Firms ‘not making good use of web analytics'

UK-- Businesses are failing to get the most out of web analytics, according to a report by E-consultancy.

The firm's online measurement and strategy report, produced in association with Lynchpin Analytics, said too many organisations are underinvesting in analytics staff and failing to implement strategies to make use of the data they collect.

E-consultancy's head of research Linus Gregoriadis told Research: “There's a culture of paying for technology and then expecting everything to fall into place as a result of that. What's been missing is the next step where companies really work out what the data means specifically for their own businesses.”

Although 70% of respondents said understanding customer behaviour was an “important use” of analytics, only 18% said they had an internal strategy tying data collection and analysis to business objectives. The majority of firms said they were “working on this”.

The majority of respondents said that no more than half of their web analytics data is useful for driving decision-making. Only a quarter of firms said their web analytics “definitely” provided actionable insights.

The results are based on a survey of 700 respondents predominantly from organisations either using or providing web analytics services.

Gregoriadis said: “At a strategy level senior people within organisations realise that effective analysis of data can afford a competitive advantage, but perhaps there hasn't been enough acknowledgement that you do need to make an investment in the resources as well as the technology.”

Author: Robert Bain