sophisticated digital customer relationship management tools. Astoundingly, it posted a three-year growth rate of 19,218%.

Or China’s Jiaxing Mbaobao Technology is one of the leading designers and distributors of bags. They take the business seriously with a research centre in Venice, a presence in Tokyo and are expanding to English-language sites targeting North America. The company, which has a three-year growth rate of 6,228%, has embraced the buzz concepts of “fast fashion”, “fast marketing” and “fast logistics” and serves over a million customers.

The growth in online sales has come despite the great firewall of China, which saw the closure of 1.3 million websites last year.  In a country with such a mammoth population and so many operators trying to make a yuan, serious savvy is required.

Chinese citizens spend an average of 2.7 hours online per day — second to only the Japanese and as the country continues to open up – the floodgates are also opening to savvy eMarketers which boast a local and overseas presence.  The Australian wine industry is just one growing area where satisfying the Chinese appetite for Aussie reds is a perfect eCommerce platform.  With such a high proportion of our exports dependant on the Chinese market (25 per cent), there is no reason that Australia’s online commerce players shouldn’t get a hearty slice of the China-pie.

From 23rd December to 3rd January DI will be closed so we can go eat, drink and be merry.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all. We look forward to seeing you in 2012.

Online purchasing is growing while Aussies have a more ferocious appetite for social networking than most of the world.

So it makes sense that there’s infinite plugins and extensions to help e-commerce shack up with social networks.  Get it right and your social media output can be used to add value to your online store continuing the conversation and building relationships and loyalty – way beyond single transactions.

Our preferred e-commerce solution, Magento, can easily be integrated with Twitter feeds and Facebook fanpages using Magento default APIs. Similarly e-Newsletter sign-up options include features that allow recipients to share the newsletter invite across social channels.

Beyond share or like buttons, social commerce can be built across communities through all sorts of user engagement platforms, reviews, mobile apps, newsfeeds, coupons, discount and deals.

Social referrals can aid the purchasing process by spreading the word amongst shoppers’ friends and offering rewards and incentives to do so.

“Peer referrals allows consumers to gauge the product relative to their personal preferences,” explains SocialTwist CEO Vijay Pullar.  ”A key trend brands can leverage is that friends know what other friends like and they know what their other friends are looking for,” said Pullar.

There’s seemingly no end to the plugins and extensions that can be integrated with your Magento online store, here‘s a handful:

ShareThis, Socialable Allows users to share specific sites, pages or products and distribute information via Facebook, Bebo, Twitter and tell friends.

Beetailer, Storeya, Facebook Store App Integrates some or all of products from your Magento store into social networks and fanpages.

Curebit, Social Twist Get your customers to refer their friends via Twitter, Facebook or email, with useful tracking features

Groupon, Zizio Social Deals Launch social deals campaigns and coupons offering rebates for referrals for your customers to tell their friends.  This is a flooded category of social commerce to be weary of  but it can occasionally still be appropriate for certain markets.

Facebook  Referrals,  Open Graph and Comments Allowing your customers to invite people and get automatic discounts, share what they ‘want’ and ‘own’ or leave comments your webstore’s product page by logging into their Facebook accounts.

Shopalize Purchase Sharing Widget After purchase, customers can share their purchases or offers with friends in social platforms.

Tailor your social strategy to your market, capabilities and objectives as running consumables out the door at bargain prices needs a different approach to a premium product looking to create brand longevity and a loyal fan base.

While Facebook and Twitter will give you wide reach, more niche and specialised social platforms are being used by brands to supplement their broader social strategy.

These communities geared to a specific interest may give you a more targeted reach. For example, sharing photos of your clothing range and inspirational images via Instagram may help gain the attention of fashionistas or you may establish credibility with foodies by posting info on Foodspotting. These niche audiences may be the trendsetters within your category of commerce.

We recommend staggering the implementation of your social elements unless you have internal resources in place or the budget to outsource its management. Social needs to be monitored carefully and providing rapid response times or risk alienating users.

Our advice: get your store working, then plan and implement one or two social extensions or plugins at a time.

Access their effectiveness and reach through services such as Facebook Insights and Google Analytics, which includes analysis of your site and e-sales across multiples channels including social.

Socialising your online store will be an evolving process as technologies and communities change, yet it is a necessary and worthwhile investment in today’s e-commerce mediascape.

Need an expert at Magento integrations including in social extensions and plugins?

Design Industries offer tailored web solutions. Click here for more info about Magento e-commerce integrations or contact us.

Zendesk recently posted on their blog “managing feature requests, bug reports and other suggestions alongside scheduled updates can be difficult.”Ah-ha, indeed, combating bugs and tracking multiple projects – often using multiple business tools – often doesn’t go smoothly.  Yep, don’t we know it.

The revamped, two-way integration means JIRA and Zendesk users – support staff and backend team – can collaborate on customer support requests associated with issues – like pesky bugs – by sharing tickets.  With ease they can edit, update or resolve a ticket easily between helpdesk and issue-tracking applications.  It avoids losing data between help desk and development teams and minimises miscommunication associated with sharing between platforms.  In short, it gets both teams on the same page.

Zendesk said “we’ve beefed up our integration [with JIRA] to make the experience seamless, allowing agents and developers to volley support tickets back and forth like McEnroe and Borg (at a non-competitive charity exhibition match.).”

The customer gets fast, consistent support as all comments and progress are tracked in both systems. Of course, resolving problems faster means happier customers.

The handiest tools in the web-support-shed working in alignment can only be a good thing.

Read the Zendesk blog here or get more product info here.

Design Industries can help you integrate your Zendesk Help Desk Support system. For more information how click here or contact us.

Indeed, the seed of great solutions to the design conundrums of any business is a well thought-out, immaculately planned and precisely executed vision.

Enter the Design & Branding Directory. Produced by the folks at Desktop & Marketing magazines, it is THE handbook for perusing approaches that have worked for different brands across mediums for everything from mini start-ups to multi-national mega-giants.

It is bursting with case studies with problems (and solutions) just like yours by innovative creative service providers just like us, Design Industries.

On pages 44 and 45, we are proud to detail our digital solution for the soon-to-be-launched site, meemeep.com.

Sadly, each provider could only choose one case study to showcase. We’d love to show off more examples of our tailored web solutions from eCommerce to e-Newsletters that we’ve created for all sorts of retailers, start-ups, not-for-profits – big and small. To hear more, contact us.

Get The Design & Branding Directory for $15.95 through retailers or through Desktop Magazine.

Be platform agnostic, instead of joinin one brand’s cult: develop mobile adoptions that’ll work on any platform. Otherwise, unless you only want to target customers with an iPhone, you’ll have to build individually for Apple, Android, Windows and whichever O/S which come out – ballooning your expenditure.
Good looks and functionality must work alongside each other.  When you get these two right your online mobile enterprise activities can flourish.  Get it wrong and you’ll sabotage your customer base and repeat business.

Case in point: I recently tried to use an (outdated) Nokia to get onto the Qantas site to change a flight and with a lot of fiddling I could view my bookings but not change them on this mobile version. After wrangling to no avail, I was left a frustrated flyer rather than a frequent one.

Eight tips for developing mobile web:

Functionality, functionality, functionality.

Make your mobile web fully functional regardless of application.

Keep it quick and simple for users.

Forget fussy graphics.

The site needs to adapt its content depending on the capabilities of (or lack of) the device receiving it.

Sacrifice showing off for user convenience: such as bandwidth compression.

Make online payments easy and streamlined.

Use analytics and monitoring to make sure your mobile web remains strategic.

Like any web presence, link it to your CRM reporting.

Contact DI for your tailored web solutions including for mobile web