Seek First to Understand....

A lot of small companies merchandise their websites based solely on how they feel. What they feel will sell....what they think looks good. Larger publicly traded companies have to have a little bit more to lean on than pure hunches...they have to move with facts. Simply because if they don’t perform up to par not only are they disappointed in themselves like a small business owner would be as well, but they get ripped by the boss, who got spanked by the CEO who was blasted by the stockholders. It’s a domino spanking…so to speak.

The only saving grace in this situation is loosely referred to as the ‘numbers’. What do the numbers say?? Not after the fact…but before hand…before decisions are made… inventory purchased and placed randomly on a first, second or third tier page. There is something that can be learned from this for small and mid sized companies interested in getting to a higher level. Mistakes will be made...but with a keen understanding of your online consumer behavior your foresight can become closer to 20/20 and less of a shot in the dark.

Now I do understand, numbers can be nerve wrecking….and like a movie they don’t really have your full attention until you start to see a story develop. However while numbers by themselves can be annoying… the stories they tell can be interesting and informative.

On your website, wouldn’t it be interesting to discover if 75% of people who got product to the shopping cart never check out…then you notice they exit the site once the shipping prices are revealed. How much money did you just throw away with that little oops??

Or what if the 2^nd half of the page gets viewed by only 30% of viewers…….yet it contains some of your highest margin items…go figure the gross margin is so low. But hey...Knowledge is power....with the facts in hand you can start taking action...turn these situations around and boost your numbers immediately.

The rest of the good news is getting this type of information is easier and cheaper than ever. Google Analytics is a great free tool that helps you discover what’s going on behind the scenes of your site. There are also a lot of other paid options like webtrends.com and websidestory.com that have sophisticated features and a staff to help you put things in perspective.

Whatever you do.... give your numbers their due diligence early. If you don't neglect them in the planning phase...and they are less likely to turn red at the end of the day.