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.