Purdy's Chocolates

Purdy’s Chocolates, one of Canada’s top chocolate retailers, approached us to develop their new website as well as implement a custom analytics program. When Purdy’s came to us, we wanted to use their existing Google Analytics data as part of our discovery process to identify problems and opportunities with their current website. As well, we wanted to configure Google Analytics to work with their newly developed website so they would be in a position to continue creating actionable data-driven plans.

When we began to analyze Purdy’s existing website, we encountered a major barrier: although Purdy’s had activated a Google Analytics account six months prior, they had only implemented a basic configuration. This meant the following:

• No use of filters to screen out internal traffic, which is incredibly important because their internal staff members are constantly accessing the site.
• No use of conversion goals to identify whether their intended website processes were easily understood and adopted by visitors. For instance, they had not addressed whether their online store’s checkout process was deterring people from submitting an order.
• No key performance indicators identified to understand how well their website was performing.
• No segmentation to identify differences across visitor segments.
• No e-commerce tracking in Google Analytics for the e-commerce component of their website.

Solution

Through custom configuration of Purdy’s analytics, we were able to do the following:

• Create custom filters to ensure data pertaining to internal parties accessing the site would not be included in analytics reporting.
• Set up goals and funnels to monitor conversions (checkout process, fundraising application process, newsletter registration process, contact us process).
• Track the number of PDFs being downloaded through the use of an onclick command.
• Install e-commerce tracking through the AbleCommerce platform.

During the site development phase we used Google Analytics to monitor how visitors moved throughout the site, whether they engaged in conversion-oriented activities, what products they were most interested in, and what content they were frequenting.

Results

With our newly acquired analytics data, we were able to form Purdy’s new website navigation as well as choose what content to feature on the site. For instance, the new site has a rotating banner window that features Purdy’s products. Those products were chosen based on how many times they were reviewed by visitors on Purdy’s former site.

Furthermore, we were able to determine which elements of the site were deterring people from engaging in conversions (e.g. a 94% abandonment rate for the Fundraising Application funnel). We then encouraged the client to reduce, review, and restructure the content in the Fundraising section for the new site.

Purdy’s now has an analytics program to assess whether their new website is meeting its objectives. They can assess the value of newsletter subscribers, and they can understand how their visitors interact with their website so that improvements can be made.

www.purdys.com