eCommerce Tribune - Marketing - Design

How Often Does Google Analytics Update?

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August 6, 2020

Google Analytics is a useful tool for marketers, which allows them to track their website’s performance. It provides essential metrics about the site’s traffic, conversions, user demographics, and others, covering all aspects.

Using Google Analytics will help you to obtain great insights about your business and therefore improve your marketing strategies, user experience and achieve better results.

If you wonder how often does Google Analytics update, you should know, that, according to Google, the statistics update every 24 hours for standard accounts. Google also states that it might have a processing latency of 24-48 hours for the accounts which send more than 200.000 sessions per day. This can delay the updates for up to 2 days.

For premium paid Google 360 accounts, the data is updated every 4 hours or less.

More About Google Analytics Data

The entire statistics are delayed in standard Analytics accounts for one day, as we mentioned previously.

When you log into your account, you will be able to see the final data reported for yesterday, not for the current day. If you have made changes on your website or began a new campaign, you should wait for a day before you can rely on the final data showed in your Google Analytics account.

The platform can process all your traffic data and display the final numbers only when is finally updated.

So, the flow is as follows: data appears in real-time reports, then in standard reports – processing and final in finalized standard reports. When the data is final, you can trust the statistics, and don’t be afraid that the situation can change. After 24 hours, you can count on the accuracy of the data shown in your Google Analytics account.

When you first implement the tracking id on your website, it will take up to 24 hours for the data to appear in Google Analytics. It is essential to know that Google Analytics will report only from the day you have implemented the code; it will not show any historical data before that day.

The best practice is to wait for one day before analyzing the data provided by Google Analytics. Even if specialists discovered that it is updated every 3 or 4 hours, it is best to follow Google guidelines to make sure that you get precise and final statistics.

It Doesn’t Take That Long For Google Analytics To Refresh

Google Analytics is a great tool that helps you to make the best decisions for your business based on the facts.

It is a useful platform that allows you to track fast the statistics, even with the delay of 24 hours. You can also get a glance at the numbers from checking real-time updates.

However, it is best to be reserved and not make decisions based on these real-time statistics. Wait one day to be sure that the situation won’t change dramatically, and then you can be sure that the statistics are reliable and accurate.

If you analyze the data for a large website, with more than 200.000 sessions/day, it’s best to take into consideration the Google statement we have mentioned before and wait for 48 hours for the final reports.

Managing A More Efficient Store with WooCommerce 4.0

Chad Warren

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July 10, 2020

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Managing A More Efficient Store with WooCommerce 4.0

WooCommerce 4.0 has been out for a little while now – have you upgraded? The primary focus of this update is to transition towards a more React-driven experience so that store owners can better leverage the power of WordPress.

Not a technical person? No worries, you’ll enjoy a more efficient workflow as the result of an improved management panel and new reporting features.

Many site owners were previously running the WooCommerce Admin add-on released in 2018 into WooCommerce Core, which includes:

Enhanced reporting tools and analytics
Simplified notifications
Improved store management tools

Let’s take a look at some items of interest which have changed in 4.0

Learn how your site is performing with analytics and reporting tools built into the WooCommerce dashboard

The biggest new feature included in WooCommerce 4.0 is WooCommerce Admin, a modern, Javascript-driven way to manage your online store. While you may already be familiar with this from the standalone offering of the past, it is now available to everyone automatically and built directly into WooCommerce core. Many store owners have complained in the past about the lack of robust reporting within WooCommerce. This aims to correct that.

Here are a few key elements that will save you you time and increase transparency:

A streamlined dashboard

WooCommerce Admin was built around a new, central dashboard, designed to simplify your workflow. Customize reports to fit the needs of your store — set specific date ranges, choose how charts are displayed, categorize information, and show only the data that’s important to you.

Do you have multiple users? Settings are stored on a per-user basis, so each member of your team can quickly find the information they’re looking for.

Improved reporting with 14 different data points

Collecting and interpreting data helps you reduce costs, optimize supply management, and increase sales. WooCommerce 4.0 offers a reporting feature with a quick overview of how your store is performing.

Several different data points are now available including total sales, net sales, orders, average order value, returns, shipping, and downloads.

You can also access 12 new reports, quickly filter data, compare date periods, and download CSV files. Reports include:

Revenue
Orders
Stock
Coupons
Customers

Make the most of your data with advanced filters and adjust reports based on specific customers, numeric values, emails, and countries.

Time-saving store management tools and notifications

The new Activity Panel helps you quickly access the management tools you use most often. It includes an inbox system that simplifies notifications — no more weeding through information you don’t need!

With just one click, you can view:

Orders: view recent order data (status, total, customer name, time completed, etc.) and navigate to fulfillment with the click of a button
Stock: see which products and variations are out of stock or running low
Reviews: keep an eye on reviews and respond if needed
Notices: get reminders for additional tasks that should be addressed

Using notifications, you can now get an overview of tasks that need your attention without having to leave the dashboard.

Build faster stores with updated technology

WooCommerce 4.0 upgrades the Action Scheduler library to Action Scheduler 3.0. This brings a new database structure, includes custom tables for scheduled actions, and reduces the load on database tables.

How does this affect your website? Expect your store to run smoother and faster, even when scaling.

While Action Scheduler 3.0 remains compatible with previous releases, we do recommend performing a full backup of your website before updating.

What have you found most exciting about with WooCommerce 4.0? Let us know in the comments!

WooCommerce Gift Cards

Chad Warren

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November 4, 2019

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As the days grow shorter and we celebrate the changing of the seasons, retailers are grower more and more anxious about the upcoming holiday shopping season. Customers are looking for gifts for everyone on their lists. For many, this will undoubtedly include a gift card or two. Digital gift vouchers generated $698.2 billion worth of additional revenue in 2018. And it’s growing at 10% year on year.

If you are a merchant running a WooCommerce store, you most likely already know that out the box, WooCommerce does not include a way to sell gift cards. Like many you’ve probably gone searching for ways to implement this only to be overwhelmed with the options – unsure of which solution is best for you. Let’s take a look at gift cards and online shopping.

The Gift Card Process

Typically when you purchase a gift card in a brick and mortar store, you provide payment and they provide a plastic card which you give to the gift recipient. The store doesn’t care who you give it to – to them their objective was met – the sale of the gift card. When it comes to online merchants, often times what you purchase is tied to your unique customer account – meaning you cannot just give away something you purchased because that “product” is yours. WooCommerce doesn’t have a native way to sell a “gift amount” and generate a coupon code that is say worth $50 and then allow you to give that code to someone else to use.

Smart Coupons

Our first recommendation comes directly from the WooCommerce Extensions Store – Smart Coupons: https://woocommerce.com/products/smart-coupons/

Cost: $99

Smart Coupons solves the native absence of gift card in WooCommerce through the use of unique codes. Often times an add-on for WooCommerce is a unitasker – not so with Smart Coupons. This plugin is a very robust coupon engine and has everything you need to grow sales and customers using discounts, coupons, credits, vouchers, product giveaways, offers and promotions.

Creating a new gift card is a snap! Simply determine the amount(s) you’d like to sell and Smart Coupons creates a new product type which will show up in your store just like any other product you currently sell. You can create them for a fixed variable amount ($10, $25, $50, $75) and the customer picks from a dropdown the amount they want buy. Alternatively you can also setup an open field amount where the buyer enters the exact dollar amount they wish to purchase. The gift recipient will get an email with the unique code for their gift card which they can then redeem when they come to your site.

Given all of the extra options which are included with Smart Coupons it is one of our favorite add-on’s for WooCommerce.

YITH WooCommerce Gift Cards

Next up is an add-on from the folks at YITH Themes. You can create the Gift card of any amount and allow your customers to purchase the gift card on your site. https://yithemes.com/themes/plugins/yith-woocommerce-gift-cards/

Cost: $119.⁹⁹

YITH WooCommerce Gift Cards offers the ability to choose the gift card value or let your customer decide how much they want to purchase.

We especially like the fact that they let you customize the look and feel of the “e-gift card” which is sent via email to the gift recipient. You can have a Christmas or Hanukkah design, a birthday design or an anniversary design.

YITH WooCommerce Gift Cards also offers a unique option of postponing the sending of the email to the gift recipient. The buyer can have the email sent at any date in the future. This is especially great for those who are doing early holiday shopping. You can buy in November and send on December 25th!

As the merchant, you can also resend a gift email at any time in case the recipient did not receive it. This makes managing everything a snap!

PW WooCommerce Gift Cards

Looking for a FREE option? PW WooCommerce Gift Cards is a free plugin using which allows you to gift cards from your WooCommerce store. https://wordpress.org/plugins/pw-woocommerce-gift-cards/

Cost: $0

While not as feature rich as the premium plugins above, PW WooCommerce Gift Cards stand on its own. Buyers are able to specify the amount, recipient, and message when purchasing.

Using the WooCommerce email template system, PW WooCommerce Gift Cards sends beautiful emails. Recipients simply click the link directly in the email to add the gift card to the cart automatically!

While they do offer a pro version which adds more features, this a great free solution if you are looking to dip your feet into gift cards.

Conclusion

Standing out from the competition can be done this holiday season simply by adding gift cards to your offering. We know there are endless options when it comes to new plugins for WooCommerce and it can be confusing at times. We hope that you find one of these options a good fit for your store. Please share your comments below or connect with us on social media to continue the discussion.

GDPR – What it Means for Email Marketing

Email Marketing

Chad Warren

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July 3, 2019

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GDPR – What it Means for Email Marketing

The new European regulation on the processing and handling of personal data, known as the General Data Protection Regulation (or GDPR), went into effect on May 25, 2018. We understand many are still confused as to what it means for email marketing.

GDPR (or General Data Protection Regulation), and is essentially a new set of rules designed to give citizens more control over their personal data.

But I’m not in the EU…

GDPR was created for citizens of the EU, but do not think that means you are off the hook if you work in the US.

The regulation affects all businesses, whether or not your customers are located in the EU.

Under GDPR, businesses cannot process customer data unless it’s for a lawful purpose or those businesses have received explicit instructions from the customer to do so.

GDPR requires companies to collect and process data keeps personally identifiable information (PII) secure. Any company that has not been careful will soon find themselves in trouble with the EU.

Any company found to be in violation of the GDPR can be fined up to 4% of their global sales (we are talking well into the millions, and maybe even billions of dollars). Did that catch your attention?

Given recent breaches from seemingly bulletproof companies like Facebook, and the regulation sent most scrambling to update their policies and let customers know they’re handling sensitive info with care.

How Will GDPR Affect Email Marketing?

In a nutshell, it will force companies to take a long hard look at what personal data they’re collecting, and more importantly, how securely they’re storing it.

Personal data is especially prevalent regarding email marketing, given that a good amount of that information is collected during most email signup processes.

GDPR has put more regulations on email marketing than ever before. One of the biggest changes enacted by the new law is the concept of consent. In the past some questionable tactics could be used by marketers to solicit contact information of potential customers without actually receiving real consent. Some tactics included:

Purchased/scraped lists: Buying or scraping contact information from the internet for people who have never heard from your business and sending them unsolicited emails. While this was often more popular in the late 90s to mid-2000s, we still have seen it happening in the past few years too.
Opt-out: Automatically subscribing users to your emails when they give you their contact information for any reason (e.g. for a purchase). This places the burden to opt-out on the contact, rather than giving them the choice to opt-in. Many ecommerce businesses are guilty of this.
Passive opt-in: Giving contacts the “choice” to opt-in, but having the box already pre-checked. This system requires the subscriber to uncheck the box if they do not want to receive emails from you.

According to the GDPR, these tactics are no longer allowed if you have any customers who reside in the European Union. Instead, consent must be clearly given in the form of a positive action (usually this means checking a box). That means marketers are going to have to find new ways to grow their lists.

But, before you start panicking like it’s the end of the world, consider the benefits that the GDPR brings. The new requirements actually present marketers the opportunity to build stronger relationships with their subscribers and customers.

While the tactics I mentioned above might yield a higher number of contacts in your email list, that is not always case and not necessarily the best thing for your business. Many businesses find that after a contact receives an email after being subscribed through one of those methods, the contact eventually — or immediately — unsubscribes because they were not actually interested in receiving your emails.

The key to successful compliance with GDPR is to acquire positive consent. You can be sure that they’re interested in what you have to offer, and this leads to more quality contacts and better engagement rates in your emails.

It is my hope that you are now convinced that following the GDPR guidelines on consent is in the best interest of your business. But wait! I’m sure you are now asking the question, how do you actually acquire proper consent from your contacts at the time of signup?

Here is an infographic from SendinBlue showing you the dos and don’t of creating a GDPR-compliant list growth strategy: