User recordings, i.e. tracking behavior on the website

User recordings - what is it all about?

Thanks to the recordings of users, you can find out what people visiting your store are doing on the website, how they behave, or have any problems navigating the store. The analysis of recordings allows you to discover weak points and quickly react to problematic situations.

Recordings should be divided into segments. It will be much easier for us to draw conclusions in correlation with the environment used by the user. Examples of audience grouping options that most tools provide

which browser was used by the visitors of your website
what operating system they were using
what type of device was their device (mobile, desktop, tablet)
what country did they come from
where did they come from (did they find the store in a search engine or maybe they came from an ad on Facebook)
which page they started browsing from
where they left the page

User Recordings - What About Privacy?

It is worth adding that the users of your store do not have to worry about violating privacy. You will not see personal data or the address entered – these fields are hidden in the recordings. Session recordings are also not about webcam recording, so you won’t see your clients’ faces – they are completely anonymous.

In addition, whether or not their visit will be recorded largely depends on their individual browser settings. So if someone is blocking tracking scripts, their visit will not appear in the analytics tool.

You will see what it feels like to discover a place where your customers turn off their shopping path. A quick correction in the structure of the page, and sometimes even redrafting the content is enough to remove the hidden obstacle.

Click Leaders agencja e-commerce - pracownik Karolina Skrzypczyk specjalista ds. Facebook Ads

Karolina Skrzypczyk Social Ads Specialist

What tools to use for recordings?

There are many tools for recording user recordings, e.g. MS Clarity (completely free, new tool from Microsoft), Hotjar, Yandex Metrica or Cux.

It is worth noting that Cux, as the only of the mentioned tools, allows you to record complete visits – even if they last longer than a certain time per session. Click Leaders specialists always select tools to meet the specific needs of our clients.

User recordings and heat maps

The analysis of recordings is a perfect complement to heat maps. The heat map is a static image that can indicate, for example, a problematic place that generates a lot of clicks, the so-called rage clicks or show how deep your users reach on given subpages. With the help of recordings, we can see and analyze what exactly is happening in these places, why and what actions our client took, and then implement a solution to eliminate the problem.

Heatmaps and user recordings perfectly harmonize with each other, so in most cases they are available in the same tools.

Learn more about heat maps in this article What is a heat map? Learn the important element of qualitative analysis.

Analysis of user recordings - a simple way to optimize conversions

If you have a store or run sales activities in other channels, you certainly know what the conversion rate is, but let us remind you – it is the value of the goals achieved in relation to the number of users of your website, which is expressed as a percentage.

In an online store, the purchase conversion rate is mainly measured and often set as a KPI in the project.

That many customers will not complete the purchase if it is required to create an account in the store (according to the nchannel report).

23%

Conversion can also be signing up for a newsletter, downloading an e-book, setting up an account or filling in a survey, it all depends on what your business goal is.

Qualitative analyzes can support quantitative analysis. To analyze behavior, on the store we need to have traffic that allows us to take the risk of being statistically irrelevant. Moreover, there must be high-quality traffic. If your customers just come in and out without taking any action, you won’t be able to do a full qualitative analysis because you won’t have much to observe.

Important information, however, may be from which channel the users who are poorly engaged and we just burn the budget on them come from. At best, we should redefine our audience in a given tool and channel.

Each tip is valuable and it is worth taking a closer look to draw the right conclusions. If users who leave the store quickly visit it from a Facebook ad, it may be that the content of the linked page does not match the content of the ad that prompted the user to enter the store.

How do user recordings help optimize conversions?

Optimizing conversions with qualitative analysis is about eliminating all obstacles piece by piece. By eliminating the problems encountered on the customer’s shopping path, we shorten his path to purchase. As a result, the customer has less time to think and get lost.

All, even minor annoying moments, surprising elements, broken buttons or undercharging of the page are detrimental to the conversion.

Remember that the customer chooses an online store to make purchases quickly and efficiently. If you make them wait, or (even unconsciously) suggest clicking on inactive elements, you are justifiably frustrating them. Nobody likes to "stand in line", wait for the warehouse to be checked, or discover that the price has changed.

Pracownik działu kreatywnego w agencji Click Leaders - Jagoda Wichurska

Jagoda Wichurska Social Media Specialist

Importantly, it is worth analyzing the recordings from a distance, “with a fresh eye”. Focus on finding solutions instead of looking for problems.

If there is a problem – determine its scale. If it occurs separately, it will not matter. By forcefully introducing improvements that will not be important for 99.9% of users, they will simply not bring greater results.

When watching recordings, it is worth paying attention not only to what is happening, but also to what does not happen, even though it should. Do you want customers to click or enter some places and they don’t do it? Verify that your store is well designed. Looking at the website through the eyes of the users, you can “step into their shoes” – see what they care about and whether your store meets their expectations.

Use the knowledge that user recordings give you

Web analytics is a necessary element of your business on the way to success, because it allows you to precisely plan sales and marketing activities tailored to the expectations of your customers. Customers are more and more demanding, and the biggest advantage of web analytics is understanding their needs and meeting them. Thanks to this, you can build a strong, competitive brand that will inspire the trust of your recipients.