Report: Metrics a priority and struggle for merchants

"The vast majority are still struggling to measure and optimize the customer experience across multiple devices and channels," said Dan Darnell, vice president of marketing, Baynote. "For retailers, measurement is still a work in progress - our Merchant's Metrics Playbook is a great resource for e-commerce teams that are serious about taking their analytics capabilities to the next level."

Baynote and the e-tailing group collaborated on the report. Among the findings:

• Media focuses on conversion, merchants focus on profitability
• Most retailers want better metrics, especially for personalization efforts
• Traffic and conversion rates are high via mobile, but merchants need to work on optimization

Meanwhile, data from PM Digital notes that paid search ads boosted online sales by more than 25%. According to the report shoppers who clicked onto shopping sites from paid search ads spent 27% more Year over Year. Paid search spending is also up - 15% YoY, finds the report.

Paid search brought in $14.8 billion in 2011, a 47% share of all online spending says the IAB.

Back to ecommerce, in February there was a 12% increase in conversion rates, finds PM Digital, for those shoppers who clicked through a paid search ad; March showed a 9% increase in conversions. January was the slowest month with a 6% increase.

Tags: Baynote, ecommerce metrics, ecommerce tips, ecommerce trends, the e-tailing group