INTRODUCTION
Are you looking for free ecommerce analytics tools? Your answer to the question will be a simple “Yes!” as most of the online business owners find it difficult to dedicate time and money on ecommerce analytics. The last thing they want to do is to deal with issues arising due to wrong interpretation of the data gathered using paid software and plugins.
Data is as fundamental to an eCommerce business as are its products and services for its customers. Data in the form of metrics throw insights into your business and keep you in check of its progress. Consider it as a narrator, who tells you the accurate story of your customers, how they are interacting with your site along with figuring out who’s doing what. And that’s why you must invest your time setting up an analytics tool for your eCommerce website before anything else
While I would really recommend analytics tools to be the first tool any website owner should install on their site, there are certain features that make them an absolute must on ecommerce sites. In this article, I have found the top seven best ecommerce analytics tools.
Make sure you’re making the best decision for your business by using the right analytics tool for your ecommerce website. I’ve put together a list of the best free ecommerce analytics tools.
1. KISSmetrics
If you are looking for a comprehensive ecommerce analytics solution, then KISSmetrics should really be your first stop. The company offers a powerful analytics tool that provides really good information that helps you increase customer acquisition and retention rates. Through the very detailed information presented, you can make better decisions on not only the layout but also the marketing of your online store.
2. RetentionGrid
Another analytics software that is almost always mentioned in the same sentence KISSmetrics is RetentionGrid. What’s great about RetentionGrid is the fact it provides the data in easy to understand color-coded graphs, furthermore, they provide suggestions on how to best reach the different segments, in other words, what kind of marketing works best as well as which campaigns will have the best results depending on who your visitors are.
3. Metrilo
Metrilo is an actionable analytics platform that comes with not only analytics but an integrated CRM and automated email marketing systems. This allows you to look at reports, and act upon them straight away.
The tool also comes with a Retention analysis, which can help you understand your customer lifecycle and it can also help you send out marketing material at the right time and can help you turn one time buyers into loyals- a feature that’s rare in usual analytics solutions.
In short, Metrilo gives you eCommerce analytics that will help you fine-tune your marketing activities and boost sales.
Also, Metrilo integrates well with WooCommerce, Magento, and Shopify and syncs historical data, which means once you integrate, it would feel just like you’ve had Metrilo all along. Nifty, huh?
4. Clicky
One thing that makes Clicky so popular is the fact that it is extremely easy to use, meaning no matter how experienced you are, you will still be able to use this analytics tool. One aspect that sets Clicky apart from their main competitors is the live information made available to website owners.
5. Adobe Marketing Cloud
Adobe Marketing Cloud is another very powerful analytical tool often used by large ecommerce stores. However, before you go ahead and spend a truck load of money, please be aware of the fact that it does require significant knowledge of the application in order to set it up properly, and it can end up being a very costly affair before you get the data you really need.
6. Google Analytics
Compiling a list of best analytics tools without mentioning Google Analytics is like mentioning Italy without saying Pizza or Pasta. Google Analytics is perhaps one of the most well-known web analytics tools used by website owners from all corners of the globe. The only drawback is that in order to get really detailed reports, you really need to spend a lot of time fine tuning the different tools. Thanks to the popularity of the tool, there are literally hundreds of tutorials on the web, also thanks to the popularity of tool, it is easily integrated into many ecommerce platforms.
7. Crazy Egg
Crazy Egg isn’t as much an ecommerce analytical solution as the rest of the solutions mentioned in this list, instead, it can really be used on almost any website. What makes this software better than many other solutions is the fact that they offer some very comprehensive and yet user-friendly graphs. Furthermore, the company offers information in the form of heat maps, which can be used to examine which areas of your website you need to focus on and which areas your visitors are simply ignoring.
8 .Facebook Pixel
Facebook is also present in the analytics tools market, like Google. In addition to offering this kind of solution on its social networks (Facebook or Instagram), the platform offers an advertising analysis tool. Facebook Pixel is used by 16.7% of the websites on Wappalyzer.
Pixel is widely used by web marketing professionals to track visitors, especially outside the page where the tool’s code is placed.
Specifically, Pixel can be used as part of a retargeting strategy. Retargeting consists in offering personalized advertisements to consumers who have accessed your site. This allows for example to place a cookie on their side, in order to know which product they have seen during their visit, and to place ads on them once they have left your e-commerce site. Facebook Pixel allows you to measure the results of your advertising campaigns.
Like Google Analytics, this tool is free. Keep in mind that free tools, especially those offered by GAFAM, generally use your data for their own advertising strategies.
9. Hotjar
Hotjar is specialized in studying the behavior of users once they are on the page. The tool, very practical and GDPR-compliant, is used by 3.4% of the sites analyzed by Wappalyzer.
In particular, the tool offers heatmaps, allowing you to have a visualization of the path taken by the visitors of your site. The principle of “heat” is that it reveals the hot spots of your page. This allows you to identify the areas where visitors spend the most time, showing that they generate a certain interest.
For more details, Hotjar allows you to create records. This feature allows you to see what the visitor sees and does when they are on the page. This again helps you identify points of interest on your pages, such as call to actions or particular links.
To get direct feedback from visitors, Hotjar offers Incoming Feedback as well as Surveys. This allows you to get the user’s opinion on the experience they had on your site.
The analysis tool is offered for free with limited functionality. For paid subscriptions, they are offered between $39 and $389 per month.
10. Matomo
Matomo Analytics presents itself as an alternative to Google’s tool, respectful of the data and privacy of your visitors. In short: GDPR-compliant. The solution is used by 3% of the analyzed sites.
Matomo’s services are offered in two ways:
- Matomo cloud
- Self-hosted
In short, Matomo offers the same features as Google Analytics. The plus of the tool is that it is, as mentioned, respectful of the privacy of the users. The data you collect in the study of your traffic and visitor behavior is kept on your premises and belongs to you.
As a self-hosted tool, it is offered free of charge since it is located on your own servers. On the other hand, the tool is proposed from 29$ monthly from 50,000 views.
11. Yandex.metrica
Yandex is the Russian competitor of Google. Of course, the tool also offers its analytics solution, used by 3% of the sites present on Wappalyzer.
The functionalities do not differ from those offered by the Alphabet search engine. In addition, Yandex offers replays of sessions, in addition to heatmaps. To measure the efficiency of the forms, data is fed back into the software in order to optimize them.
The tool is offered free of charge. The company justifies this free choice by saying that it uses the data confidentially in order to improve its services.
The importance of a good analytics tool
Choosing the right analytics tool can help you understand your visitors. The more you understand how they think and visit your website, the more able you will be to generate interest. This interest can be stimulated by answering the potential customers’ needs.
CONCLUSION
You want to know how your site is doing so you can compare it to others and make important decisions. You could go through Google Analytics, which is fine. But you have me — a real analytics expert. I’m part of the complete Ecommerce stack for WP eCommerce stores, so I’ve got plugins and themes on the brain! That’s why I’ve decided to write this article for you — a full list of free ecommerce analytics tools.
Have you ever wanted to increase your eCommerce sales, but did not have the budget to buy fancy tools? You’re not alone. I’ve been there and I know how frustrating it can be worrying about your analytics when you are still trying to find a method of tracking your customers’ behavior on your Shopify store. Let’s change that. I have put together 6 great free tools which you can use to optimize your Ecommerce store and slash your marketing costs.