How to Make Every Detail of Your Web Site Perfect: A Look at Crate & Barrel’s Strategy

Photo Credit: Reuters.com

Crate & Barrel’s Story

For those of you who are unaware of the brilliant, beautiful retailer called Crate & Barrel, allow me to introduce you. Crate & Barrel was founded in the 1960’s by an inspired newlywed couple in Chicago, Illinois. According to Crate & Barrel’s Web site, the couple had recently returned from their honeymoon to Europe, when they set out to make the chic and beautiful European home furnishings available in the United States. This endeavor led them throughout Europe, buying directly from glassblowers, coppersmiths, and bistros. When the couple returned home, they had no funds to purchase displays f0r their merchandise, so they stacked everything on the shipping crates and overseas barrels that brought the goods to America. Thus, the name Crate & Barrel.

 

Beautiful, Both In-Person and Online

If you have ever shopped in Crate & Barrel, you will see that its store aesthetic harkens back to that of its original 1960s stores. Its European-inspired furniture, glassware, dishes, throw pillows and decor are all displayed on unassuming shelves in an airy, inspiring layout. Each product is carefully lined up in rows, stacks, bins and buckets to assemble a beauty-by-sheer-quantity look. Crate & Barrel stores include convenient wedding registries, friendly staff, and beautiful whites and wood tones that beckon you to buy.

Crate & Barrel Store

Though the stores are a sight to be seen, in my opinion, the real brilliance of Crate & Barrel’s merchandising lies in its online store, where Crate & Barrel has leveraged Web analytics, multivariate testing and A/B Testing to ensure that its Web Site converts the maximum amount of site visitors into sales. Here’s how they did it:

 

What Exactly is Multivariate Testing?

Let’s start with “multivariate testing.” According to VisualWebSiteOptimizer.com, multivariate testing requires directing different Web site visitors to different versions of the Web site in order to test which version of the Web site produces the desired outcome. Items such as headlines, tag lines, images, colors, buttons, text, logo placement, etc. are manipulated in the test groups to see which items generate sales, clicks-through, or donations, or whatever site’s key performance indicators (KPIs) are.

Here is a visual that may help you understand multivariate testing:

Image Credit: Visual Web Optimizer

 

What Exactly is A/B Testing?

Along with multivariate testing is “A/B Testing.” According to Optimizely, A/B Testing is the process of “pitt[ing] two variations against each other.” A good example of A/B testing is changing the text on a check out button to read “Buy Now” or “Checkout” and testing with two random groups to see which button generates more sales. Other items can be manipulated as well, including the check out button’s color, placement, size, etc. This may help you visualize A/B Testing:

Image Credit: Optimizely

By testing literally every detail of a Web site, multivariate and a/b testing can help companies identify the most compelling layout to psychologically stimulate customers to perform the desired actions.

 

How Crate & Barrel Used Testing to Perfect its Site

Crate & Barrel uses multivariate and a/b testing to continue to improve its Web site, according to Examiner.com. Joan King, Crate & Barrel’s ECommerce Director and Site Optimizer and Analyst, explained that Crate & Barrel saw a 20% increase in conversion rate “due to simple changes in wording and color,” according to Examiner.com. Crate & Barrel is ALWAYS testing, and many of the tests run for two weeks at a time to allow Crate & Barrel to get an accurate read on how site visitors are responding to the small changes. Here is what the site looks like on my computer today. It may look just slightly different for you or just slightly different tomorrow because Crate & Barrel is constantly using Web analytics to improve its site.

Crate & Barrel Homepage: December 9, 2013

 

Where Web Analytics Comes In to Perfecting Web Sites

Now that we’ve discussed how Crate & Barrel changes visual elements on its Web site to improve the aesthetics and conversion rate of its Web Site, let’s examine how exactly they know which visual variations are winning out. Crate & Barrel uses the Searchmetrics software for its SEO Analytics, and it uses Omniture SearchCenter for its Web Analytics. Omniture provides Crate & Barrel with a whole slew of Web analytics data, but a few funnels receive the majority of the attention when testing different visual elements. (Refresher from an earlier blog of mine: Funnels are “path[s] that you expect visitors to take on the way to a conversion goal,” according to Web Metrics & SEO Lesson 6.)

According to a Lecture given by Joan King, Crate & Barrel keeps a close eye on its “Confirm page” and on those who proceed to check out without ever completing the transaction at the “Confirm page.” This information helps determine if the visitors were converted into sales. With each visual element change, Joan King and her team are asking, “Did this element do better or worse at driving site visitors to the confirm page?” If the answer is yes, then the element is implemented (and possibly vetted against other options in the future). Monitoring this funnel and the actions visitors take to get to the goal page (Confirm) helps ensure that each tweak is helping Crate & Barrel get closer to a perfect Web site both aesthetically and logically.

How to Make this Work For You

If you want to perform multivariate and/or a/b testing on your Web site, there are services you can subscribe to that will help you pull off this testing. One of the companies I mentioned earlier, VisualWebSiteOptimizer.com, does just that. Or, you may be able to perform your own version of multivariate or a/b testing by modifying specific visual elements of your Web site and leaving them active for a couple weeks at a time. Though this will not get as accurate of a read (due to different time frames, instead of simultaneous testing), it can shed some light on which elements preform better. Then, as these elements are implemented, use your Google Analytics account to keep an eye on your Multi-Channel Funnels and on your goal pages (i.e. your “confirm” page, or your “Thank you” page). Also keep an eye on the traffic flow people follow in your site, and keep an eye on your E-Commerce reports (specifically your Sales Performance Report and your Time-To-Purchase Report) to see if the changes are resulting in the conversions you wish to earn.

Armed with tested and tried data, you’ll be well on your way to perfecting the details of your Web site and increasing your conversion rate.

Using Web Analytics Goals: How to Make Your Google Analytics Data Actionable

Photo Credit: HubSpot

Actionable Information vs. Raw Data

Wouldn’t you agree that, as a business leader, you’d rather have actionable information than raw data? Unless you are an analyst, my guess is you would resound with, “Yes!” And I would, too. As a businessperson, it is much easier to drive my business forward when I have data that is meaningful, relevant and immediate. But, how can I wade through mounds of meaningless metrics in order to ascertain whether my Web site is serving its intended function or not? Enter the web analytics tools.

In my earlier post, I encouraged my blog followers to start using the web analytics platform, Google Analytics, for even as little as 20 minutes per day because it is the cheapest and most readily-available web analytics tool on the market, and I believe it can yield great returns in the efficiency and revenue-generation-capability of your Web site. Building upon last week, let’s use Google Analytics as an example platform to gather actionable information from your Web site. Within any web analytics software, three tools will help you gain actionable data: goals, funnels, and filters. Today we will focus on the first of these – goals – so and how to implement and track them. So, get ready to start working because after this you’ll have the eyes to see what needs to be done to make your web site perform its intended role.

Photo Credit: HubSpot

How Web Analytics Goals Work:

At first glance, web analytics goals sound very similar to the goals of any other business endeavor:

“specific strategies you’ll leverage to accomplish your business objectives,” as Avinash Kaushik defines them in his blog post “Web Analytics 101: Definitions: Goals, Metrics, KPIs, Dimensions and Targets.”

However, web analytics goals are much more specific and much more immediately measurable. According to Piwik, a web analytics software provider and competitor of Google Analytics, web analytics goals are “priorities” a company wishes to fulfill with its Web site, such as – sell an item, obtain a new customer, download a brochure, obtain a donation, or register for an event.

Take a moment and ask yourself, “What are my ‘priorities’ for my Web site?”

I’ll tell you what mine are. For this blog, my priorities are – get a new follower, get a comment, get a post “liked” or “shared” on a social media channel, and obtain a new client. Once you’ve defined your goals, you can identify what success looks like. To do this, think about what, on your Web site, would indicate that this goal has been fulfilled. According to my current course Web Analytics and SEO, Lesson 6, there are four different type of goals companies tend to have for their websites:

1. URL Destination – which web page do you want people to end up on?
2. Visit Duration – how long do you want people to spend on your site?
3. Pages/Visit – how many pages do you want them to go to on their visit?
4. Event – what, exactly, do you want them to accomplish?

Labeling goals in terms of outcomes helps make the web metrics you are seeking immediately more actionable. Many of my goals are event-based, but they can be viewed in light of some of these other categories, which can help me better determine of the goal has been met. Note how some of my goals could be categorized into different types of goals, shaping which metric I analyze to determine if the goal has been met:

• Get a new follower > Event = hitting the “follow” button, OR URL Destination = arriving at the “Thank you for subscribing” page
• Get a new comment > Event = submit a comment, OR, URL Destination = arriving at the “Thank you for your comment” page
• Get a post “liked” or “shared” on a social media channel > Event = like/share
• Obtain a new client > Event = submit a request for a demo, OR URL Destination = arriving at “Download our quick-start guide” page

How to Set up a Goal:

1. To set up a goal in Google Analytics, log in, go to “Conversions” along the left sidebar, and click “Goals.
2. Click the box “Set up goals,” and select one of the template goals, or set a custom goal for your website.
3. Once you hit “next step,” name your goal. Then, select if your goal is a “Destination,” “Duration,” “Pages/Visit,” or “Event”-based metric.
4. Set up the “Goal Details,” according to which type of goal it is.
5. Once you have entered the goal details, check to “verify this goal,” seeing how many times the goal would have been met in the past week.
6. Save your goal
7. Repeat the above steps, setting up Google Analytics goals for each goal you have set for your website.

Once these goals have been identified and set up in Google Analytics, the software will do the work itself, providing you with information specifically about what you want to know rather than the standard template reports that provide metrics that are not actionable. For me, taking a look at the number of followers my blog generated this week, helps me identify what are the best ways to drive traffic to my blog, and what are the most interesting topics to my readers. This information helps determine the way my site takes shape, and I believe, if implemented, knowing how your goals have been met will steer the direction of your website as well.

Don’t Forget Funnels and Filters!

Along with the web analytics dialogue about web analytics goals, comes mention of the two other major ways to get Google Analytics to provide actionable information. Funnels are “path[s] that you expect visitors to take on the way to a conversion goal,” according to Web Metrics & SEO Lesson 6. This helps identify which steps customers should take to arrive at your desired conversion goal, and it helps you orient your Web site in such a way as to encourage, coerce, nudge, direct (whichever word you may prefer) your site visitor to arrive at a desired outcome or complete a desired event.

Filters are similar to Goals in that they provide data to help identify if individuals have performed the desired action. Setting up a Filter is very similar to setting up a goal in Google Analytics, and these filters can provide “a way to manipulate data to provide accurate reports, showing specific data,” according to Web Metrics & SEO Lesson 6. Filters can include analyzing which domain the traffic is coming from, which IP addresses are generating traffic, and which sub-directories are sending traffic to your site. These numbers can help identify where people are coming from, so the site can better be oriented to welcome them.

Again, the more specifically you get Google Analytics to drill down into your data, the less you have to wade through, and the more actionable and immediate your data can be. Knowing the funnel through which your visitors are being directed, and setting up filters to view data according to where they are coming from all sheds light on how you can maximize and accelerate your Web site to perform its intended purpose and accomplish your goals.

Have you set up any goals for your Web site? How have these helped you see ways you may need to change/re-organize your site?