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4 Ingredients for Creating Product Descriptions that Sell

Christian Bodine on May 3, 2022

Creating effective product descriptions is essential for your eCommerce business. Given that when shopping online the image and the product description are the only sales pitch your customers will get for your products, properly describing and persuading your shoppers through description is crucial to success. Not only that, online shoppers are more savvy than ever, closely reading product information and reviews before making a purchase. Returning products bought online can be a huge pain so online shoppers want to be certain they want the product they’re buying.

Good descriptions can be the difference between a sale and no sale, so don’t take them lightly. Check out these four ingredients for writing killer product descriptions your customers will light up over:

1. Use language that evokes emotion.

When writing your product descriptions, don’t focus just on being informative about your product. Specs and details are important and should be listed with your items, but don’t stop there. Think narratively about how your customer will use the product in their daily lives and use language that evokes emotion in your customers.

This will help them to visualize using the product and how it will make them feel. For example, if you’re selling a pair of shoes, describe how they will make the customer feel: “These shoes are perfect for a night out on the town. They’ll make you feel confident and gorgeous.”

2. Use descriptive adjectives.

Customers need to understand the positive attributes of your products. Without details and descriptive language, they’ll be left interpreting nebulous details like how many inches wide something is or wondering if the type of material listed in the description is soft or rough. Don’t leave blanks for your customers to fill in, paint the picture for them with language.

Try to include words that help your customers picture themselves using the product or tell them a benefit they’ll get from using the product. For example, if you’re selling a baseball cap, describe it as “comfy,” “cool,” or “stylish.” This will help to persuade your customers to buy the product.

3. Use concrete, specific details.

Like we said above, online shoppers are savvy shoppers these days. They’re not interested in guessing about what they’re ordering, they want to know for sure what they’re buying. What’s more, if what shows up in there order seems different than what they saw or read online, they’re not going to be happy. Save yourself a customer service headache and make sure you use concrete, specific details when describing your products. Not only will you help your shoppers feel certain of what they’re buying (which can build brand loyalty), specific descriptions will help your customers picture themselves using the product. For example, if you’re selling arts and crafts supplies, describe the supply, the uses for it, and even include some examples of the product in use.

4. Write in a style that is easy to read.

In Journalism school, reporters are taught to write at an 8th grade reading level so they can be sure anyone who picks up a newspaper can understand the content. It’s easy to get caught up in the idea of writing and get too flowery, or even over-explain your product with big words. A good rule of thumb: write how you talk. One trick for this is to pretend you’re writing a letter about your product to a friend of yours who you think would really love to have it. How would you tell them what was great about the product?

Be sure to write in the same simple, straightforward style you would use talking to a friend and that any average person can easily read. This will help your customers understand what you’re saying, understand the value of your items, and can make them more likely to buy your products.

When you use the language and details your customers are looking for to make their purchase decision, they’ll be more likely to buy from you!

You can take this kind of product description strategy even further and write descriptions that are even more likely to convert when you beef up your descriptions with Search Engine Optimization (SEO). That means that you make sure your product titles and descriptions are laden with the kind of terminology someone who wants to buy your product is likely to type into Google during an online shopping session. If you have the same phrase they search in your description, you’ll be more likely to show up in their search and they’ll be more likely to click on your site and boom: instant site traffic.

If you wanna learn more about SEO and driving traffic to your site through the content on it, check out our free SEO How-To Guide here.

You can also learn more about our SEO services here. We’re experts in human behavior who want to partner with you on a successful digital marketing strategy.

Which of these principles have you already applied? Tell us in the comments!

Satisfying a Niche: The Ins and Outs of Unique Markets

Christian Bodine on April 19, 2022

As online shopping becomes more and more ubiquitous, the range of products and services available to consumers continues to expand. This is great news for buyers, who now have access to a wider variety of items than ever before. It’s also good news for sellers, who can reach more and more specific, targeted audiences online who are highly engaged and looking to spend money on their niche.

However, selling to a niche market can be difficult given that they’re often much smaller than the general population, so they may not be as lucrative. In addition, it can be harder to reach niche audiences than general audiences. However, there are a ton of benefits when you’re selling to a niche market, including greater customer loyalty and higher profits. Check out our guide to niche markets and discover some of the benefits and challenges, as well as some tips for breaking into a niche.

1. Intro to Niche Markets

A niche market is a small market that is interested in a specific type of product or service. One benefit of targeting niche markets is that niche shoppers are often incredibly loyal to their favorite niche brands and are persistently seeking out products that fulfill their niche. That means creating repeat customers in a niche market is less of an uphill battle than in the general market. In addition, niche markets are often more profitable than larger markets because the competition is less fierce. Niche markets are also more profitable because the customer base is more focused and therefore easier to target, meaning less time, money, and other resources will go into targeting efforts.

Of course, that also means that niche markets are easier to reach than general audiences. This is because people who are interested in a specific type of product or service are more likely to visit websites and forums that focus on that topic. That simplifies the process of locating your audience in order to target them. In most niches, marketing and advertising opportunities are plentiful through things like websites, podcasts, newsletters, and even events that are particularly popular among that niche audience. Identifying a niche with the most opportunities for easy audience targeting can put you ahead of the marketing game before you even start.

So … how do you find a niche and start to satisfy it?

2. How to identify a niche market

Sellers can identify niche markets by looking for groups of people who are passionate about a specific topic or activity and then identifying what product or service that niche audience is looking for. This can be done by looking for online forums and websites that focus on your product or service. You could also look for groups of people who share a common interest in your product or service on social media. Another option is to look at your own behaviors and hobbies and identify which niche markets you’re a part of.

Once you’ve identified a group of people who are interested in what you’re selling, it’s time to start targeting them specifically. One way to target niche markets is by creating products or services that are specifically designed for them. This can be done by doing research on what interests the niche market and designing products or services that cater to those interests. If you can create a product or service that is unique to the niche market, they will be much more likely to buy from you.

In addition, make sure that your website and other marketing materials are tailored to the niche market. Use language and images that resonate with the niche audience and make sure your site is easy to navigate. You can also reach out to the niche market directly by participating in their forums and other online communities. When you’re actively engaged with the people in your niche, they’ll be more likely to trust you and buy from you.

Once you have identified a few potential targets, you can use Google AdWords to determine how many people are searching for your product or service online. This will give you an idea of how big the niche market is and whether it’s worth your time to target them.

3. How do you reach a niche market

Reaching a niche market can be difficult, but there are a few things you can do to make it easier. After you identify your market and have your product or service, you then need to create a website or storefront that is specifically designed for the niche market. You can either do this by yourself through an eCommerce platform like BigCommerce or Magento, or your can partner with an agency to help you. (Check out the benefits of working with an agency partner here.)

Finally, you need to promote your products to the niche market through targeted marketing campaigns (something else an agency can help you with). This could include things like Pay-Per-Click advertising campaigns to your niche audience, or SEO optimization of your website so that people searching for the product or service you sell will be more likely to see you in their search results.

Email marketing is another huge opportunity with a relatively low overhead. As you develop your brand, you’ll also have a chance to start building your own niche market by inviting people to sign up for your emails and creating a solid list of people who are always eager to hear about your product or service.

Need help with your niche? Check this out. (Link to DMK services page)

4. The benefits of selling to a niche market

When you sell to a niche market, you can enjoy a few key benefits:

1. Increased profits: Selling to a niche market can be more profitable than selling to a more general audience. This is because people in niche markets are usually more passionate about the product or service you offer and are more likely to buy it.

2. Loyal customers: When you sell to a niche market, you’ll likely develop a group of loyal customers who are interested in what you have to offer and who will continue to buy from you.

3. Easier marketing: Reaching a niche market is much easier than reaching the entire population, so you’ll be able to spend less on marketing and see better results.

4. Increased brand recognition: When you sell to a niche market, you’ll have a better chance of getting your brand recognized by that group. This can help you build more trust with potential customers and encourage them to buy from you in the future.

5. Easier to stand out: In a world where most businesses are selling the same thing, it can be difficult to stand out from the competition. Selling to a niche market can make this easier, as people in those markets are usually less likely to be bombarded with marketing messages

5. The challenges of selling to a niche market

The challenges of selling to a niche market can be significant, but there are ways to overcome them. One of the main challenges is that it can be difficult to create products that appeal to a niche market. However, by doing your research and understanding what the niche market wants, you can create products that they will love.

Additionally, it’s important to remember that not all niches are created equal. There are smaller niches and there are bigger niches, so it’s important to find the right one for your business. If you try to target a niche that is too small, you won’t have enough customers to make it worth your while. However, if you target a niche that is too big, you may find it difficult to appeal to all of those people.

When selling to a niche market, it’s also important to remember that you need to cater to their specific needs. This means creating a website or storefront that is designed for them, as well as marketing campaigns that are specifically targeted at them. Additionally, it’s important to build relationships with these customers and keep them updated on your products and services, all of which can be a challenge if you’re already juggling a lot of different aspects of your business and life. One way to meet these challenges is by partnering with a full-service eCommerce agency that can provide support for your website, your marketing, and other niche market needs.

6. How do you create products for a niche market?

Don’t already have a product or service? If you’re starting at square one, you’re in luck. Instead of trying to figure out what niche is interested in your brand or how to find the audience, you can work backward: identify the niche and then create the product or service just for them!

One great way to identify a niche market is to look at your own interests and passions. What are you interested in that other people might not be? What can you talk about for hours on end without getting bored?

Once you’ve identified the niche, it’s time to start creating products or services that appeal to them. This can include anything from a new type of product to a unique angle on an existing one. You can also look at what other businesses in the niche are doing and try to do it better or differently. Another tip: ask yourself what kind of service do you wish you had for your niche? What pains do you yourself feel around your niche? You can bet there are other people in that niche feeling the same pains and your product or service could be exactly what they’re wishing for.

Conclusion

When selling to a niche market, it’s important to remember that you need to cater to their specific needs. This means creating a website or storefront that is designed for them, as well as marketing campaigns that are specifically targeted at them. Additionally, it’s important to build relationships with these customers and keep them updated on your products and services. One way to meet these challenges is by partnering with a full-service eCommerce agency that can provide support for your website, your marketing, and other niche market needs.

Whether you have a product and are trying to find its niche audience or are trying to create a product to fit a niche, you’ve got some challenges to overcome. Once you do, however, the benefits of a niche market can make all the challenges worth it.

How a Full-Service eCommerce Agency Makes Your Life easier

Christian Bodine on April 5, 2022

Do you have an eCommerce business? Are you tired of dealing with multiple vendors, tech integrations, software services and more, all while trying to piece together a cohesive online selling strategy?

If so, then you need to consider hiring a full-service eCommerce agency. Check out the ways partnering with a Full-Service eCommerce Agency can serve your needs:

Cohesive Strategy, Not Siloed Efforts

When you work with an eCommerce agency that offers a full suite of services, all the strategy and efforts will be consolidated into one place. This makes it easier to create and follow through on your sales goals. One company is responsible for your website design, user experience, digital marketing, and even your conversions. This creates a cohesive eCommerce strategy that is more likely to increase revenue and conversions than a disconnected strategy.

Time and Energy Savings

By hiring one company to manage all of your online needs, you are freeing up time and energy that can be put into other important areas of the business. Instead of spending the extra time it takes to explain your sales goals and brand values to several different company’s teams, you can share the information once and rest assured each piece of your strategy is in alignment with your objectives. Plus, you’ll never have to worry that one of your vendors or partners efforts are negating another’s. 

More Efficient Decision Making

When you have one company managing all of your eCommerce needs, it is easier to make decisions about the next steps for your business. For example, if a new feature on the website or an updated user experience flow will impact email marketing and PPC campaigns, you can discuss those changes with only one team. This not only saves headaches of repeating yourself, it can save you money and has the potential to increase revenue.

One Agency Means One Budget

When your website, digital marketing and other online eCommerce efforts are all managed by one company, your budget will be simpler to manage. Instead of having separate budgets for each vendor or partner you work with in order to sell online effectively, you can work out a budget with only one company.  This can save you money in the long run.

Higher Quality Work

Working with a full-service eCommerce agency usually means you will be working with a team of highly skilled professionals. These are people who have years of experience in website design, user experience, digital marketing and more. They also know how to work together as a team to create the best results for your business. When you work with a boutique eCommerce agency, the team is usually smaller and may not have as much experience in all areas of online sales.

Easier Scalability

As your business grows, you will need to make changes to your online strategy. This can include expanding your team, adding new features to the website or increasing your digital marketing efforts. With a full-service eCommerce agency, these changes are easier to implement and manage. You don’t have to worry about finding new vendors or working with multiple teams. Instead, you can work with one company to scale your online efforts and grow your business, and you can do it faster than ever before.

Increased Efficiency

In order to sell online successfully, you will need a website with an easy user experience and seamless eCommerce functionality. A full-service agency can help ensure your website is efficient for both customers and employees. For example, if one team member working on the UX notices that a new feature or design may negatively impact email marketing efforts, they can communicate this to the digital marketing team. This type of communication and collaboration is crucial for an efficient eCommerce business, and a full-service agency makes it happen.

Classy Llama — a Rock Solid eCommerce Partner

If you’re looking for a full-service eCommerce agency, look no further than Classy Llama. We offer web development, user experience, conversion rate optimization, digital marketing, consultation services and more, to help businesses of all sizes increase their online sales. Thanks to our team of eCommerce veterans, we can handle everything for you in one place, no matter how complex or how custom, which saves time and energy and frees you up to do what you love: run your eCommerce business.

Click here, fill out our contact form, and get started with a free roadmap preview call today.

Selling Aftermarket on Adobe Commerce: 5 auto parts eCommerce solutions

Christian Bodine on March 22, 2022

Selling aftermarket parts online is a unique challenge. Most parts merchants have incredibly large catalogs with many complex categories. Not only that, most customers now expect an intuitive search experience where they can enter their specific year, make, and model or even a VIN lookup to ensure they’re getting a part that fits.

When thinking about this kind of advanced functionality, one of the most significant decisions that parts sellers and automotive merchants face is selecting their eCommerce platform.

Let’s take a look at some specific benefits of the Adobe Commerce platform (backed by Magento) and how they relate to selling automotive parts online.

1) Caching and Progressive Web Apps

Adobe Commerce (Magento) is a very powerful application that provides a ton of features out of the box. It can also support massive product catalogs and be extended with customizations. 

Can all of this flexibility and power really be delivered at speeds the modern shopper expects? Yes!

Adobe Commerce provides two different methods for building the user interface of your site, both of which have unique solutions for speeding up page load times. You can use the responsive theme framework with full page cache, or build your pages with Progressive Web App technology.

Method One: Full Page Cache

When you have a sizeable parts catalog, there can be a large number of product pages being accessed by multiple users concurrently. While many factors contribute to page load times – from hosting and application performance to image optimization – load times can be significantly reduced with Adobe Commerce’s built-in full page cache.

As pages are served the first time, these page files are stored in the cache, allowing them to be delivered to the end user faster the next time they are accessed. This not only speeds up the response time, but also reduces the load on the Magento application, alleviating additional slowness during peak traffic.

Method Two: Progressive Web Apps

The newest way to build the front end of your site is using Progressive Web Apps (PWAs). Adobe Commerce’s PWA Studio provides a set of developer tools that makes it easier for merchants and developers to build fast and engaging mobile experiences.

Using modern web technologies, PWAs provide much faster load times and more of an app-like experience on mobile devices. PWAs cache most of the assets in your device’s browser and communicate with the site via API to get dynamic data and perform actions, providing an overall faster experience for the user.

This is important in the automotive industry, as many times shoppers are on mobile devices in the shop, at the car show, or on the go, and will return to your site multiple times as they look for that perfect part. With Adobe Commerce (Magento) PWA, mobile shoppers also benefit from app-like features such as native push notifications and limited offline access without requiring the user to install an app.

2) Powerful Attributes

Adobe Commerce and Magento’s Entity, Attribute, Value (EAV) data model provides tons of flexibility out of the box. With the ability to add different types of attributes to your products, you can refine how shoppers find what they need.

Adobe Commerce gives you the ability to set up different types of attributes depending on what data you need in order to identify or describe your products. These include:

  • Text Field
  • Text Area
  • Text Editor
  • Date
  • Yes/No
  • Dropdown
  • Multiple Select
  • Price
  • Media Image
  • Fixed Product Tax
  • Visual Swatch
  • Text Swatch

These attributes allow you to get very detailed in providing specs for your products. Attributes can then be set to be used in layered navigation, which allows shoppers to drill down to the exact product they are looking for. Attributes can also be used for displaying certain details on the product page, or even to power configurable product variations (like color, size, etc).

You can create attribute sets for the various types of products you sell. For example, you can have one attribute set for batteries and another for mufflers, each containing different sets of attributes. This makes managing your product catalog much easier. When you add a new product, you can simply select the relevant attribute set that includes all the attributes you need for that type of product.

3) Fitment

Fitment provides a method for shoppers to “shop by vehicle” and makes the shopping experience more streamlined by only displaying products that are compatible with the vehicle selected.

Rather than clicking through categories and subcategories of products for all different vehicles, fitment allows users to enter their vehicle information when they arrive on the site and review only relevant results.

While fitment is not a native concept in Adobe Commerce, it’s something that many automotive merchants rely on. Fortunately, there are a couple of ways to add fitment functionality to Adobe Commerce.

One way is to build a custom solution – a benefit of having an open source platform that’s designed to be customized. A Magento-certified developer or agency can build an integration with ACES (Aftermarket Catalog Exchange Standard) fitment data or other data sources to power a year, make, model lookup.

If you want to avoid a custom solution, you can leverage Adobe Commerce’s extension marketplace or third party apps that plug and play to provide shop by vehicle functionality. For example, Classy Llama built an automotive accelerator that includes a fitment extension.

This extension supports various fitment fields, so in addition to the standard year, make, model, you can have fields for the drivetrain, body style, etc. It also allows customers to save vehicles to their “virtual garage” so they don’t have to select their vehicle each time they return to your site, while allowing them to easily switch between multiple vehicles they may own. Classy Llama’s fitment extension also allows you to integrate with various data sources such as ACES/ PIES, vendor data, or a product information management system.

4) Multiple Product Types

A unique advantage of Adobe Commerce is the flexibility it provides for catalogs with different types of products. Adobe Commerce (Magento) starts with the concept of a simple product and then builds upon that. Simple products are a single product with no variations or configurations. Adobe Commerce then allows you to create configurable, bundle, and group products. You can assign simple products to these other product types and allow customers to select from different variations or kits.

Configurable products allow you to create product variations based on product attributes. For example, you may sell a specific product in either a black or chrome finish. This allows the shopper to select from these options on the product page and see an updated image for the option chosen.

Bundles or groups are useful if you want to sell a set of parts for an assembly. You may have a part that requires several nuts and bolts, gaskets, wires, etc. and you can configure a bundle to include all the parts needed for the job. Adobe Commerce also provides the ability to make your bundle products configurable — letting a shopper pick from a list of products to build the kit they need.

5) Flexible Integrations

Many times automotive merchants are working with older back-end systems that have very specific integration requirements, such as an ERP that houses customer data, inventory, or a point-of-sale system. Here are some valuable ways that Magento 2 provides flexibility when integrating with other systems:

  1. Pre-built integrations are available through various software vendors.
  2. The API for Magento 2 provides access to nearly all data you would need in order to build a custom integration if needed.
  3. Custom API endpoints can be developed into the platform allowing full control over how data is sent and received.

With these tools, there really is endless flexibility in how you can integrate with Adobe Commerce and Magento.

Conclusion

While the automotive industry has many specific needs and challenges, a flexible and powerful eCommerce platform like Adobe Commerce will allow you to create a great shopping experience, while also equipping you to integrate with your existing business systems and processes. For these reasons, Adobe Commerce is a great fit for any automotive parts site, especially those with big catalogs and special product categories.

How to save money on your eCommerce website build (so you can sleep better at night)

Christian Bodine on March 16, 2022

Creating an eCommerce website can be an expensive proposition. Not only do you need to pay for the design and development of the website, but you also need to pay for hosting and domain registration.

However, there are ways to save money on your eCommerce website build. By following these tips, you can save money on your eCommerce website build and get a website that looks great and functions well.

Do Some of the Work Yourself

One way to save money on your eCommerce website build is to do some of the work yourself.

There are a number of tasks that you can do yourself, such as creating product descriptions, setting up shipping labels, and creating coupons.

Get Help from an eCommerce Partner

If you have a small- to medium-sized business, there are likely some tasks that your team doesn’t have enough time or expertise to do. When it comes to getting your eCommerce website off the ground or improving and maintaining it, this is where an agency partner can help.

An eCommerce partner will take care of all of the heavy lifting so that you can focus on your core competencies. Plus, if you hire a full-service eCommerce agency, like Classy Llama, they’ll be able to take care of your design, development, marketing, and strategy all in one place.

Agencies will typically offer either a managed solution or an unmanaged solution. With a managed solution, the partner takes care of pretty much everything for you. With an unmanaged solution, you’ll be responsible for more tasks, but the partner will likely help you develop a strategy and lay out a plan to get your eCommerce business up and running.

You can use an eCommerce agency in combination with other tips mentioned in this article. For example, if you create product descriptions yourself, an eCommerce partner can either edit them or write them from the ground up.

The lift your eCommerce agency partner provides you can save money by freeing you up to work on more important tasks, and also help you avoid problems like your website going down, resulting in lost revenue.

Be Frugal With Your Photography

You can save time and money on your eCommerce website build by using stock photography and graphics instead of hiring a professional photographer or taking the photos yourself. Any time you need photos that aren’t custom to what you’re selling, you can find photos to use on a number of websites with high-quality, royalty-free stock photos and graphics. This will allow you to get the same quality as a professional photographer, but for a fraction of the cost and time.

Choose Your eCommerce Platform Wisely

When it comes to eCommerce platforms, there are a lot of providers to choose from. However, not all providers are created equal. Some providers are more customizable than others, some have a better track record of providing quality eCommerce solutions, and some are only the right fit for the right size of business.

Choosing the right eCommerce platform provider will save you time and money on development costs. The provider will have already built the necessary infrastructure and will be able to get your website up and running quickly and efficiently. Additionally, the provider will be able to offer support and assistance with ongoing site maintenance.

Check out Classy Llama’s work with two eCommerce platforms here:

BIG COMMERCE
ADOBE COMMERCE (FORMERLY MAGENTO)

Keep Page Number to a Minimum

When it comes to developing and hosting a website, one of the best ways to save money is to keep the number of pages on your website to a minimum. This will help to reduce development and hosting costs. Additionally, it will also help your website to load more quickly, which is important for keeping your customers happy.

Remember, you don’t need to include every page on your website in order to have a successful online presence. Focus on the most important pages and leave the rest for later. You can always add more pages as your business grows.

Discover the Wonders of Content Management Systems

A content management system (CMS) is a tool that allows you to manage the content on your website without needing to know how to code. A CMS will allow you to add, delete, and edit pages on your website quickly and easily. This can be a great way to keep your website up-to-date with the latest products and promotions.

There are a number of different CMS platforms to choose from, each with its own set of features and benefits. Shopify, BigCommerce, and Magento are all popular CMS platforms that are well suited for eCommerce websites.

When choosing a CMS platform, be sure to consider the needs of your business. If you need a lot of customization or if you have a lot of products, it may be better to use a more customizable platform. If you want simplicity and to get started quickly, then a more turnkey solution may be right for you.

Your Money Saving Future

Running an eCommerce business can be expensive, and the idea of building and running a website for your brand may give you a budget panic attack, but it doesn’t have to. Try these money savings tips and, if you really need some help, reach out to us here at Classy Llama. We’re always here to help eCommerce businesses like yours optimize their strategy and create wins for your brand.

Google Analytics and Magento 2

Christian Bodine on October 5, 2016

Google Analytics is an important tool for merchants in the eCommerce and Magento communities because it allows merchants to make informed decisions about their website based on their users’ interactions. With the advent of Magento 2, it’s important to understand how the new version utilizes and integrates with Google Analytics. If you’re familiar with Magento 1, you’ll remember that Google Analytics was fairly easy to setup so you could quickly view reporting data. What about Magento 2? Don’t worry, integration with Google Analytics offers additional features with the same setup ease.

What’s the Same?

  • Universal Analytics – Magento 2 still features the same quick-and-easy Google Analytics setup. It’s just a matter of enabling the Google Analytics setting and adding your account number. Thankfully, the deprecated option of ‘Google Analytics’ (as opposed to ‘Universal Analytics’) is no longer around to add confusion during setup.

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  • Adwords – this hasn’t changed in Magento 2; it’s still just as easy as adding your Conversion ID and Label.
  • E-commerce Tracking – One very powerful feature that seems to fly under the radar is eCommerce tracking. This feature is a must-have for any eCommerce site and lets you track transaction and product data on your site. If you already use Google Analytics with Magento, you get this feature with almost no setup. The only thing required to start using eCommerce tracking is to enable this feature in your Google Analytics account. Magento does the rest.

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  • Google Tag Manager – Magento 2 Enterprise Edition includes the option to use Google Analytics via the flexible option of Google Tag Manager.

What’s New?

Magento 2 supports a Google Analytics feature called Content Experiments. This feature allows you to setup A/B tests on your Magento site to track how different versions of pages perform. Although its simplicity makes it a good solution for small-scale A/B tests, I don’t think it’s a good solution for complicated A/B testing.

To set up content experiments, (and after toggling the feature on in Magento admin configuration settings), there are only two steps:

1. A new experiment needs to be setup in your Google Analytics account. This is pretty straightforward. (Make sure to select the option to manually insert code and save this for the next step). You can follow the instructions from Google here.

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2. Connect the new experiment with Magento. Create at least two new CMS pages, (this can be done with any number of different variants), your ‘original’ version and a ‘variant’. Place the javascript snippet from the experiment setup in the previous step under the new tab, ‘Page Experiments’. Just like other Google Analytics features, Magento handles rendering the snippet in the correct place on the front end.

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That’s it! The way this simple example experiment has been set up, half of the visitors will be sent to the original page and half to the variant. You can track how your experiments are trending in the reporting section of your Google Analytics account under Behavior > Experiments.

To learn more about how Classy Llama approaches A/B testing check out this post.

What else?

A lot of our clients are interested in eCommerce tracking. And while the eCommerce tracking provided by Google Analytics provides a lot of good data, it can sometimes be hard to visualize or grasp what you’re looking at. This is where goals and funnels come in.

  • Setup your goal(s). This can be done many different ways depending on what you are wanting to track and how your user interacts with the site. Google provides documentation on setting this up different ways. A basic example of a goal is a user completing an order (reaching the success page).

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  • One thing to keep in mind: By default, Google tracks views on secure urls separately from unsecured urls. So if you use a destination goal which includes both secure and unsecured pages, you will need to setup cross domain tracking.
  • The funnel visualization view (Under Conversions > Goals) can provide great insight into how users are moving through your website and reveal pages that have unusual rates of drop-off.

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Another common thing to track is cross-selling/upsells. A merchant may want to know how often an advertised cross-sell product is clicked. To accomplish this, an event (or trigger if using Google Tag Manager) needs to be setup to let Google know when a cross-sell product is clicked. You can do this in Google Tag Manager, or by adding some javascript: javascript ga('send', 'event', 'cross-sell', 'click', '{product-id}'); Then in the Google Analytics dashboard, setup an event goal:

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Both of these goal examples can easily be modified to include different steps in the flow or more complicated events. You can view reporting details about any of the goals you’ve set up under Conversions > Goals > Overview.

These are fairly simple examples, that just skim the top of what this feature can provide.

Summary

By expanding the features in the integration of Google Analytics, Magento 2 empowers merchants to make informed decisions about their site. And the setup ease of content experiments, eCommerce tracking, and the other Google Analytics features allow merchants to focus their efforts on improving the performance of their website.

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