Walmart and Big Analytics

Executive Summary

eCommerce has become an extremely important part of the marketing mix with the increase of online shopping and access to technology and the internet. eMarketer tracks 180 companies and have reported a total annual retail eCommerce sales figure of $201 billion. Walmart is currently ranked third in total annual eCommerce sales at $13.5 billion (Zaczkiewicz, 2016). “From online activity to in-store purchases and social mentions, Walmart has more customer connections than any retailer in the world. According to Daniel Thorpe, Senior Director of Analytics for Global Customer Insights, the company sees 300,000 social mentions per week (Four ways Walmart uses analytics, n.d.).” This case study will highlight findings in relation to Walmart’s use of digital analytics and recommendations for their strategy moving forward.

Findings

DeZyre highlights key big data points for Walmart:

•          245 million customers visiting 10,900 stores and 10 active websites across the globe
•          Close to 300,000 social mentions every week
•          Walmart collects 2.5 petabytes of unstructured data from 1 million customers every hour
•          Walmart has exhaustive customer data of close to 145 million Americans of which 60% of the data is of U.S. adults and they track and target each customer individually

But how does Walmart use the big data? DeZyre provides the following insight:

•         The analytics systems at Walmart analyze close to 100 million keywords on a daily basis to optimize the bidding of each keyword
•          By incorporating big data into their overall strategy framework Walmart observed a 10% to 15% increase in online sales for $1 billion in incremental revenue

Bridg further breaks down exactly how Walmart tracks their customer’s lifecycle from their web data:

Mining Sales Data

“Data mining helps Walmart find patterns in their sales data that can be used to provide personalized product recommendations and promotional offers. They use a matching algorithm to discover products commonly purchased together or purchased in a particular sequence (The Walmart Big Data Case Study: Think Large, Act Small, n.d.).”

Connecting In-Store and Online Customer Behavior

“Walmart pulls data from common sources like clickable actions on their website, contact information from their e-club, and POS transactions, as well as from one-of-kind programs developed by Walmart Labs (The Walmart Big Data Case Study: Think Large, Act Small, n.d.).”

Personalized Email Marketing

“Walmart’s extensive inventory of actionable data has given their marketing teams incredible power in driving new revenue through best-in-class email marketing (The Walmart Big Data Case Study: Think Large, Act Small, n.d.).” Their email marketing includes personalized recommendations, time of spend and personalized subject lines creating a more intimate experience with their customers.

Conclusion

Walmart is a leading retailer for many reasons and their recent success can be attributed to their use of web data to drive strategy resulting in more online sales and conversions. One of Walmart’s strength is that they are open to new data and find new ways to use and manipulate what they have to find the right people at the right time while maintain personal communication with existing customers.

Recommendations

I think one of Walmart’s great opportunities (and most retailers) is within predictive analytics. I know most are using these analytics in some capacity and starting to scratch the surface but this information is so, so valuable.

Improve Customer Engagement and Increase Revenue

Predictive analytics allow retailers to manipulate variables to create environments that present the engagement most likely by a consumer. “This could mean signing up for a newsletter, clicking on a promotion or or some other form of engagement (Mehra, n.d.).”

Launch Promotions That Are Better Targeted For Your Customers

Predictive analytics help take multiple touch points into consideration – personalize promotions, targeted customer segments, browsing behavior – to provide the right promotion to the right customer (Mehra, n.d.).

Minimize Fraud by Proactively Detecting It

Fraud has been a huge issue with retailers in recent years with more hacks happening every day compromising valuable customer information. Incorporating predictive analytics can help utilize the information their website is gathering to actually prevent fraud. There are solutions available that take into account browsing patterns, payment methods and purchasing patterns to detect and reduce fraud (Mehra, n.d.).

Although predictive analysis is a newer solution and requires additional plugins the outcomes are extremely beneficial to any retailer in the eCommerce world. I think Walmart could benefit tremendously by continuing to evaluate these tools and implement when possible. 

References 

Four ways Walmart uses analytics. (n.d.). Retrieved November 21, 2016, from                http://www.sas.com/en_us/insights/articles/analytics/four-ways-walmart-uses-analytics.html

How Big Data Analysis helped increase Walmarts Sales turnover? (n.d.). Retrieved November 21, 2016,from https://www.dezyre.com/article/how-big-data-analysis-helped-increase-walmarts-sales-turnover/109

Mehra, G. (n.d.). How Predictive Analytics Is Transforming eCommerce & Conversion Rate Optimization.Retrieved November 21, 2016, from http://conversionxl.com/predictive-analytics-changing-world-retail/?hvid=352IDw

The Walmart Big Data Case Study: Think Large, Act Small. (2015). Retrieved November 22, 2016, from http://bridg.com/blog/walmart-big-data/

Zaczkiewicz, A. (2016, March 7). Amazon, Wal-Mart Lead Top 25 E-commerce Retail List. Retrieved November 21, 2016, from http://wwd.com/business-news/financial/amazon-walmart-topecommerce-retailers-10383750/

Next Analytics: Power Tools for Web and Social Media Analysts

Analytics play a crucial part in the advertising and marketing ecosystem. As the industry landscape continues to evolve, so must the tools we have available to probably analyze and implement change. One of the fastest growing and popular channels is social media. So often we find ourselves in new surroundings within this particular landscape – be it the creative units, the buying model, the KPIs and measurements available – as everyone things rapidly.

Any brand that plays in the digital space expects big data. I am not entirely sure wear this notion was born but I don’t necessarily agree with it. There is a huge difference between big data and actionable data. I like to look for solutions that help me dissect the data, discover insights and inform strategy.

Google Analytics is a platform that is a stepping stone to possibilities. As a solution powered by Google, the resources, partners and options to dig further into data is unparalleled. “Whether you need the help of animplementation or analysis expert, or you are looking for a turnkey solutionfor your business, Google Analytics technology and certified partners are readywith a solution." An added benefit to the Google Analytics Partners available is that there are a large number of app based solutions. As we are currently an on-the-go society it is important to have access to information at our finger tips. Google’s technology partners provide “ready-to-use applications that extend Google Analytics in new andexciting ways. This includes solutions that help analysts, marketers, IT teams,and executives get the most out of Google Analytics.”

One of their app-based social solution partners is next analytics. Next analytics is a solution that merges web and social analytics into easy-to-read reports and dashboards. It’s a hybrid Excel + Cloud solution that is easily accessible and always available.

What I find most appealing about this solution is that it provides a hub for web traffic and social media to come together to tell a more complete story that can be attributed back to goals. The next mission states that “NEXThelps organizations work smarter to develop and refine strategies and tacticsbased on insight and evidence.” Their mission and visions are closely aligned with solutions rooted in evidence based improvements and strategy which should be extremely appealing to any marketer. Data is an incredibility valuable resource for driving future success from past learnings. Finding and implementing solutions like next analytics layers in data from various sources to provide a more holistic approach to decision making.

Next analytics highlights two pillars to their success: 

A winning approach that becomes a time-saving competitive advantage. Their solution allows users to design in Excel and publish to Cloud for refresh and distribution.

·         Build custom reports using Excel

·         Upload spreadsheets to the Cloud

·         Refresh from any device, anywhere

·         Automated Distribution with no labor or IT involvement

Simplify Update and Distribution. Nothing to install, works on computer, tablet and mobile phones.

Not only is the application easy to use but it allows connectivity to reach driving social platforms. The next analytics application connects to the following social channels (Features, n.d.):

Google Analytics

·         Goals

·         Engagement

·         eCommerce

·         Content

Facebook

·         Single Post

·         Posts

·         Page

·         Group

·         App

·         Ads

·         Domain

Adwords

·         Account Performance

·         Campaign Performance

·         Ad Group Performance

·         Keywords Performance

·         Search Performance

·         Ad Performance

YouTube

·         Country Analytics

·         Daily Analytics

·         Demographics Analytics

·         Shares Analytics

·         Videos Analytics

Instagram

·         Account

·         Hashtag

·         Location

Twitter

·         Followers

·         Following

·         Mentions

Another solution that could be implemented is Filament which is focused on blog insights. “Google Analytics tells you what happened on your blog. Filament tells you why & what to do about it. By listening to your blog's traffic patterns, sharing & visitor behavior, Filament generates automatic tips to improve the performance of your content with less time and effort."

In addition to Filament’s integration with Google Analytics and reporting benefits they offer a ton of key metrics to complete the Google Analytics + Social picture.

On their site they highlight the following key metrics:

Social Sharing Performance. See total share counts and how engaged traffic is from each social referrer.

Top Social Supporters. See who is sharing your content, and easily follow them or reach out to thank them or introduce yourself.

Content Category Comparison. We’ll show you which topics or categories are the most engaged, shared and viewed on your blog.

Sharing Ratio. We’ll show you which networks bring you the most visits per share so you can promote better.

Page Retention. How effective a page or post is at keeping visitors on your site and moving them on to other content.

Engagement Score. One simple metric shows how effective pieces of content are at getting shared, seen and interacted with.

Pageviews + Bounce. Both of these key metrics are in every screen, as well as other base analytics.

Visitor Scroll Depth. See how much of your content your visitors are reading and what topics are consistently most read.

The added benefits of these additional applications in conjunction with Google Analytics are abundant. But, as always, it is in us to find the insights – what is performing, what is not? Where can we optimize across channels? What content should we be writing and where should we be promoting it? We test and learn different tactics for that exact reason, to learn.

The implementation of Google Analytics opens the doors to the solutions across the entire digital landscape. It is this connectivity that opens possibility.

Kissmetrics: Customer Intelligence and Web Analytics

Most of Google’s products seem to be top of mind when it comes to the digital landscape – and Google Analytics is no different. Although it is an accessible tool, there are many other tools available that offer similar services. One huge advantage working for Google Analytics is “Google.” Google is a brand that implies credibility and leader in the space.

As I have been diving more and more into the space of web analytics one resource I have come to rely heavily on is Kissmetrics. Although I have referenced many articles, case studies and findings from Kissmetrics, I didn’t actually know they were also a web analytic platform. It’s easy to get caught up in finding resources serving our goal without truly appreciating the whole picture of who they are.

“We believe. Good data is actionable data. Data-informed insights grow every business. A good product is always evolving. The best approach is to keep it simple.”

Kissmetrics offers products within two pillars: Analyze andEngage. Their analytics tool allows brands to “make better marketing decisionsacross the board. Set up reports to know your audience’s online behavior fromanonymity to retention. Whiletheir engage tool “prompts smarter nudges at key conversion points. Optimizeevery interaction on your website based on triggers you set.

Furthermore, Kissmetrics aims to turn visitors into customers – increasing conversions and retention and they have grouped their purpose into three categories: increase conversions, drive retention, fuel growth (Home, n.d.).

Increase conversions – See why visitors convert, or not. Identify and remove roadblocks to increase conversions

Drive Retention – Understand what leads to user adoption, engagement and churn. Be proactive to drive retention

Fuel Growth – Aligning your initiatives with customer behavior is key to fueling company growth.

WooRank rank looked at various web analytic tools other than Google Analytics to provide pros and cons of each. Kissmetrics was included in the evaluation and the results are below:

Pros

• People Tracking: This tool gives you an event-based analytic package that conveys data beyond just page views. It gives you details of each customer activity and answers to questions what, why and how for that particular activity, right in their reports. Hence, it is more productive for businesses that deal directly with customers, such as an e-commerce business.
•  Unlimited Reports: You get unlimited reports and unlimited A/B split tests.
• User Segmentation: Unlike other tools of this genre, Kissmetrics provides information of every individual website visitor even before they become a customer. This data is stored so that you can use these for future marketing campaigns and segmenting your customers.
• URL Parameters: The tool allows you to track click on your links by adding parameters to the specific URLs, with no additional Javascript code required. Read this section to know more.
• Mobile App: It has a mobile app called My Analytics.

Cons

• The real time metrics is not very accurate.
• Since the pricing is slightly on the higher end, it is not fit for websites with insufficient budgets.

According to Finance Online, Kissmetrics is rooted in actionable insights and highly flexible data. The system tracks a visitor and records all visits and records all activities before they even convert to an actual customer. By having this level of data brands are able to know and understand the consumer before they make a purchase. How can we more effectively talk to them? What attributes do they find most important? What are they looking for and how will this improve their daily life? What can we offer them in addition to “x”? Having this type of data early on in the customer journey allows brand flexibility in messaging and tactics.

The Finance Online review highlights the following key features:

• Free Setup Guidance,
• Unlimited Funnel, Cohort and Retention Reports
• Unlimited Customer Profiles
• Unlimited Group Contact Lists
• Unlimited A/B Test Reports
• No-Limit Conversion Periods
• Email Support
• Unlimited Testing/Staging Sandboxes
• Segment Data By Any Point in Time
• Real Time Dad Monitoring/Debugger Tool
• Multi and Cross Platform/Device Support
• Data Support

In contract, Finance Online also provides a Google AnalyticsReview highlighting Google Analytics as “the world’s most popular freemium web analytics service, used worldwide by thousands of companies (n.d.).” The Google Analytics dashboard is nimble and allows for data summarizations in various forms to provide invaluable data informing strategy, optimization and budgets.

The Finance Online review highlights the following key features:

• Advertising Reports
• API
• Campaign Measurement
• Cost Data Import
• Mobile Ads Measurement
• RemarketinG
• Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
• Advanced Segments
• Annotations
• Content Experiments
• DashboardS
• Mobile Traffic
• Social Reports
• Traffic Sources
• App-Specific Metric and Dimensions
• Crash & Exception Reporting
• Multi-Channel Flows
• Alerts
• Event Tracking
• Site Search
• Site’s Speed Analysis
• And many more…

After reviewing Kissmetrics in comparison to Google Analytics I think there can be a place for both in the word of data. Specifically for Kissmetrics, I think their most beneficial attribute is in regards to eCommerce. If a brand or business is looking for eCommerce specific insights and data points, Kissmetrics may be more beneficial than Google Analytics.

Through Kissmetrics approach of following a visitor from their very first touchpoint with the website, these analytics are able to inform stronger insights to the path to purchase. These insights allow brands to create actions to drive conversions based on history. Most importantly Kissmetrics offers data into the referral revenue – not just the referral source of where they came from but the data provides an idea as to how each source is driving sales and where paying customers are coming from. As eCommerce becomes a great piece of the marketing pie, these analytics tools will continue to become more and more important.

So often we look at reporting tools as either or. As with most things in life we look for the one-stop shop with all the bells and whistles to eliminate creating a more convoluted landscape. Unfortunately this isn’t always the right solution. A lot of these tools can benefit from each other and the more insight and data we have at our fingertips, the more powerful we are.  

Social Strategy in the Marketing Mix

Social strategy has become a key component in the marketing mix – but questions still remain as to what platforms should brands be on? What’s the perfect platform mix? Should brands play on all platforms? Does each platform serve a different purpose? Do brands need different communication strategies tailored for each?

Social media is changing every day and the platforms users use continue to grow and therefore I strongly advocate for a nimble social strategy that is rooted in brand objectives and help achieve campaign KPIs. Looking at social strategy as a part of a larger puzzle opens the doors for the inclusion of multiple platforms allowing brands to target their audiences with unique, platform personalized communication tactics.

There are lots of considerations when determining platforms within a strategy – Budget? Buy model? Audience reach on the platform? Creative assets available? Creative assets to create? There are countless elements that could influence ultimately the decision on which platforms to include and which to not. However, if possible. I think brands should be active on any/all relevant social platforms that deliver against their KPIs.

The most important component for determining which platforms to use is understanding the function and use of each.

Facebook

Facebook is the largest social media platform where users consume content, conversate and share their lives. Facebook provides brands a platform to create a visual representation of who they are and to interact with their audience. The pages become a content hub and the insights into the fans of a page are priceless benefits of using Facebook.

Facebook pages also impact SEO so from a web analytic standpoint, utilizing the Facebook platform adds additional benefits.

SEO Tips for Facebook

• ·       The ‘page name’ should be in the brand, business
• ·       The ‘info’ and ‘about’ tabs should be heavy populated
• ·      Link to relevant pages within the brand’s site/landing pages as much as possible
• ·      Add relevant descriptions to photos and events to increase search ability
• ·      All other online initiatives should drive to Facebook – the ‘F’ logo should always be visible to encourage and increase traffic to the page

For reach and frequency it is important to note that Facebook has acquired Instagram which is built in leverage to another extremely successful social platform.

From personal experience Facebook is a great platform to utilize for both awareness and eCommerce campaigns and marketing efforts. As the social platform with the most active users if a brand were to focus on one single platform – I would recommend Facebook.

Pinterest

As Pinterest continues to advance, so do their offerings and I think one of the most recent additions to the platform has a huge potential to boost this platform as an eCommerce driver – buyable pins. “Buyable Pines let people buy your products without ever leaving Pinterest (Buyable Pins, n.d.).” Buyable pins are easily recognizable as they are marked with a blue price. These pins can be found in search results, in related pins and within a business’s profile.

This is a brand new offering and not available to all advertisers yet however, once released, any brand with a presence on the platform working towards eCommerce strategies should implement.

Instagram

“Instagram, with more than 40 billion images shared and 400 million monthly active users, generates an average of 80 million photos per day. The mobile-based photo- and video-sharing social network powers the sharing of images and creation of community among users around the world. At only six years old, the platform has shown significant growth in its overall user base and in almost every demographic group (Johnston, 2016).”

Every platform has the opportunity to be successful, with the right strategy. Johnston, from Sprout Social put together a power strategy guide for Instagram.

·         Determine your objectives

o    What can we achieve on Instagram that we can’t elsewhere?

o    Who is our target audience and who from that audience is active on Instagram?

o    How does Instagram integrate with other networks in the social strategy?

Possible Instagram specific objectives:

§  Increase brand awareness

§  Increase customer engagement and loyalty

§  Showcase products and services

§  Connect with influencers

·         Develop a Content Strategy

o    Build Content Themes

o    Determine types of content and ratio

o    Set a content calendar (but be flexible)

o    Curating User Generated Content

o    Establish Clear Guidelines for Style, Publishing and Workflow

o    Foster Engagement and Set Guidelines for Community Management

§  Optimize Bio Link

§  Manage comments, mentions and direct messages

§  Follow accounts

§  Monitor hashtags and location tags

§  Search and Explore

·         Analyze Results

As previously mentioned since Facebook has purchased Instagram and the two social platforms integrate seamlessly in terms of buying and execution, the power of these tools is only just being realized.

Snapchat

Snapchat is a more recent addition to the advertising landscape in the world of social media, but it is rapidly growing and seeing success early.

Carlo Pacis recognizes separate marketing strategies and their objectives to grow business on Snapchat.

Strategy 1: Snapchat Exclusive Promotions

• ·      Objective: Increase e-commerce sales
• ·      These exclusive promotions rely on the business already having a snapchat following but the more follows the more effective occasional discounts and coupon codes will be.

Strategy 2: Day-to-Day Snaps

• ·         Objective: Increase business & product knowledge
• ·         These daily snaps create top of mind awareness and increase the value offered via social.

Strategy 3: Geofilters

• ·         Objective: Publicize events related to your business

Strategy 4: Influencer Marketing

• ·         Objective: Increase business/product legitimacy + reach
• ·         This can be achieved through sponsored posts, Snapchat takeovers, etc.

Strategy 5: Contests

• ·         Objective: Grow Snapchat following for future marketing
• ·         Contest on any channel are a great way to incentivize people within your   target to follow and engage on social media. 

Each platform can serve a unique purpose in any marketing plan. When building plans with multiple social channels it is imperative that it is understood how they can work together to increase reach, frequency, engagement and amplify the message while driving to the KPI. Social is such a powerful tool and with the capabilities and connectivity rapidly evolving, it will continue to be a foundation in digital strategy.