I am
sure you all have heard of Toys “R” Us, the big box toy retailer that has been
around since 1978. They have approximately 877 brick and mortar Toys“R”Us and Babies“R”Us stores in the
United States and more than 685 international stores (Toys“R”Us, 2013). In
addition to their traditional retail stores they also have an ecommerce site
selling the same products they offer in store and even more. Their site is
quite robust showing offerings of toys, baby gear, furniture, game systems,
clothing and more.
As a parent I tend to visit this
store online around the holidays so it came to mind when I was thinking of
online retailers utilizing analytics. The site is set up with so many
components but I will focus on four main parts of how they use their website
analytics to target customers and enrich their shopping experiences.
On
the home page:
· Hot
Sellers –
this section is a list of the products that are selling quite frequently. The
way they are populating this category is by looking at all purchases both
online and off at their stores and having it display here. The goal of this
section may be to help those who are at a loss deciding on a gift idea for
someone.
· Recommended for you – this section is generated based on
both your past shopping history with the “R”Us stores as well as your past
browsing history. The website saves a visitors information each time they visit
the site whether they are just browsing or actually completing a purchase. The
next time you come back to the home page it populates this section with similar
items.
· Now Trending – this section is items that are
gaining popularity and are getting a lot of traffic. Again it is populated
based on the general browsing of people on the website and is auto generated.
On
individual product pages:
· Customer’s
Also Liked – this section is on each individual product
page after the item and description. It was created to see what those who have
shopped for have also looked at based on this product and their interests.
Each of
these features is designed to enrich the shopping experience and show you items
you may not have otherwise found. In the customer’s view it is a great way to
find the products related to your purchasing interests that you might not have
otherwise found among thousands of products. From a marketers perspective it is
a great way to cross sell to your customers. Let’s take a look at the privacy
policy and what that actually means as far a web analytics is concerned.
What
information does Toys"R"Us collect?
Information
you provide them with when interacting with
Toys"R"Us including when you:
- Make an online or in-store purchase;
- Create or edit Registries and Wish Lists;
- Participate in a contest, sweepstakes or other promotion;
- Download an application;
- Participate in a game or other promotion on a Toys"R"Us Site or at one of their partner's websites;
- Fill out a survey or questionnaire;
- Sign up for their rewards program or other program or club;
- Sign up for email and/or SMS news and alerts;
- Engage with Toys"R"Us content through third-party social networking sites;
- Purchase a product as a result of visiting a Toys"R"Us Site, such as through their partner i-Parcel;
- Set up the parental controls for the Tabeo tablet; or
- Contact a Toys"R"Us customer service representative.
Automatic Information Collection
Every
time someone visits the Toys"R"Us website, the websites of any of their
partners, or uses any of their mobile apps, they automatically collect certain
types of information including:
- Your internet service provider's address, your internet protocol or IP address, the web page from which you came, your web browser software, the type of handheld or mobile device used to link to the web page, and the language settings on your web browser;
- A record of your activity or your "clickstream" while visiting Toys"R"Us Sites;
- "Cookies" of different types to recognize your computer.
- Web beacons, match scripts, pixel tags or similar technologies that allow them to know if a particular web page was visited, an e-mail opened, links in the email utilized or if the advertisements on the Toys"R"Us Sites or other sites were effective. In some instances, these technologies may allow them to match activities with particular users; and
- Collect any information you enter, share or that can be obtained from your use of their apps, games, contests, or promotions.
How
does Toys"R"Us use and share personal information?
Using Your Personal Information
According
to their website, “Your personal information is used by Toys"R"Us and
others to enhance your customer relationship, respond to your requests, improve
our customer service, tailor offerings and advertisements to you, communicate
with you about products, services, special offerings and events or programs
offered by Toys"R"Us or our marketing partners that may be of
interest to you. We participate in interest-based advertising and we or others
may use information about you to deliver to you or allow you to see certain
advertising based on your interests, searches you perform, information you
provide, or your activity on Toys"R"Us Sites or other websites.
Toys"R"Us
may also use this information to analyze and manage its businesses. Aggregate
or combined data is collected from online and offline facilities and may be used
to enhance the ability of Toys"R"Us to communicate with you and to
support business functions such as fulfillment, internal business processes,
marketing, authentication, customer service, fraud prevention, and public
safety and legal functions.” (Toys"R"Us, 2013).
About
Toys"R"Us Advertising
“Toys"R"Us
may participate in interest-based advertising. Toys"R"Us may
automatically collect information regarding how you browse websites, use apps,
play games, and shop in order to enhance your customer experience, improve our
customer service, and provide you with communications and promotions from us or
others. The goal of interest-based advertising is for Toys"R"Us or
its advertising partners to show you ads that are more relevant to your
interests.” (Toys"R"Us, 2013).
Additional Analytic Methods
One great option I would implement
as a marketing expert focusing on web analytics is either a rating system or
like button on each product. In order for this to work it would have to be
present when you scroll over the item on the full pages of listings (see
below).
What
would happen is as people see a product that they want to purchase or even have
already purchased they could rate or like the item. This would help to track
items that are hot that may have been purchased else ware or that people are “wishing”
for.
References
Privacy
Policy. (2013) Toys“R”Us. Retrieved December 9, 2013, from
Home
Page. (2013). Toys“R”Us. Retrieved December 9, 2013, from
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