Wayfair: Where E-Commerce Meets Web Analytics

Web analytics, which monitor visitor traffic and customers, is very important for e-commerce retailers. In contrast to a typical brick and mortar business, online stores do not have the opportunity to interact directly with customers. Because they are not able to see facial expressions or hear the responses of their customers, web analytics serves as the “eye and ears” for the company (“Why You Need”, n.d.). Approximately 40% of online shoppers begin by performing a search; using analytics, ecommerce companies are able to remain ahead by anticipating market changes (“The Importance of Ecommerce”, n.d.). 

Wayfair, a home goods e-commerce company founded in 2002, is an example of an online company that uses web analytics to monitor traffic and visitors. Web analytics is so important for the e-commerce company that Wayfair has an in-house SEO team that analyzes the data which is imported into their proprietary in-house tracking systems daily (“Wayfair”, n.d.). The company uses its data “to improve the customer experience, optimize the company's web presence, source products, and make business decisions” (Rayome, 2018). Wayfair divides its shoppers into two main categories: hunters and gatherers. Hunters are the shoppers who most likely discovered the site through SEO (Brown, 2014). Gatherers are the shoppers who are similar to window shoppers (Brown, 2014). Although gatherers often discover Wayfair via SEO as well, they are more likely to arrive at the site via a direct, organic search (Brown, 2014).

Brian Wood, Director of Marketing and SEO for Wayfair, stated that their SEO team “tracks the average click-through rate (CTR) for each ranking position” (2017). By tracking these “non-branded click curves”, the Wayfair team is able to accurately determine opportunities for keyword clustering (Wood, 2017). One of the tools that the Wayfair team uses to track its click-through rate is the Google Search Console. The Search Console allows the team to “gather the impression, click, and rank data from Search Console (Wood, 2017). According to Wood, when clicks double in Search Console the organic Google traffic doubles in their analytics (2017). A 2015 study showed that Wayfair’s click through rate at the time was “240 percent higher than the retail industry benchmark” (Blair, 2016).  In December 2016, Wayfair generated 37.4 million visits; approximately 33.74%, or 12.6 million, of those visits were from an organic search (Wong, 2017). According to Wong, the four important philosophies to Wayfair’s SEO strategy are as follows:

            1.) Ranking first for your targeted keywords

            2.) Investing in domain-wide and page-specific SEO improvements

            3.) Strictly applying white-hat tactics

            4.) A mobile-first approach

Figure 1: (Wong, 2017)

 Another analytics tool that the company uses is Stat Search Analytics. Wayfair uses Stat to “track the growth in queries serving Google Shopping results…across the 25,000 keywords [it] tracks daily on mobile and desktop” (Wood, 2017). Maintaining a number one keyword ranking is very important to Wayfair. Shortly after one of Googles many algorithm changes, the company observed that “visitors who clicked on their number ranking were 160 percent more likely to convert to purchase” (Wong, 2017). As a result, the company is always “monitoring all of its rankings, including its number one rankings, and constantly working on strategies that will benefit the entire site as well as the individual pages [they are] targeting (Wong, 2017). Wayfair uses unique keywords and phrases to differentiate itself and stand out amongst competitors (Koene, 2016). Wayfair uses the SERPs tool to expand their keyword tracking; especially because keyword data is no longer available on Google Analytics (“Wayfair, n.d.). 

Wayfair has an excellent, highly skilled in-house SEO department to handle all of its web analytics needs. Although the SEO team does an excellent job at ensuring that the e-commerce company’s analytics are clearly and effectively optimized, there are still some methods and additional tools, although not many, that the company could use to improve its overall web analytics efforts. 

Because keywords are extremely important to Wayfair’s SEO team, a tool that they could use would be the Keyword Hero app which was discussed a few posts back. The Keyword Hero tool is a great tool to discover the organic keywords that users searched for to discover your website. This tool could be used as an additional measure to ensure that Wayfair is effectively optimizing its keywords and organically reaching its audience. 

Upon visiting the Wayfair website, I decided to click around on various sections that the website offers. I noticed that each page on which I clicked has a heading and various filters for which users can narrow their searches. These filters allow for more opportunities to target consumers through different keywords. As shown in the figure below, the majority of Wayfair’s traffic is organic. These results prove that Wayfair’s current Search Engine Optimization strategies are currently performing effectively and yielding the desired results. According to the traffic statistics, Wayfair currently holds a ranking as the number four online website under the category of “Home and Garden” (“Wayfair.com Traffic Statistics”, n.d.). With its ability to create and implement SEO strategies that keep it ahead of market trends, it is no surprise that Wayfair has become one of the top e-commerce retailers.

References

Blair, A. (2016, August 24). Wayfair Boosts Click-Throughs And Traffic With Optimized Search Ads Featured. Retrieved from https://www.retailtouchpoints.com/features/retail-success-stories/wayfair-boosts-click-throughs-and-traffic-with-optimized-search-ads

Brown, A. (2014, April 16). How Wayfair Sells Nearly $1 Billion Worth Of Sofas, Patio Chairs And Cat Playgrounds. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/abrambrown/2014/04/16/how-wayfair-sells-nearly-1-billion-worth-of-sofas-patio-chairs-and-cat-playgrounds/#7b34212e60f1

Koene, J. (2016, April 09). Emotional SEO: Finding your online Cookie Monster. Retrieved         from https://blog.searchmetrics.com/us/2016/04/05/emotional-seo/

Rayome, A. D. (2018, July 05). How Wayfair used big data and omnichannel retail to transform shopping. Retrieved from https://www.zdnet.com/article/how-wayfair-used-big-data-and-omnichannel-retail-to-transform-shopping/

Wayfair. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://serps.com/case-studies/wayfair/
Wayfair.com Traffic Statistics. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.similarweb.com/website/wayfair.com#referrals

Why You Need Ecommerce Analytics. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.shopify.com/guides/ecommerce-analytics/why-ecommerce-analytics

Wong, D. (2017, February 15). The Future of Ecommerce Marketing: Insights from Entrepreneurs, Executives and Influencers. Retrieved from https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/the-future-of-ecommerce-marketing-insights-from-entrepreneurs_us_58a3c399e4b080bf74f04222

Wood, B. (2017, November 17). New Findings Show Google Organic Clicks Shifting to Paid. Retrieved from https://moz.com/blog/google-organic-clicks-shifting-to-paid

The Importance of Ecommerce Analytics. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.salesforce.com/products/commerce-cloud/resources/importance-of-ecommerce-analytics/