WASP Market Research: Top 500 Online Retail Sites

My contribution to last week eMetrics Industry Insight was a short 10 minutes presentation based on WASP Market Research feature. I shared the results of two analysis I've done:

1. The web analytics tools used on a random sample of 120,000 websites visited by web analysts
2. An analysis of the Top 500 Internet Retail Sites in the US.

WASP - Web Analytics Solution Profiler Market Research

If you don't see the presentation below, you can get view it on SlideShare.

eMetrics Industry Insight (Washington D.C., 081020)

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own.

I have just done minor edits to comment some slides and the design was slightly altered by Slideshare.

The shakedown

Remember that was two days before the announcement of Google Analytics new features.

In my presentation, notice the strong shares of Google Analytics. On slide 10, it's even more interesting to note how often Google Analytics is along with another tool. If I'm Omniture or Coremetrics and I see a growing overlap with GA I would get worried. If I'm one of the 120 other players and Google Analytics is always there... I'm scared like a kid in a haunted house at Halloween!

If you look at the retail sites, 78% of them are already engaged in web analytics. I'm afraid the 22% who aren't will get hit much harder by the economical meldown (slide #8).

The brighter side

On the brighter side, slide #5 indicates "39% of unknown or none", a minor 1% improvement over the presentation I did at the previous eMetrics San Francisco in May (although not significant).

Slide #6 shows the concept of "multiplicity" proposed by Avinash Kaushik isn't quite there yet and there are lots of opportunities for market growth.

The shear reality of the economy

Based on numerous conversations I had at eMetrics, be it with market analysts, vendors or web analysts at companies or consulting agencies, I think we can expect the following:

• Vendors will see a major slowdown. Companies who are already engaged in web analytics probably won't deploy new solutions for a while. They will do with what they have. Those who aren't and really want to get in will jump on Google Analytics.
• Consulting agencies will see a slowdown and change in type of service they provide. Often overloaded, some slowdown might be welcome (but not too much!)... agencies will be solicited for shorter, narrower mandates.
• Web analysts at mature companies. If you are lucky enough to work for a company with a somewhat mature analytical culture, the long term objectives remain and budget shouldn't be slashed radically because the benefits are already proven. As we like to say, it's even more important to do web analytics when the economy goes crazy...
• Web analysts at early stage. If you haven't demonstrated good ROI and are still strugling with implementation, internal politics and such... good luck!
• Education and conferences... if your budget for education & conferences is not already slashed to nearly zero... expect it to be pretty soon!

What's your take? Any comments about the presentation or my views of the market are welcome!

Seeking a Top 1000 site list for study

As you might know, I'm not only tutoring for the Web Analytics Award of Achievement at UBC and working on WASP, I'm also very interested in research & education. As part of my involvement with Laval University eBusiness MBA program (Quebec city, in French), I would like to conduct a research on something that have never been done before.

What is the true value of web analytics?

The goal of the study is to find out and quantify how much of an impact web analytics might have on the bottom line, and predict expected ROI. Some possible questions:

• Are top performers using more sophisticated web analytics tools?
• Are companies with a more mature analytical culture more profitable?
• Are they achieving significantly higher online conversion rates?

Seeking Top 1,000 online sites

I need your help!

I'm looking for a "Top 1000" list of some kind (top online retail sites, top UK sites, etc.) ranked by traffic, or better, by benefits or conversion rates, with available public information. If I can get more then 1000 sites it would be even better since I want to create a predictive model out of this data.

I'm thinking of Compete, Comscore,  maybe Bill Gassman from Gartner or John Lovett from Forrester/JupiterResearch have such a list? Of course... I simply can't afford to pay for that data... But I would be delighted to work and share my results with whoever can get me this list! :)

eMetrics Toronto is next!

This week in Washington, the eMetrics Marketing Optimization Summit announced the date and call for speakers for its Toronto, Ontario conference. We aim to build upon the success and lessons learned in the 2008 eMetrics Summit Series offering a big-picture view of optimizing online marketing value and improving overall business strategy.

The two-day conference (March 29 - April 1, 2009) agenda covers a wide range of topics to provide a holistic view of web marketing optimization, including but not limited to:

• Discovering the metrics behind opinions and conversations
• A/B and multivariate testing
• Online marketing analytics: campaigns, promotions and e-commerce
• Consumer-generated content: turning threats into opportunities

Marketers and analysts will learn from industry leaders within the online publishing, retail, education, government and non-profit sectors. Experts will share their experience and deliver real-life case studies and more. Attendees will gain firsthand knowledge from in-depth sessions covering search analytics, monetizing online behavior and best practices for measuring results and optimizing the purchase process.

Call for speakers

We are seeking presentations on the nitty gritty of web analytics and marketing optimization as well as sessions on search analytics, email marketing optimization and behavioral targeting. The deadline to submit a proposal via the online form is November 15, 2008.

Advisory board

The conference is co-chaired by Jim Sterne, conference founder and chairman of the Web Analytics Association, and Alex Langshur, president and co-founder of PublicInsite. The advisory board is comprised of the best and brightest in the marketing optimization field, including:

• Stephane Hamel, consultant and blogger for immeria.net;
• Brent Hieggelke, web analytics evangelist and president of Throttle Marketing;
• Mitch Joel, president of Twist Image;
• June Li, managing director of ClickInsight;
• Mike Sukmanowsky, analytics and insight specialist for Rogers Media;
• Simon Rivard, vice president of marketing for Quebecor Media - Canoe;
• Jacques Warren of WAO Marketing Inc.