How To Use Analytics To Track Consumer Behavior

As a director of e-commerce, I tried growing without the right marketing tools. It did not go well. At first, I thought I could make it work. Google Analytics for user behavior tracking. Meta Ads Manager for attribution. Google Tag Manager for A/B testing. A scrappy growth stack. Cheap. Efficient. Genius. It failed. GA4 made tracking impossible. Meta and Google both swore they drove 100% of our revenue. GTM required a developer for the smallest experiment ever. I spent more time debugging than actually growing the business. That’s when I realized: You can’t grow what you can’t see. Without the right data, every decision is a guess. So we stopped piecing things together and built a marketing stack that actually gives us reliable insights. Here’s what actually moved the needle: Heap | by Contentsquare: user analytics, heatmaps & session recordingsGA4 is a disaster. Heap auto-tracks user behavior, so we can see where revenue is leaking and fix it, fast. Crazy Egg: user surveys. Data only tells you what’s happening. Surveys tell you why. We use Crazy Egg to collect real feedback on why customers don’t buy. Zoom→ customer interviews. LTV comes from repeat buyers. We talk to our best customers every month to understand what keeps them coming back. Optimizely→ A/B testing & personalization. Most teams “experiment” without real insights. Optimizely helps us run controlled tests that impact conversion rates, AOV, and retention. Triple Whale: attribution & performance insights. Ad platforms take credit for every sale. TripleWhale gives us a real source of truth for attribution, so we can optimize smarter. Segment: customer data platform (CDP)Your data is fragmented across tools. A CDP makes sure every marketing channel has clean, consistent tracking. SendGrid: automated and marketing emailsBetter deliverability = higher retention and more repeat purchases. SendGrid makes it easy to iterate and improve. Most e-commerce teams don’t fail because of bad ideas. They fail because they can’t see what’s actually happening. If you don’t have the right insights, how can you optimize RPV and LTV? How do you ever know what experiment to run? E-commerce teams, what’s in your growth stack? What’s missing? Let me know if there is a tool you think is better.

🛒 You can’t track purchase intent by tracking ATCs. 𝟭. “𝗔𝗧𝗖” 𝗷𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝗺𝗲𝗮𝗻𝘀 “𝘀𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗿”. It’s a placeholder, not a promise. 𝟮. 𝗣𝗲𝗼𝗽𝗹𝗲 𝘂𝘀𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗰𝗮𝗿𝘁 𝗹𝗶𝗸𝗲 𝗣𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗲𝘀𝘁. It’s a tool for collecting, not committing. 𝟯. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗰𝗮𝗿𝘁 𝗵𝗲𝗹𝗽𝘀 𝗼𝗿𝗴𝗮𝗻𝗶𝘇𝗲, 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗽𝗿𝗶𝗼𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗶𝘇𝗲. It helps them compare…not decide. 𝟰. 𝗡𝗼 𝗳𝗿𝗶𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 = 𝗻𝗼 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗺𝗶𝘁𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁. Clicking isn’t buying. It costs nothing to put something in an online cart. 𝟱. 𝗔𝗧𝗖𝘀 𝗺𝗲𝗮𝘀𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝗰𝘂𝗿𝗶𝗼𝘀𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗼𝗻𝗹𝘆. Interest? Yes. Intent? Not even close. If you really want to track intent, do this instead: ✅ 1. Track high-friction actions Not all clicks are equal. Look for: • Initiate Checkout • Payment Info Entered • Return Visitor → PDP → Checkout • Product added after reading reviews These behaviors show someone is moving past curiosity into commitment. ✅ 2. Analyze sequence, not single actions One ATC means nothing. But: 𝘈𝘛𝘊 → 𝘝𝘪𝘦𝘸 𝘴𝘩𝘪𝘱𝘱𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘱𝘰𝘭𝘪𝘤𝘺 → 𝘈𝘥𝘥 𝘢𝘥𝘥𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘴? Now we’re talkin’ intent. Watch the flow, not the isolated click. ✅ 3. Measure time spent on key friction points If someone lingers on: • Product comparisons • Return policy pages • Size charts or FAQs They’re mentally preparing to convert. They’re not just browsing at that point, they’re weighing the trade-offs. ✅ 4. Look for repeat product interactions If someone revisits the same PDP 2–3 times in a week, that’s real consideration. Bonus points if they come back from an email or ad reminder. ✅ 5. Use survey overlays or post-exit polls Ask simple, direct questions like: “Are you planning to buy today?” “What’s stopping you from checking out?” Self-reported “logic” + behavioral data = gold. 𝘛𝘓𝘋𝘙: 𝘈𝘛𝘊 𝘪𝘴 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘵-𝘭𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘭 𝘣𝘦𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘪𝘰𝘳 𝘰𝘯𝘭𝘺. 𝘐𝘵 𝘸𝘰𝘯’𝘵 𝘵𝘦𝘭𝘭 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘪𝘧 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘤𝘶𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘳𝘶𝘭𝘺 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘺 𝘵𝘰 𝘣𝘶𝘺. 𝘛𝘰 𝘵𝘳𝘶𝘭𝘺 𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘤𝘬 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘯𝘵, 𝘮𝘰𝘯𝘪𝘵𝘰𝘳 𝘤𝘩𝘦𝘤𝘬𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘮𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘶𝘮.

Retailers have no shortage of data - but are you surfacing the insights that truly matter? E-commerce leaders track AOV, ROAS, NPS, and churn, but knowing what’s changing isn’t enough—you need to know why. Traditional products analytics often leave teams reacting to trends instead of driving them. That’s where Loops comes in. Our AI-powered analytics platform helps large retailers uncover the real drivers behind KPI shifts and make data-backed decisions with confidence, with: 1️⃣ Root Cause Analysis: Automatically identify the reasons behind fluctuations in key metrics such as Average Order Value (#AOV), Return on Ad Spend (#ROAS), Net Promoter Score (#NPS), and inventory turnover. This proactive approach allows you to address issues before they impact your bottom line. 2️⃣ Real-Time Gen-AI Alerts Insight Summaries: Receive personalized alerts and insight updates on trends, anomalies, forecasts, and the impact of recent initiatives directly through Slack, Microsoft Teams, or email. This ensures your team stays informed and agile in responding to changes in your top KPI. 3️⃣ Product Release Impact Analysis: Measure the effect of every product change on your KPIs with over 90% accuracy of standard A/B testing but with minimal traffic, time, and resources. Loops' causal models account for variables like performance improvements, marketing promotions, seasonality, pricing adjustments, experiments, product errors, and user mix changes, providing a clear view of each change's impact. 4️⃣ User Journey Optimization: Identify and rank user paths that significantly influence your KPIs at every stage of the customer lifecycle. By understanding these journeys, you can optimize marketing strategies, landing pages, and the entire user funnel to drive conversions and retention. Proven Results with Loops: 🔥 ✅ 200% Increase in Conversions: Achieved through Loops' "User Journey" insights at Wahi Real Estate. ✅ $5 Million Revenue Saved: Through causal analysis of a core KPI drop at a major consumer goods retailer, enabling a partial release with a negative impact to be rolled back before it hit all users. ✅ 15% Increase in Day 2 Retention: Observed at 18Birdies, enhancing customer engagement and loyalty. Move beyond traditional dashboards, uncover hidden growth opportunities, and make data-driven decisions that propel your retail business forward. Discover how Loops can unlock your company's potential. #RetailAnalytics #AI #DataDrivenDecisionMaking #EcommerceGrowth #eCommerce #retail #CausalAI National Retail Federation, Shoptalk

Last month, a jewelry client increased their conversion rate by 32.7% and boosted revenue by 35.7% after implementing a CRO program based on shopper behavioral data in GA4. When they started with us back in September they had almost no data in GA4, and they had some concerns about the investing in Google Analytics implementation: ❌ "What is this going to tell me that my TripleWhale and Northbeam doesn't?" ❌ "Even if I have the insights, who is going to run CRO? Me?!!" ❌ "What if engagement increases but doesn’t translate into sales?" All valid concerns… But we showed them how behavioral research guides the way to greater conversions with statistics and an engineering approach increasing conversions —just by collecting the right data and using our AI to analyze behavior and get test suggestions. So we got to work: 🔹 Implemented tracking on the most important shopping behaviors 🔹 Ran through analysis of what shopping behaviors were correlated to transations 🔹 A/B tested the visibility of features ENCOURAGING those behaviors on PLP pages, measuring whether early exposure influenced conversion rates 🔹 Measured revenue impact to ensure I wasn’t just increasing engagement, but driving real sales Since we did that (+ some consistency), they’ve: ✅ Increased conversion rates +32.7% ✅ Generated 35.7% more revenue in that category. ✅ Built a repeatable, data-backed strategy for using what we learned across the entire website. If you're an eCommerce brand struggling with low conversion rates or uncertain about how to use shopper behavior effectively to run your CRO program. 📩 comment below, and I’ll share with you our templates for how we did it! #EcommerceGrowth #Clickvoyant #ConversionOptimization #googleAnalytics #MarketingAnalytics 🚀