Amazon.com is known for collecting data about customers and using that data in a way that benefits Amazon.com, the customer whose data is collected and all customers in general. Extracted from speeches given by Andreas Weigend, the former Chief Scientist of Amazon.com, here are five things you should be doing on your website to collect data and use it in a way that benefits your company and your customers.
- Track Clicks That Lead To A Purchase
Amazon.com is famous for its buying suggestions based on what other customers have purchased. They get this data from tracking clicks and purchases. The data helps them understand what a customer really wants and it helps other customers make decisions about what to buy. - Track Clicks That Don’t Lead To A Purchase
Clicks that didn’t lead to a purchase are valuable data, too! These clicks help you better understand customers by revealing their interests. They can also be used to help customers make a decision about what to buy. On an Amazon.com page, for example, you are provided with the percentage of people who bought the item you’re reviewing and a list of other products people bought instead with the percentage that made an alternate purchase. - Allow Your Customers To “Forward” or “Tell A Friend”
After you purchase a book on Amazon.com, you have the option to recommend the book to a friend with an email that informs the friend you’ve bought a book. This capability enables customers to market your products and services for you (viral marketing). The data helps you understand more about a customer’s social network and relationships with other customers or prospective customers. The customer is able to create or enhance an image with her friends and demonstrate knowledge in a particular area. The friend benefits with information to help make a purchasing decision. - Provide A Way To Annotate
One of the most valuable features of the Amazon.com site is the book review section. Customers voluntarily submit book reviews that help other customers decide what to buy. Whether it’s reviews, enhanced documentation, user support or other contributed knowledge, the intellectual capital that customers add is free knowledge about your products and services that can help your company. The data helps you understand what customers are paying the most attention to. Once again, it helps the customer enhance his image and provides a certain level of “fame” for having his contribution displayed on your website. - Mine Search Data
Do you capture what your website visitors search for? What do you do with that information? Search data helps you understand customer intentions and interests. At a minimum, analyzing the most common search terms – both found and not found – can help you understand why people come to your website, which products and services are of most interest, terminology you should be using to communicate with customers and other areas are of interest that you don’t support now but should consider supporting in the future. If you take action based on search results, it can benefit your customers by making things easier to find or even by creating new products and services that they need.
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Steve McDonnell
Spotfire Blogging Team
