How Traffic Analysis Boosts Ecommerce Profits

Attracting traffic is critical to the health of every ecommerce business. However, large traffic numbers don’t necessarily result in sales unto themselves. To boost revenues, you must design pages optimized to convert. Then you need to determine the best ways to attract visits from shoppers who are actually interested in purchasing your products.

To make sure that you’re attracting the right website visitors, once they’re on your site you need to measure their behavior. In this sense, traffic analysis gives you a peek into the minds of the people visiting your website.

Aside from measuring straightforward metrics such as conversion rates, traffic analysis also uncovers audience behavior that points to possible product enhancements. Here are a few key ways traffic analysis can boost your profits and help you understand your audience better.

Track Product Demand

Most ecommerce businesses face seasonal variations in product demand. Anticipating these fluctuations can help you plan your working capital and cash flow better. Product demand metrics such as most visited pages and on-site product searches will help you understand what your audience is looking for.

While these data points will reveal demand, you must dig deeper into the patterns in these signals. For instance, which channels does most traffic come from, and which products does that audience search for the most? Correlating traffic channels, audience demographics, brand awareness growth and traffic nature (organic and paid) to product demand will give you insights that can reduce costs.

For instance, if the majority of paid traffic is viewing low-value products, you can model the impact this demand has on your business. You can either raise prices to see what happens to demand or discontinue your campaign and focus more on organic traffic.

Meanwhile, correlating the time of the year to product searches will help you understand seasonal variations and brainstorm ways of generating demand during these times. For instance, is your audience searching for product accessories or alternatives that you don’t carry yet? Introducing these products will help you boost sales during lean periods and plan shipping supply chains efficiently.

Improve SERP Performance

Organic traffic is the best kind of traffic in ecommerce. Whether you’re generating it from social media posts or rankings on search pages, organic traffic will help you reduce customer acquisition costs and boost audience lifetime values.

Traffic channel and SEO analysis will give you insights into the best keywords driving traffic to your website, as well as your competitors’ sites. You’ll see which keywords are driving the most traffic, and how your rankings compare to related keywords. These days, competition is high for SERP (Search Engine Results Page) positions, and you must keep an eye on the other companies operating in your category.

For example, are your competitors releasing content that addresses a topic you haven’t thought of? The best way to establish a lasting advantage over your competitors is to create a moat around the most searched keywords and related searches. This way, you’ll manage to stay on top of your customers’ minds no matter what they search for.

Traffic analysis reports also give you insight into upcoming trends in searches that you can take advantage of. You can use paid search analysis tools that break down all the insights you need for you, or you can do more manual work and mine free tools such as Google Trends.

Identify Selling Opportunities

Cross and upselling are huge profit drivers in ecommerce. Most cross-sells tend to have low sticker prices, but as sales volumes grow, they make a huge impact. Accessories, complementary products, or even service offers are examples of low-margin cross-sells that leave an outsized impression on your bottom lines.

Upselling is a tactic that smaller ecommerce companies often ignore, but no technique does more to boost average order value. Bundling products or recommending accessories before checkout will boost your revenues significantly.

For instance, if you’re running a pet store, suggesting a dog jacket or toys along with a purchase of a dog bed will add more value to your customer. Pet shampoos and other accessories are high-margin products that will keep your customers returning for more.

You can also launch subscription products on your ecommerce platform and test audience responses by looking at traffic patterns. If you’re witnessing several repeat visits and short checkout times, you have a winner on your hands and should double down on that offering.

Measure Omnichannel Performance

Ecommerce companies sell across multiple channels these days. Even if you are a small business, you’re probably selling on your website and social media, at the very least. Channel traffic reports and engagement metrics will help you figure out where you ought to invest your time.

Monitor your competitors’ traffic channels as well, but don’t be in a rush to mimic them. Consider audience traits before following a trend. For example, if a competitor is generating a ton of traffic from TikTok, but is selling to a different demographic from yours, establishing a presence on that platform might not be the best choice.

Traffic analysis gives you insights beyond mere numbers. You must drill deep and figure out ancillary audience traits and correlate them to the channels from which you’re generating traffic and orders.

You won’t always receive a one-to-one match between channels and audience qualities, but you never know what advantage you’ll discover.

More Sales from Better Analysis

Ecommerce business owners often fail to drill deeply into their traffic patterns. To gain an advantage, you must correlate traffic data with other datasets to draw conclusions that will impact your business. Not only will your sales increase, but you’ll also create impactful experiences for your customers.