Google Merchandise Store Dashboard Write-up

Sari Waters, Frank Champion, Josie Grindle, Morgan Pelphrey, Ana Sanchez, Jazy Pham, &

Grace Foster

University of North Georgia

Professor Nicholas Kastner

April 23, 2024

INTRODUCTION

A Marketing Dashboard is defined as a “visual display of the most relevant information

necessary to keep track of key metrics.” It’s a compilation of key metrics that help marketers

make decisions that will drive the best results for their digital platforms. Our dashboard reviews

the most key metrics from the Google Merchandise e-commerce store and utilizes Google

Analytics 4 and Universal Analytics embedded on the website as a source for the metrics. When

creating and using a dashboard, it’s necessary for marketers to first outline their goals and

objectives for their specific digital platform. For example, the goals and objectives of a social

media marketing dashboard might differ from an e-commerce marketing dashboard. Outlining

the metrics that best represent the defined goals and objectives is the most important aspect of

creating a dashboard.

When beginning our dashboard based on an e-commerce platform, it was important to

first define the purpose of an e-commerce platform and how to then quantify some of the

important goals associated with an e-commerce platform. According to the Lines in the Sand

textbook, e-commerce means a “visitor buys something from a web-based retailer.” Essentially,

this means that companies charge for products online that, once bought, will be delivered to

consumers. This particular digital modality is constantly being optimized and improved to

properly position a company among consumers. We’ve included key metrics in our dashboard

that stay relevant to marketers in this constant optimization.

METRICS

The metrics seen in our dashboard are used to efficiently monitor the analytics on the

current 30-day period compared to the previous 30-day period. Marketers typically favor
analyzing most metrics on a monthly basis, as it is the best way to track progress and trends

throughout the year. However, we compare the daily data to the previous day to better represent

our sessions and transactions. These are the first metrics that are seen when looking at the

dashboard, as demonstrated below.

This is a good start to the dashboard, allowing the marketer to quickly view the amount of

transactions and sessions for the day.

Some key metrics that were important to include in our dashboard were click-through

rate, total revenue, bounce rate, first-time purchasers, active users, conversion rate, add-to-carts,

and purchases. Click-through rate is very beneficial in indicating the effectiveness of the

campaigns and ensuring you can efficiently allocate the budgets. This metric shows that the

click-through rate for the Google Merchandise Store is down 55.9% compared to the previous

period. The included bounce rate is used to analyze engagement and inform how many visitors

quickly leave the website without taking any other action. This could reveal the usability of the

website and aid in various channel analyses.

Analyzing first-time purchasers can show the success of marketing efforts and could lead

to the analysis of new customer segments for a business to target. We also felt it was important

to include the ability to monitor add-to-carts as it creates the opportunity to see the customers'
interest in your products. Along with add-to-carts we chose to monitor user conversion rates as it

shows which of the add-to-carts resulted in a purchase.

The graphs in the dashboard are used to visualize the transactions, new users, total users,

total purchasers, sessions, and average order value metrics studied. The transaction graph can

provide visualization of the drop-off points for customers, their interactions, and insights into the

customer journey. The new user acquisition pi-chart can be beneficial in analyzing where the

majority of web traffic is coming from. Along with this benefit, marketers targeting their efforts

towards certain traffic channels are able to monitor the channel's growth and the campaign's

overall success.
 Additionally, you can optimize your marketing strategies by monitoring new user growth and

how users enter through various traffic channels. You can also analyze your customer acquisition

by comparing the new user and total user growth data.

FINDINGS & PURPOSE

Each metric included in our dashboard offers valuable insights into performance and user

behavior. The click-through rate indicates how effectively the campaigns drive traffic to the

website. We are seeing a 55.9% decrease in this case compared to the previous period which

might require a change in campaign strategies or budget allocation. The bounce rate measures

how many visitors leave the webpage without taking any further action. The 25.4% increase in

GMS’s bounce rate could indicate poor website usability and prompt marketers to optimize the

user experience and landing pages. By analyzing first-time purchasers we can better gauge the

success of attracting new customers through targeting marketing campaigns. This data can

inform the development of marketing strategies to aid in expanding the customer base in the

future. Our analysis showed an 11.9% increase, which could point to a successful strategy. The

conversion rate metric provides insights into the effectiveness of converting website visitors into

customers. Marketers can use this metric to identify areas in the conversion process that could

use revamping and tailor their marketing strategies accordingly. Additionally, monitoring add-to-

carts allows marketers to gain insight into customer interest in products. This data can inform
product recommendations, pricing strategies, and promotional efforts to encourage conversions.

A steep 60.4 % and 92.4% decrease in conversions and add-to-carts suggest a drastic change in

marketing efforts, starting from the buyer’s journey to the product promotions. Average purchase

revenue per user can also be very useful when defining the success of campaigns. Marketers can

use this as a metric to monitor campaign performance and it allows them to analyze if they are

maximizing revenue per customer.

RECOMMENDATIONS

Based on the Google Merchandise Store analytics, marketers can see that there is a need

to strengthen their marketing strategy. As seen from the data above, there is a 100% drop in e-

commerce purchases, meaning that there were no sales during the reported 30-day timeframe.

This indicates that there are underlying issues, possibly from a variety of places. This could

mean that there are usability issues within the website, inventory stock inconsistency, or

unsuccessful conversion paths. Aligning inventory stock processes with the consumer demand in

these products could also prove advantageous. The majority of traffic, at 83.3%, is direct traffic,

most likely indicating that there is strong brand awareness or a loyal customer base. However,

this high traffic does not correspond with conversion rates, suggesting a gap in engaging users at

the crucial point of purchase. Direct traffic should, therefore, be scrutinized to optimize user

engagement strategies further.

As far as driving conversions, it’s important for marketers to enhance their organic search

and search engine optimization so that they can effectively drive traffic to their website. Direct

traffic is great, but it’s essential for an e-commerce platform to be found even when people are

not directly searching for them. Organic search optimization should focus on creating high-
quality content that aligns with user search terms to drive conversions. Google marketers should

optimize the website’s content using key search terms so that their website ranks higher among

others. Google should also take greater advantage of email marketing. There is a great

opportunity for personalized marketing efforts that could result in higher conversion rates. This

can easily be implemented by having a customer enter their email when purchasing merchandise.

This way, you have already captured people who have already shown interest in your product

and have ‘opted-in’ to these emails.

Moving forward, it is advisable to double down on successful strategies and pivot away

from those that have not yielded a satisfactory return on investment. Particularly, with a 59.20%

bounce rate, there is a pressing need to analyze user engagement and retention strategies on the

website. Refining the content and user experience on pages with high bounce rates could

significantly reduce this figure and improve the overall site performance.

To escalate sales, the store must refine the user journey for simplicity and clarity, making the

path to purchase as effortless as possible. Personalization tactics could be utilized to create a

more bespoke shopping experience, tailoring product suggestions to individual user preferences.

Initiatives such as targeted promotions and discounts could incentivize purchases, especially for

new customers.

CONCLUSION

After carefully building and analyzing the Google Merchandise Store dashboard we have

revealed some aspects we recommend changing in the future. Through the use of the created

dashboard, we’ve enabled the data analysis team to efficiently monitor and investigate issues

negatively affecting their conversions. Our recommendations emphasize retargeting, search

engine optimization, and implementing the use of personalized marketing campaigns like email

marketing. We suggest that Google focus on optimizing the user's experience on the website to

combat the high bounce rates and abandoned carts. They should continue to focus on their

opportunities and strengths like their brand loyalty and brand awareness. By implementing our

recommendations we hope to see positive growth in the Google Merchandise Stores marketing

efforts and hopefully conversions.

Report Link for Group 1 Google Dashboard: https://lookerstudio.google.com/s/ktCQOW1oYtE