Stage 3 Tools and techniques for collecting metrics and summarising results

Techniques to collect metrics include the collection of site-visitor activity data such as that collected from site log-files, the collection of metrics about outcomes such as online sales or e-mail enquiries and traditional marketing research techniques such as questionnaires and focus groups which collect information on the customer's experience on the web site. We start by describing methods for collecting site-visitor activity data and then review more traditional techniques of market research which assess the customer experience.

Site-visitor activity data

Information on content and services accessed by e-commerce site visitors.

Recorded for each graphic or text file requested from a web server. It is not a reliable measure for the number of people viewing a page.

Log file analyser

A separate program such as WebTrends that is used to summarise the information on customer activity in a log file.

Page impression

A more reliable measure than a hit, denoting one person viewing one page.

Unique visitors

Individual visitors to a site measured through cookies or IP addresses on an individual computer.

Continue reading here: Learning from Amazons culture of metrics

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