Web analytics e gestão da experiência do cliente no comércio eletrônico: inter-relação entre os temas e utilização de um método experimental

Abstract

The E-commerce increases every year its importance in the global economy, presenting existing competitive strategies from physical retail, but also demanding innovation in characteristic aspects of the virtual business. With the other competitor only a few clicks away, the necessity of collect and analyze data makes the Web Analytics process an imperative to virtual retailers seeking for continuous improvements. The Web Analytics process includes the analysis of data from a website and its competitors, which directs to the continuous improvement of the online experience for actual and potential consumers, leading to the desired results (KAUSHIK, 2007). However, the Web Analytics was initially focused on tools, especially in the collecting Clickstream data process; where were continuously developed improving ways to register the interaction between visitor and website data. That occurred in a hypercompetitive scenario, where factors as price, products mix, shipment tax, provides only temporary competitive advantages. Then, the virtual stores searching for leadership, as well as in physical retail, started to carry about the Customer experience management, keeping in equivalence the other competitive factors (SCHMITT, 2004). Therefore, this study proposes to answer the following question: Its possible to measure positive differentiated experiences in virtual stores using the Web Analytics process? The empirical experimental method was chosen because allows the possibility to manipulate independent variables and compare the experimental groups results. Then, two virtual stores had been developed, using the Magento Go platform: a basic virtual retail, featuring simple navigation elements, organized into categories, products, information and purchasing mechanisms; and a virtual retail that included the largest number of experiential elements, that was previously researched and composed a framework. Two experimental groups were formed matching 50 individuals, according to their interest in the websites product category. Each group accessed one of the digital camera virtual retail (Total Zoom 1 and Total Zoom 2) to simulate the buying process and respond a survey about the experience proportioned. There were two dependent variables: Clickstream data, recorded by Google Analytics; and Survey data. The Google Analytics selected metrics showed that behavior data cant tell much about proportioned experience in virtual retail. Otherwise, the survey results allowed affirming that there were significant differences between the proportioned experiences to each group, based on descriptive statistics, Hotellings t² and Mann-Witney test on post-hoc analysis. In conclusion, this work contributes to expose Web Analytics value and confirm the necessity of implementing the full Web Analytics process, mainly if the goal is to measure the customer experience, seeking for the continuous improvement of that experience, attempting to construct sustainable competitive advantages