ModCloth
is an online clothing, accessories, and décor retailer. It was founded by two high school sweethearts
and built on a foundation of love for vintage and retro style. In just a few short years, ModCloth has grown
from a college dorm operation to a 300 employee business with offices in three
cities. Growing in popularity among
women 18-34 and being an online-only retail vendor, ModCloth does everything
online. From internal web analytics to
social media to digital advertising, ModCloth has an integrated online
strategy. The next few paragraphs will explore
which analytics and social platforms are used, as well as how the data
collected is put into action.
Gathering
Information
ModCloth
gathers customer information in many ways.
First, ModCloth collects information provided by the customer. This includes name, email, phone number,
shipping address, billing information, and payment details. This information is provided when making a
purchase. Related to purchases, ModCloth
also stores purchase history, shopping behaviors and preferences, and membership
information. Additional information could include location or geography through
the mobile application, reviews on products, or social media interactions made
through the ModCloth site.
Second, ModCloth collects data through
third-party tools, including Omniture Site Catalyst, Quantcast, and Google
Analytics (ModCloth, 2013). These tools
automatically collect non-personally identifiable information from browsers
based on cookies. Information collected
includes IP address, pages viewed, site navigation patterns, devices used, and
geo-location information.
Omniture
and Google Analytics are both web analytics tools that measure web site
performance, such as visitors, traffic sources, devices, conversions, and much
more. The main difference between the
two is that Omniture is an engine-independent paid service, with dedicated
support. Google Analytics is free, but
is associated with Google and does not provide dedicated support (Yu,
2010). Quantcast is a tool that measures
audience and traffic data across millions of websites. This tool is free and can be used by
marketers to view data on their own website or to analyze competitor websites. Below is an example of the demographic
overview for LinkedIn. Since ModCloth
has their site monitored by Quantcast, they can (and have) chosen to hide their
directly measured profile audience data from public view.
Through
these tools, ModCloth can monitor visitor traffic, audience demographics,
devices used, as well as sales and conversion data on the site. In addition to sales, ModCloth has many
desired actions for their customers.
Actions include writing a product review, sharing products or purchases
through social channels, and posting on the ModCloth blog. Collecting this information provides ModCloth
with valuable user behavior and preferences that can be used to improve
performance. All user and website data
collected is used to improve the customer experience and ultimately increase
engagement and sales.
Measuring
Engagement
ModCloth’s
guarantee is to provide the best possible online shopping experience. They have strived to create a community
around their brand and have many touch points and opportunities for
engagement. They also pride themselves
on their dedicated customer service.
Measuring engagement is measuring success for ModCloth.
ModCloth
allows its customers to reach out through multiple channels, including a unique
twitter handle (@ModCloth_Care ) and two online chat channels, one for customer
service and one for fashion style questions (ModCloth, 2013). Both Google Analytics and Omniture report
traffic to each of these webpages and monthly data can show if inquiries are
increasing or decreasing over time.
Reviewing the details of these questions can bring popular issues to
light, which can then be incorporated in the FAQ section of the site,
decreasing the number of customer service requests.
In
a marketing blog, Kate Morris (2012) writes “they have great products, even
better customer service, and their community really is what makes their
business” (para. 2). One of the things
she included that sets ModCloth apart is its surveys. Below is an example of a survey given to
someone shopping on the site. Rather
than a boring questionnaire, it is simply a “which would you choose” fashion
question. ModCloth collects these user
preferences and uses them to purchase new items. What better way to find out what people want
to buy?
Another way ModCloth encourages and
tracks engagement on their site is through the “Be the Buyer” program. This program encourages users to browse
sample styles and vote on the ones they would like to see sewn and sold at
ModCloth. Then users can browse items
actually created through the program as well as items coming soon. ModCloth uses this data to select which items
it will buy and sell. Through analytics,
ModCloth can see engagement metrics and use those to optimize the
experience.
ModCloth’s
site is extremely integrated with social media.
Every product page includes the ability to share through Facebook,
Twitter, Pinterest, or email. ModCloth
has even launched its own in-house Pinterest page. Called “Style Gallery”, users can upload
photos of themselves wearing or styling their purchases. According to ModCloth cofounder, Susan Koger,
“This is the place where she comes to buy stuff but also to be part of the
community and feel part of the brand” (Gannes, 2012). Building an online community around the brand
is an important goal for ModCloth. Measuring
the traffic, time spent, pages per visit, and percentage of new visits through
Omniture and Google Analytics can provide insight on how engaged users are with
the site, and which pages are most engaging.
According
to ModCloth’s Social Media Manager, Natasha Khan, the three main social
objectives are brand awareness, brand loyalty, and increased traffic to the
site. In terms of return on investment,
she states “We measure brand awareness with virality and reach metrics; we
measure brand loyalty with engagement and customer care metrics; and we measure
traffic to ModCloth.com through tagging and tracking of links using Google
Analytics” (Loomba, 2012).
Overall,
ModCloth uses multiple web analytics tools to measure website performance,
audience data, and engagement metrics.
Using these tools, ModCloth optimizes its clothing and accessory
collection, enhances its social media interactions, and increases
engagement. The data ModCloth collects varies
from customer purchase information to browsing behavior and buying
preferences. This information helps to
paint a more complete picture of the ModCloth customer and helps ModCloth
customize its site to improve the customer experience.
Since
ModCloth looks at multiple pages for engagement metrics and has many social
extensions, the Google Analytics application Ducksboard would be a helpful tool
to combine all that data in an easy to read, high level dashboard. Below is an example of the dashboard. Ducksboard can integrate site performance,
social media, customer service, conversion rates, and more through its
customizable platform (Ducksboard, 2013).
This tool puts actionable data at a glance to quickly implement
optimizations.
References
Ducksboard. (2013). Retrieved from
http://ducksboard.com/
Gannes, L. (2012, November 19). ModCloth launches an
in-house Pinterest. AllThingsD. Retrieved
from http://allthingsd.com/20121119/modcloth-launches-an-in-house-pinterest/
Loomba, A. (2012, August 15). Exclusive interview
with ModCloth’s social media team. Thoroughly
Modern Marketing. Retrieved from http://www.thoroughlymodernmarketing.com/exclusive-interview-with-modcloths-social-media-team/
ModCloth. (2013). Retrieved from http://www.modcloth.com/help/privacy
Morris, K. (2012, August 28). Positive Outing:
Review of ModCloth. Distilled [Blog]. Retrieved from http://www.distilled.net/blog/marketing/positive-outing-review-of-modcloth/
Yu, D. (2010, May 26). Google Analytics vs.
Omniture: Independent analysis. AimClear [Blog]. Retrieved from http://www.aimclearblog.com/2010/05/26/blitzlocal%E2%80%99s-dennis-yu-on-google-analytics-vs-omniture/
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