Ecommerce Analytics : Monster Commerce & Urchin Web Analytics Partnership

Monte: Yea, definitely. And, I think that you’re integrated in…are you integrated or does Urchin integrate in with your product and service?

Stefanie: Yea, Monster Commerce and Urchin are long-time partners. We integrate our products pretty tightly. Anybody who signs up for Monster Commerce automatically gets Urchin 5 Statistics and that there is no additional cost for that. We also integrate tightly with their Urchin 6 On Demand product for really detailed ecommerce reporting in terms of being able to take a keyword that you bid on and paper click, and track that all the way through to the sale and conversion, and knowing exactly what your ROI is on each keyword. You know that the conversion rate stuff that we’re talking about, Urchin 6 On Demand in combination with Monster Commerce tracks that on literally an hourly basis so you can see your trends over time. You can make some of these changes that I’m talking about and actually watch them increase your conversion rate. But, Urchin is a great product with some great people behind it; and we have always had a very good relationship with them, in my opinion. We use their analytics for our company as well as our customers, and we have always been very impressed.

Monte: Yea, I had Brad Crosby on in New York and he mentioned that he integrated with you guys and it seems like the power of information leads to knowledge and action; and if you can track where people are bailing out…that’s all part of, you know, you have a great benefit by having that integration with their product and service and being SEO conscious. I think that’s a really unique advantage; and one of the reasons why we’re going to promote and sell your product on our site, because I think that a unique differentiator. We’re all looking for ways to help our customers get better and more success on the web so that they are happy and feel more comfortable doing business on the web, and that’s why we’re all here in business, aren’t we?

Stefanie: Absolutely, yea. I heard somebody one time referred to Urchin as, oh, a very Monster Commerce customer and they are using Urchin’s [inaudible] and they referred to it as an unfair advantage over their competition. I really think that that’s true. Being able to have that depth of analytics gives you or gives Monster Commerce just a great unfair advantage being able to see that and then take action on the site to improve it and then take a look at your changes and see if it did improve your conversion rate or the stickiness of the site, whatever it is you’re trying to improve is very satisfying to be able to make changes and see them working for you.

Monte: Right. Now, before we wrap up, tell me a little bit about what Monster Commerce has on the drawing board. What’s the future…where’s the future for Monster Commerce and its products and services? What are some of the innovations that you guys are making in the industry and what are we going to see in 1, 2, 5 years from now?

Stefanie: Sure. Well, 5 years from now I can guarantee there’s going to be some crazy things out there. You know, there’s a lot of things just in terms of response to the shoppers that are online, the things that they want, the one quick checkout, very convenient ease of use. You know, I’ve even heard some people talking about the changes that will happen in apparel selling online in terms of being able to get a body scan and then virtually trying clothes on. I think we’ll be able to see some…

Monte: Wow, that would be cool as hell.

Stefanie: Yea, pretty much for every man in America it’s more or less their dream never having to step into another clothing store again.

Monte: (laughing) Yea, definitely.

Stefanie: Yea, I mean, that’s….I can’t wait until the day I can look at a shirt online and say, “Oh, no, this is going to be too tight in your shoulders. You know you might want to try this one.” In terms of a year from now, we’ve always integrated with Quick Books and we’re enhancing that integration. We have an integration with eBay coming out this year. We have a ton of new search engine-friendly features in terms of just keeping pace with what the engines are looking at on sites and making sure that our customers are there. We have a number of just new features in terms of being able to better cross-sell, better up-sell, provide more targeted email marketing to repeat customers…a number of things on that front. Monster Commerce focuses our time on saving our clients time and making our clients money, and you’ll see features this year that speak to those two things, and 5 years as well.