The top 8 E-Commerce analytics tools that rock in 2021

It’s hard to resist the allure of “free,” isn’t it?

Some of the best eCommerce analytics tools are indeed free thanks to the likes of Google. Considering that any given site is already using Google Analytics, using the platform to align with your eCommerce goals is a no-brainer.

Boosting your eCommerce conversion rate is a massive challenge regardless of what you’re selling. Empathizing with struggles of eCommerce sites, Google’s Enchanced eCommerce provides merchants with richer insight beyond base-level metrics.

Simply put, the platform is much more powerful than it used to be. Google Analytics users now have the ability to track their traffic during every step of their funnel. This means identifying weaknesses that lead to cart abandonment or drop-off points within your checkout process. Additionally, users can keep a close eye on…

• The unique sales performance of your products on-site (hint: which in turn helps you determine your customer lifetime value)

• Where your traffic is coming from (desktop, mobile, tablet) and how those visitors are converting

• Which pages your visitors are spending the most time on and which ones are causing them to bounce

Google Analytics can tell you so much more than how many visitors are checking out your site on a day-to-day basis. Representing one of the best eCommerce analytics tools out there, Google Analytics and its Enchanced eCommerce capabilities can help merchants close the loop for new and returning customers alike.

For those looking to go beyond the realm of Google for their analytics, Piwik is an open-source option for tech-savvy merchants. Piwik emphasizes the need for eCommerce sites to be in control of their own data. Unlike Google Analytics, Piwik is installed directly on your servers and isn’t hosted remotely.

Although the platform boasts many of the same features as Google Analytics, Piwik’s eCommerce analytics emphasize features such as…

• Automated reports regarding metrics such as conversion rate and average order value: the platform also alerts users of events that result in abandoned shopping carts

• In-depth sales reporting broken down by marketing channel, geolocation and product

• Easy integration with popular storefronts such as Shopify, WooCommerce and Magento

A totally free alternative to Google Analytics, Piwik is a solid option for merchants searching for the best eCommerce analytics tools that don’t want to break the bank.

Marketers can’t afford to make many assumptions in regard to their storefronts. The best way to fine-tune the usability and improve your on-click-through and conversion rates is by stepping into your visitor’s’ shoes.

Heatmapping platforms such as Hotjar are incredibly valuable to modern merchants. Hotjar essentially provides a bird’s-eye view of what your visitors see on-site.

In addition to heatmaps, Hotjar also has the ability to create recordings of real-time visitors. Watching these recordings back provides actionable insight toward improving your conversion rates across your entire site.

At a glance, understanding the behavior of your visitors in terms of tracking and clicks allows marketers to…

• Determine whether or not your visitors are clicking on your CTAs

• Assess which offers and copy are keeping your traffic’s attention

• Identify bottlenecks, errors and weak points within your eCommerce funnel

In fact, Hotjar themselves identified how one of their eCommerce clients increased their conversion rate by 30% thanks to some small tweaks. Based on information gathered from their heatmaps and recordings, it was discovered that their shopping cart was suffering from login and browser-specific issues that may have otherwise gone undetected by a typical analytics platform.

As the old saying goes, seeing is believing. That’s why the best eCommerce analytics tools offer a visual representations of your visitors’ behavior alongside in-depth data.

In eCommerce, there’s nothing worse than an abandoned order.

Maybe you made your visitors jump through too many hoops. Perhaps there was something about your pricing or copy that turned a potential buyer off.

Either way, cart abandonment plagues eCommerce merchants en masse. The average rate of abandonment sits around 70% as lost orders remain one of the most notorious uphill battles for eCommerce merchants to fight against. That’s why solutions such as Woopra have emerged specifically to combat the plague of shopping cart abandonment.

Woopra’s eCommerce analytics stress the concept of “checkout success”, zeroing in on dropoff points in addition to how long it takes for customers to buy. By looking at the abandonment rate basic on specific actions such as adding shipping or payment, it’s crystal clear which aspects of your funnel require your attention.

The platform also generates individual profiles which clue you in on your most valuable customers and how exactly they interact with your store or sales team.

Between Woopra and the other contenders on this list, the common thread between the best eCommerce analytics is clear: encourage your visitors to spend money instead of bouncing.

Email marketing and eCommerce go hand in hand. Whether you’re looking to nurture leads or build a list of repeat customers, email automation is the cornerstone of any eCommerce empire.

However, the biggest names in email marketing don’t always boast the best eCommerce analytics tools. After all, eCommerce marketers require heavy segmentation, a wide variety of messages and plenty of frequency in order to run their campaigns effectively.

Brands therefore also require robust email analytics based on their specific needs. Kalviyo is an email automation and analytics platform specifically tailored for eCommerce merchants. They pride themselves on offering in-depth analytics for eCommerce versus the likes of Mailchimp or other big-name email brands meant for beginners.

But what separates Kalviyo apart from the pack in terms of email analytics? Beyond emphasizing simplicity and not having to sift through endless spreadsheets, the platform’s benefits and features include…

• Automatic audience segmentation based on specific actions and parameters (purchasing a product, opening a message, purchasing within a certain timeframe), resulting in more personalized messages faster

• Pre-built email welcome series and autoresponders to nurture leads and fight against cart abandonment

• Advanced reporting that tracks opens, clicks, revenue and every metric in-between

Finally, Kalviyo stresses the need for eCommerce marketers to focus on revenue versus mere clicks. In other words, the financial ROI of your email marketing campaigns for your eCommerce storefront should always be front and center.

A key takeaway here is that you not only need the best eCommerce analytics tool for your storefront or website, but also for your email campaigns as well. eCommerce brands must emphasize analytics across all channels if they truly want to learn as much as they possibly can about their traffic and customers.

Optimizing your eCommerce site or storefront is an ongoing process that never truly ends. This is especially true if you’re consistently running A/B tests to experiment and tweak your poorly-performing pages.

Unfortunately, many marketers fail to understand just how complex and time-consuming A/B testing can be. If you aren’t paying attention to the proper metrics or understand what needs to change, you could actually hinder your earning potential. As a result, platforms such as Visual Web Optimizer are ideal for businesses looking to tune up their marketing campaigns and essential pages with ease.

VWO is near-turnkey solution for A/B testing. The platform allows you to create variants of your headlines, buttons, imagery and other key elements to generate multiple iterations of your site. By equally dividing up your traffic, you can determine in real-time which variant of your site results in the most clicks, conversions and time spent on-site. Through a custom analytics dashboard, you can easily see how your variants stack up against each other.

Furthermore, the platform allows users to segment their traffic, personalizing your site based on your visitors’ background. In other words, different visitors will be served the highest-performing variation of your site based on their demographics, geolocation and where they came from off-site (Facebook, Twitter, email, etc).

VWO notes that Amazon has dominated eCommerce through their emphasis on personalization and that modern storefronts should therefore do the same. Personalization and optimization are both becoming increasingly important for brands looking to increase their sales.