Wayfair.com is one of the nation’s leading e-commerce
retailers, so to what does it owe its success? The company appears to collect
fairly standard information in fairly standard ways, but the ways in which it
utilizes that data – sharing it throughout the company, creating proprietary
technology to analyze and act on it – seems to set it apart.
Wayfair.com’s Success
and Culture
Wayfair is currently #16 on the list of top 25 e-commerce retailers, with 100% of their sales coming through the Web.
They rank similarly high when it comes to websites in general -- #147 site in U.S. and #3 in Home and Garden shopping category.
The company’s tagline is “a zillion things home,” and their
internal tagline seems to be “a zillion data points,” if their careers/culture statement is any indication: “We look for individuals who are bright,
collaborative, driven, and interested in analytic insights. We believe
transparency is important and information empowers, so we give everyone access
to company data and systems which improve the speed and accuracy of decision
making."
What Wayfair Collects
So what data does Wayfair.com collect? For as powerful as
their site performance and business is, it seems as though the raw data
collected is very similar to most other sites. According to the company’s privacy policy, they collect a mix of personal information that people choose
to share (name, email and phone number), along with information that is
automatically shared, such as browser information, IP address, device, visit
duration, pages per visit, etc.
The company also mentions its use of cookies, both temporary
and persistent, so that users can be recognized upon their return to the site. The site does reference its use of Google Analytics
quite specifically, stating, “In particular, Wayfair may use Google Analytics
to monitor activity on the Site and assist with advertising."
When it comes to advertising, Wayfair is up front about how
to opt out of what they call their “interest-based ads” but also about the consequences
of such an action: “Wayfair offers you choices about receiving interest-based
ads from us. You can choose not to receive interest-based ads from Wayfair. You
will still see ads but they will not be personalized."
The only somewhat extraordinary data collection method I
noticed was Wayfair’s use of “web beacons,” a term I was unfamiliar with but technology
that seems designed to personalize the user experience.
“Web beacons collect Online Information, such as the type of browser that you
use and your IP address. Web beacons may be used alone or in conjunction with
cookies; when web beacons are used with cookies, they may link Online
Information to other Personal Information that you have provided to us."
Further digging confirmed my idea of beacons as personalization tools. “While they may contain some of the text that you see on
the screen at the time, they typically contain a number of instructions, or
tags that then ask the website's server to send you further content (such as an
image or a block of text that changes frequently)." While I
was unfamiliar with them, they don’t seem that exceptional, either in their
usage rate or their power. “Web beacons do not give any ‘extra’ information
away. They are simply a convenient way of gathering the simplest of statistics
and managing cookies."
What They Do With Data
If it’s not the raw data that sets Wayfair apart, what is
it? Well, it’s what they do with that data, which is a little hard to diagnose
since most of the tools the company uses for complex analysis are proprietary.
What is clear is the value the company places on a consistent, relevant user
experience from ad to purchase completion, online and off.
Display Ads
Typically, display ads exist more to heighten awareness atthe top of the funnel rather than to drive purchases at the bottom of the funnel, but their power can be heightened in instances like retargeting or
other relevant circumstances. Wayfair seems to be trying to
improve the relevancy of this medium with its proprietary display ad platform called Magellan. According to the company, Magellan will
“deliver highly relevant product recommendations across Wayfair.com and
within advertisements, leveraging consumer data insights to enhance
personalization."
Search
Because they’re being presented to customers actively
searching for a product, search ads tend to be more effective, and again,
Wayfair is using another proprietary platform to further amp up that efficacy.
Created by the company’s engineering, data science and marketing teams, the search engine marketing platform known as Athena is designed to do a few things. “’With the development and deployment of Athena in the
U.S., Wayfair has dramatically improved its ability to reach customers across a
long tail of search terms, bring those customers to the products they are
searching for, and, as a result, drive greater revenue and profitability,’”
noted Ed Macri, Chief Product & Marketing Officer, Wayfair."
Athena seems to be doing its job. According to
SimilarWeb.com, Wayfair.com gets its highest percentage of traffic – almost
half -- from search, and 2/3 of that is organic search.
In addition to searches conducted on Google and other engines,
Wayfair also focuses on its own site search capabilities, with personalization
made possible by their persistent cookies. The site uses a “Top Picks for You” section based on prior searches. Site search should be a huge area of focus for all
e-retailers considering that users using search typically convert at rate 5-6
times higher than those who don’t.
Testing
Another important on-site methodology to use to optimize
purchases and conversions is testing, which Wayfair makes extensive use of.
Back in 2014, the company was using SiteSpect Inc. to test all changes made to the site, whether they be simple wording tweaks or larger design modifications. It was said that the site averaged 15 to 25 tests a month.
Offline Applications
What a lot of marketers and companies don’t do is use the
rich data mined from online channels to inform their offline channels, but
Wayfair has begun to take that all-important step. They’ve done it in the form
of a print catalog the company says is driven by “quantitative and algorithm based insights." Such a move underlies the
supreme importance not of media channel but of relevant content. As Chris
Petersen, President of Integrated Marketing Solutions, points out, “The key is
not ‘print’ or digital — the key is CURATED assortment."
SEO
As mentioned earlier, a bulk of Wayfair’s traffic comes from
search, and while their Athena SEM platform is a key to that, so too is on-page
optimization. A Google search for “online furniture” returns 277 million
results, but Wayfair tops both the ad and organic results. According to SEO
Site Tools, Wayfair.com has 15 million pages indexed by Google. Its homepage
has a strong title – “Wayfair.com – Online Home Store for Furniture, Décor,
Outdoors & More." Also, all department listings
appear to be indexed as part of the homepage, which means if users search for
something in any one of what appears to be at least 100 home décor categories,
they’ll likely end up on Wayfair’s site.
Looking specifically at one of these category pages, in this
case “Storage Boxes, Bins, Baskets & Buckets,” you again see the use of a
great meta description, this time, “Shop Wayfair for all the best Storage
Boxes, Bins, Baskets & Buckets. Enjoy free shipping on most stuff, even big
stuff.” The coding of the individual product names is a little tough for me to
evaluate, but I can see that all the product image names include keywords in
them (Fleischner, 2016).
Plus, it helps that the category page url is close to the
root domain, with just /Decorative-Boxes-Bowls-and-Baskets-C1801912.html after
it (Fleischner, 2016). The page’s title seems meant to not only satisfy search
engine bots, but more importantly, compel users to click as it declares, “All
Storage Boxes, Bins & Baskets you’ll love | Wayfair” (On-Page Optimization,
n.d.).
What Else Wayfair
Could Be Doing
It’s tough to look at a successful site like Wayfair and
think of ways to improve it. The company seems committed to collecting the
right data at every touchpoint and then using that data primarily to improve
the user’s experience, which in turn makes tactics like SEO and others that
much more successful. Search, both through engines and on-site, seems to be a main
focus, which is appropriate given its importance. As mentioned, searchers tend
to convert at higher rates, so Wayfair should continue to monitor conversion
rates for this referral channel to see if it’s working up to its potential.
Internal site search is also invaluable. “Site search is arguably one of the most important reports for any ecommerce site. This single report gives insight
into what your customers want, and what
pages aren’t meeting their needs." But Wayfair’s use of such
data in creating its print catalog indicates they already understand the
value.
For e-commerce, the
exit pages report can also shed light on problem areas, especially if any of
the purchasing funnel pages appear there. Kaushik urges
e-retailers to calculate both their cart and checkout abandonment rates to head
off any potential pitfalls, and Wayfair would be wise to follow such advice
(2010). To go one step farther and diagnose any problems more precisely,
Wayfair would be well-served to serve up quick exit surveys to visitors leaving
from certain high-value pages (Kaushik, 2010).
Sources
Fleischner, M.H. (2015). SEO made simple for 2016:
Insider secrets for driving more traffic to your website (5th ed.).
North Charleston, SC: CreateSpace. ISBN: 9781515344490.
Kaushik, A. (2010). Web
analytics 2.0: The art of online accountability & science of customer
centricity. Indianapolis, IN: Wiley Publishing. ISBN#9780470529393.
On-Page Optimization Tool. (n.d.). Internet Marketing Ninjas. Retrieved November 20, 2016 from http://www.internetmarketingninjas.com/seo-tools/free-optimization/
