Confections and Conversions: Jelly Belly’s Web Metrics Help Drive Sales

Jelly Belly Candy Company, with locations in Wisconsin and California, is a manufacturer of sweet treats including jelly beans, gourmet chocolate treats, and gummi candy (Jelly Belly 2015).  The company also offers events and corporate gifts for a wide range of events including weddings, birthdays, and baby showers.  Jelly Belly products are offered through distributors, gourmet shops, specialty stores, and customers can purchase products in bulk from the Jelly Belly Web site (Bloomberg Business, n.d.)

New manager means new Web site

In 2007, with the hiring of new E-Commerce Marketing Manager Jason Marrone, the company’s Web site (which had once been state of the art) received a make over.  According to Marrone the site was using third-party software for search that wasn’t installed on their servers and the site was not using faceted or guided search.  Additionally, the overall navigation and site design needed a complete overhaul (as cited in Smith, 2009). 

The goal for the new site included user-friendly navigation, personalization features that would enhance the customer experience, build the Jelly Belly brand, and drive more sales.  The new site would incorporate advance search solutions, site-search reporting features, user-generated SEO, product recommendation, personalized email alerts, customer reviews, and a simplified checkout process (Smith, 2009).

Success

The new site has been very successful for Jelly Belly.  They’ve reported site traffic volume increases of 35%, which Marrone attributes “to better search-engine rankings and greater visibility on the major search engines, resulting from the optimized static pages and keyword-dense content from more than 1,000 customer reviews now on the site” (as cited in Smith, 2009).  In addition, the company saw a 33% increase in on-site conversions and a 10% increase in average order size (Smith, 2009).

Jelly Belly is using visitor data in a number of ways including:

·      Analyzing keyword searches and past purchases to create product recommendations

·      Developing search-engine friendly pages based on commonly searched terms

·      Using user activity data to develop new products (Smith, 2009)

One very unique change to the Jelly Belly site is that you can browse products based on “non-traditional” characteristics.  Categories such as flavor, color, and container type can be utilized to help viewers select a candy that meets their needs.  According to Smith (2009) this has lead to fewer drop-offs and abandoned carts, which means more conversions and sales.

Security is always a concern for online retailers.  If customers don’t trust a company with their credit card information, it becomes more difficult for them to make purchases.  Jelly Belly did A/B testing to better determine how much customers trusted their site.  After the tests were complete, Jelly Belly added a McAfee certificate to the site.  Jelly Belly realized that their brand alone was not strong enough to make customers comfortable with online purchasing.

When I was viewing the site I did notice a few more aspects that I thought helped drive sales for Jelly Belly.  When viewing the shopping cart, Jelly Belly provided a line under the estimated total that informed the customer how far away from free shipping they were.  This is a small tactic that encourages users to increase the dollar amount spent per purchase.  As with other e-retailers like Amazon, Jelly Belly also offers recommendations based on what you’ve placed in your cart.  That display makes it easy for people who are very close to free shipping to quickly select an item to finalize the sale.

Importance of mobile

With a new Web site up and running, customers will be looking for content that is viewable on a mobile device.  Marrone realized the need to optimize their mobile site after seeing that mobile users had low conversation rates.  Marrone worked with Branding Brand to optimize the newly designed site for mobile.

Now when customers view the site they are automatically redirected to the mobile site and can begin shopping, call for help, view recipes, and browse products.  Marrone said, “Our two primary goals with the mobile site were to provide as consistent a mobile experience as we could and not increasing our administrative workload, or at least minimizing the workload.” Marrone also said that since the launch they’ve seen an increase in the average order value from mobile devices (as cited in Finocchiaro, 2010).  

Additional recommendations

I would be interested to see in-page analytics for the navigation on the Jelly Belly site.  When viewing the site, I found locating their company information and “non Jelly Belly” candy very difficult.  However, at the top of their site one of the main navigation buttons is “Athletes We Sponsor.”  It would be interesting to analyze in-page analytics to see if that was, indeed, the best primary navigational structure.

Additionally, I would be curious to see if the structure of the primary navigation was enhancing or detracting for customers viewing their web page.  On mouse-over, a drop-down menu is displayed that utilizes a large portion of the home page real estate.  If a user wants to minimize that menu they must click to close it.  The drop-down also pushes the primary content further down the page.  I would recommend A/B testing in order to evaluate the effectiveness of the drop-down menu.

I would also recommend more social and dynamic widgets on the home page.  The new site was built with user-generated content and engagement in mind, but the home page is relatively static.  Social media feeds, fan-submitted recipes, or other content could be added in order to encourage visitors to spend more time interacting with the site.

I think it would also be important for Jelly Belly to evaluate the purchase funnel that customers use.  I enjoy that I can explore products based on taste, color, packaging, and holidays; however it’s a little difficult to navigate between products that are designed for consumers and products that are designed for bulk purchase.  

It would be advantageous for Jelly Belly to analyze bulk purchases separately from other purchases and discover the needs of individuals as opposed to those who order in bulk. Jelly Belly may find a higher cart abandonment rate because customers are unaware that they are about to order 24, 1-oz. packages instead of 1, 16oz or 24oz package.  These two demographic groups will have different purchasing tendencies, navigational needs, and interests in company information.  If the customer is a retail store they may be interested in the company background information and the athletes they sponsor.  If the customer is an individual, they may be more concerned with shopping by flavor and unique gift packages.

The Jelly Belly Web site experience would be further enhanced if the company were to individually analyze the browsing and purchase behaviors of these groups to create more targeted shopping experiences.

References:

Bloomberg Business (n.d.) Company Overviwe of Jelly Belly Candy Company, Inc. Bloomberg Business. Retrieved February 28, 2015 from http://www.bloomberg.com/research/stocks/private/snapshot.asp?privcapId=4304700

Jelly Belly. (2015) Home page. Retrieved from http://www.jellybelly.com/

Finocchiaro, P. (2010, August 12) Jelly Belly ups conversion, bounce rates with smartphone shoppers. Mobile Commerce Daily. Retrieved from http://www.mobilecommercedaily.com/jelly-belly-converts-more-smartphone-shoppers-with-mobile-optimized-site

Smith, K. (2009, July 28). Marketing Case Study: How a User-Focused Website Boosted Sales at Jelly Belly. MarketingProfs: Marketing Resources and Strategies for Marketing Professionals. Retrieved February 28, 2015, from http://www.marketingprofs.com

The Real Price of "Free" Services

What’s the price you pay for a “free” product?  A free eBook will cost an email address.  A free coupon or gift certificate may cost 10-15 minutes filling out a survey.  What is the cost of the free use of Gmail, YouTube, and Google Analytics?  Information.  With every mouse click, Google is collecting information about what users search for, what ads are clicked on, what users write about, what they watch, and what apps they like (Dickey, 2014).  

The information Google has collected from their customers has given them a perspective of customers in regards to their online behavior. As they develop driverless cars and Google Glass, Google aims to have a better understanding of customers’ lives off-line as well.  Their quest to be innovative and integrated into customers’ lives has put them under fire because of their questionable collection and utilization of customer information.

The controversial component with Google is whether or not the customers are aware of what they’re “paying” for these free services.  Many times privacy policies are long and challenging to read.  Sometimes companies, such as Google, disregard their privacy settings and collect information in ways that make their customers uncomfortable.

Google in the News

Google has been in the news numerous times for their questionable data collection tactics.  Many of their products and services have woven their way into our daily lives and as they continue to do so, more and more customers disagree with how and why their data is being collected.  Acquisitions and lawsuits have caused customers to be wary of Google’s data collection. 

Google’s acquisition of Skybox Imaging (which includes satellites and high-resolution imagery and videos from around the world) means that they can watch everything in real-time.  Google positioned the acquisition of Skybox as a tool that will help keep maps and other technology up-to-date for customers.  However, Google can also use the intelligence to determine when competing products will be released based on shipments coming to and from their warehouses (Dickey, 2014).  Being able to gain that information about their competitors means they can gain other valuable information from their customers.  Google hasn’t been upfront about the information they gather from customers, which has landed them in a number of lawsuits.

In 2013, 38 states filed a lawsuit against Google for “causally scooping up passwords, e-mail and other personal information from unsuspecting computer users” with their Street View mapping cars (Streitfeld, 2013).

Additionally, Google was under scrutiny for “prying and spying” as they analyzed users’ messages on their network and sold the byproducts to advertisers.  Users that were impacted sued Google saying that the invasion violated federal wiretap laws (Rosenfeld, 2014).  The privacy accusations weren’t limited to Google products and services. 

Google was directed to pay $17 million to settle a lawsuit that claimed that they bypassed privacy settings in Apple’s Safari browser.  Safari was set up to block third-party ad cookies and Google found a way to get around those settings and track user behavior without their consent (Tung, 2013). 

Privacy

An evaluation of the 50 most popular American Web sites revealed that their privacy policies were composed of 145, 641 words and that it would take the average internet user between 181 and 304 hours to read the privacy statements for the Web sites that they visit each year (Moretti & Naughton, 2014).  On top of that, policies may change on a yearly basis, which means customers would have to reread that information annually. 

Privacy information responsibility needs to be shared between the service provider and customers.  Customers need to be aware of the privacy information prior to pressing accept and using the service.  The discouraging part is that providers don’t make the process easy for customers to understand how their data is being used.    

Providers

Providers intentionally make it difficult for customers to understand what they’re reading.  According to Moretti and Naughton (2014), they do this for two reasons.  First, being vague and “elastic” in their language helps to protect themselves against lawsuits and fines.  The second reason is that gathering this kind of information includes a significant financial incentive, which results in companies making it difficult for customers to opt-out.

Co-founder of Disconnect (an app that blocks third-party Web sites from gathering data), Casey Oppenheim said, “They know that if they tell people every single way they’re collecting information and using it, then most users will share less information, which would mean less money for them.” 

Users

According to a study by Pew, “half of Americans are worried about the amount of personal information about them that is online” (as cited in Moretti & Naughton, 2014).  However, a 2015 US Consumer Confidence Privacy Research report found that only 23 percent of people had read the privacy policy on a Web site or app (as cited in PR Newswire, 2015). 

With technology making peoples’ lives easier everyday, customers need to take time to understand how companies are using their information.  Web sites need to share in the responsibility and make sure that they’re doing what they can in order to make it easy for customers to understand the privacy policies for their sites.  When customers are well informed about how their information is used, they can better decide if continuing to use the service at no cost is worth the company gathering their information.

My Take

Data collection can be used to make customer lives easier and more enjoyable.  Sites such as Amazon and Netflix use customer data to make suggestions that allow customers to find new products and shows.  Google offers many industry-leading services free of charge because the data they collect from customers has a great deal of value.  In my opinion, customers need to be aware of the information that’s being collected and how that information will be used.  It’s valuable for customers to know the difference between collecting data that is anonymous and data that has personal information attached to it.

As previously mentioned, the responsibility must be shared.  I do not think it’s right for providers to create privacy statements that customers do not have time to read and cannot understand the language.  They are not providing customers with the information and tools necessary to be able to make an educated decision about the tradeoff that comes with data collection.  For some customers the “free” price tag on these services might not be a greater benefit than the data that companies are collecting.

References:

Dickey, M. (2014, June 18) It’s time to admit the amount of information google gathers about us is terrifying. Business Insider.  Retrieved from http://www.businessinsider.com/the-information-google-is-gathering-about-us-is-terrifying-2014-6

Moretti, M. & Naughton, M., (2014, September 5) Why privacy policies are so inscrutable. The Atlantic. Retrieved from http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2014/09/why-privacy-policies-are-so-inscrutable/379615/

Streitfeld, D., (2013, March 12) Google concedes that drive-by prying violated privacy. New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/13/technology/google-pays-fine-over-street-view-privacy-breach.html?_r=0

PR Newswire. (2015, January 28). 45 percent of americans think online privacy is more important than national security. PR Newswire. Retrieved from http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/45-percent-of-americans-think-online-privacy-is-more-important-than-national-security-300026808.html

Rosenfeld, S., (2014, February 5) 4 ways google is destroying privacy and collecting your data. Retrieved from http://www.salon.com/2014/02/05/4_ways_google_is_destroying_privacy_and_collecting_your_data_partner/

Tung,  L., (2013, November 19). Google pays $17m to settle safari cookie privacy-bypass charge. Retrieved from http://www.zdnet.com/article/google-pays-17m-to-settle-safari-cookie-privacy-bypass-charge/

What's your solution? Google Analytics vs. Adobe Analytics

Google Analytics (GA) is a free, (relatively) easy to use tool for measuring Web metrics.  Some say that it’s the best option for measuring Web traffic, but are there any other Web analytic tools out there?  The answer is yes; in fact there are a lot of Web metric tools out there.  Some of them match Google Analytics in features while some match their exceptionally low price point.  The right tool for any company hinges on what the company’s goals are and which tool provides them with the ability to measure those goals. 

Something to keep in mind when evaluating Web metric tools is that it’s dangerous to compare metrics between two platforms, no matter how similar they might be.  Even evaluating metrics between Google Analytics and Blogger (owned by Google) can yield different results.  Knowing how each tool measures Web traffic is essential to selecting a tool that works best for the company.

Google Analytics is a great tool for a number of reasons, but partially because many individuals and companies use other Google tools to help run their lives and their businesses.  Many companies email addresses can be configured to work with Gmail, companies can collaborate on documents and share storage through Google Drive, and employees can share schedules and calendars through Google Calendar.  Another company that has woven itself into the fabric of companies all over the world is Adobe.  Programs such as Adobe Illustrator, InDesign, Photoshop, and Dreamweaver help companies create innovative, interactive products everyday.  As part of the Adobe Marketing Suite, Adobe Analytics (formerly Omniture and SiteCatalyst) aims to help businesses understand “the whole customer journey better by effectively using your data with the latest Adobe Analytics capabilities (Adobe Systems Incorporated, 2015).

Adobe Analytics Overview

“Adobe Analytics capabilities help you better leverage powerful insights across marketing channels and your organization” (Adobe Systems Incorporated, 2015).  Adobe Analytics aims to provide companies with a complete data perspective in order to help maximize marketing and digital efforts.  Adobe Analytics is one of the many solutions available in the Adobe Marketing Cloud and available as a subscription with the Adobe Digital Publishing suite.  As an industry-leading solution, Adobe Analytics offers reporting structures that help businesses optimize marketing efforts, deliver personalized experiences, better determine advertising budgets, monetize content, and identify problems and opportunities in a company’s digital and marketing tactics (About Analytics, n.d).

Adobe Analytics has three different options available; Adobe Analytics, Adobe Analytics Premium, and Adobe Analytics – Mobile apps.

Let’s take a look at Google and Adobe Analytics.

What do they have in common?

Dashboard and Features:  Both GA and Adobe Analytics have easy to use, drag and drop dashboard interfaces that allow users to customize them based on their needs.  Additionally, both tools provide users with access to all industry standard Web analytics.

Social Features: GA and Adobe Analytics offer insight into social media referrers.  Adobe also allows businesses to see how social media helps contribute to the “bottom line” and gives a perspective on user-generated content (Adobe Systems Incorporated, 2015).

Reports: Both GA and Adobe Analytics offer users the ability to customize reports based on needs.  GA has more than 80 reports to help determine the site’s success.  Additionally, GA gives users the ability to create individualized profiles to better help members of the company understand essential pieces of data (Reed College of Media, 2015).  Both GA and Adobe offer the ability to export report information into an Excel (or other) document.

Resources: Both GA and Adobe Analytics come with essential tools, classes, and resources to make the most of each product.  Google has an Analytics Academy and Google Analytics IQ while Adobe has resources such Adobe University and individualized classes.

Mobile:  Adobe Analytics has the ability to dive into the effectiveness of mobile campaigns and mobile data in order to best analyze customers’ mobile trends.  Both platforms also have mobile information that allow businesses to gain a better understanding of how their site is viewed on a mobile device and which platforms are the most popular within their audience.

Real-Time Data: GA has approximately a 24-hour “lag time” with their standard data collection, but does offer real-time insights.  Adobe Analytics can also measure Web traffic in real-time, which allows businesses to “react instantly to visitor trends with real-time reports that give you a second-by-second view of customer engagement” (Adobe Systems Incorporated, 2015).

What’s different?

Cost: With all of the features and capabilities of Adobe Analytics, it’s no surprise that the cost exceeds $5,000 per month.  The cost for GA is free.

Set Up and Learning Curve: Setting up Google Analytics takes a matter of a few minutes and up to 24 hours before analytic information begins to appear.  Additionally, elements of GA can be quickly understood without years of in-depth analytics experience.  For some individuals, it may take up to five days to start receiving information in Adobe Analytics and the software overall may be more enjoyable for an experienced analyst (Adobe Systems Incorporated, 2015b).

Event Tracking: Adobe offers two types of custom variables (traffic and conversion), each of which allows up to 75 variables to be reported.  Google Analytics only offers 5 custom variables and are more restrictive than those offered by Adobe (Gabriele, 2014).

Campaign Tracking: Similarly to Event Tracking, GA is limited in what can be captured.  The list consists of:

·      Campaign Source

·      Campaign Medium

·      Campaign Term

·      Campaign Content

·      Campaign Name

Adobe Analytics has increased options and flexibility to customize more campaign features (Gabriele, 2014).

Predictive Marketing: Adobe Analytics incorporates a Predicative Marketing component that allows businesses to detect anomalies, correlate analysis, cluster audiences, analyze audience activation and implement customer propensity modeling (Adobe Systems Incorporated, 2015c).   Additionally, Adobe Analytics can be set up to take specific actions when key metrics are missed by a user-defined margin.  This level of automation is not available with Google Analytics (Demers, 2013).

Selecting the “right” Web analytic tool can be a very time consuming process.  Avinash Kaushik recommends spending two to four months selecting, implementing, testing, and evaluating Web tools (as cited in Reed College of Media, 2015).  It’s important to “test drive” the tools and find the one that best works for the company’s goals, budget, and interests.

References:

About Analytics (n.d.) Adobe Analytics (site catalyst). Retrieved February 14, 2015 from http://www.aboutanalytics.com/adobe/adobe-analytics-site-catalyst

Adobe Systems Incorporated (2015). Capabilities. Retrieved February 14, 2015 from: http://www.adobe.com/solutions/digital-analytics/marketing-reports-analytics.html

Adobe Systems Incorporated (2015b). Digital publishing suite analytics tutorial.  Retrieved February 14, 2015 from: http://www.adobe.com/devnet/digitalpublishingsuite/articles/dps-analytics-tutorial.html

Adobe Systems Incorporated (2015c). Predictive marketing. Retrieved February 14, 2015 from: http://www.adobe.com/solutions/digital-analytics/predictive-analytics.html

Demers, T., (2013 May 10).  Guide to analytics software platforms: 25 analytics tools compared. Search Engine Land. Retrieved from http://searchengineland.com/web-analytics-software-comparison-identifying-the-right-web-analytics-tools-for-your-business-149373

Gabriele (2014, August 27). Comparing adobe analytics to google analytics. Retrieved from http://www.endressanalytics.com/2014/08/comparing-adobe-analytics-to-google-analytics/

Reed College of Media (2015). Lesson 5: Google Analytics. [Log In Required] Retrieved February 14, 2015 from www.ecampus.wvu.edu