WVU IMC, Week 6 post

How Chewy.com May Use Web Analytics to Lead the Pack

As a strictly e-commerce retailer, Chewy.com has been a trailblazer not only in its industry of pet supplies, but in the e-commerce industry as a whole. They are often compared to the online retail giant Amazon, and even beat Amazon in pet supply sales as of a 2018 Forbes article. Chewy has the advantage of being a leader in a growing industry. According to NYC Data Science Academy, pet industry growth “feeds on factors such as the multi-generational appeal of pets, the positive correlation between good human health and pet ownership, and a pet culture that spawns spending on luxury goods for animals” in the U.S. (2017).

While the industry is a growing one, there also must be a number of web analytics strategies and tactics that Chewy.com uses to keep growing its beast of a business. Although we can’t get inside their analytics and marketing departments to find out what, there are several websites dedicated to dissecting the online presence of major retailers and deriving data from them.  For this post, I’ve found research from NYC Data Science Academy, Web Talent Marketing, SimilarWeb, and Alexa (Yes, the Amazon entity). Websites such as these give clues as to how Chewy.com uses web analytics and existing data from other high-traffic sites to refine its tools, techniques, and approaches to serving customers in the moment and giving them incentives to keep coming back. Additionally, I can provide examples as a customer of Chewy regarding how it personalizes service to me, which gives insight into how its analytics tools are used to track me.

One of the metrics at the top of Chewy.com’s tracking list must be keywords: which keywords visitors use to find them, and which keywords pet supply-searching people are using when they find their competitors. Chewy.com receives about 30% of its traffic from search (SimilarWeb, 2019). According to SimilarWeb, top competitors are Amazon, PetSmart (even though PetSmart owns Chewy.com), Petco, 1800PetMeds, and petflow (which I’ve never heard of). Also according to SimilarWeb data, we have this breakdown of keywords used to find Chewy.com:

The organic and paid keywords are very similar. The organic keywords reveal that most people know that they want to go to Chewy when searching for pet products. So, which other keywords can Chewy track and use to be competitive with the other top pet retailers? One answer is that they use keywords associated with the brands they sell. As a purchaser of Merrick brand dog food from Chewy.com, I performed a Google search for “Merrick brand dog food.” Chewy’s Google Ad came up as the second ad, and was listed as the seventh organic result on the first page results.

SEO expert Michael Fleischner says that keyword competition is real and rough. He says high SERP rankings aren’t always dependent on implementing keywords with the highest search volume, but rather they are based on quality and highly-used search phrases that are highly relevant to a website (2016). Chewy.com probably uses the SEO competition tool offered by Google to see which keywords its competitors are using to determine accuracy of those terms and phrases for is own website, but also to stay competitive with offerings. Additionally, Chewy can focus on pet supply searches overall to achieve more website visits. For example, here is a list from Web Talent Marketing that is extremely relevant to Chewy’s assessment of its keyword strategy:

Is Chewy using this data? According to the first three SERPs of my search in Google, Chewy does not have a keyword phrase in place for “natural dog food.” It is, however, the number one organic result for “dog treats.” Therefore, these common search terms are something Chewy could implement into its keyword bank.

Knowing all these keywords is also helpful because it gives Chewy insight into not only what customers want, but what they care about. It’s a known fact that in this mobile generation, people find a product either in-store or online, and then use their mobile phone or a new browser tab to shop comparison items.  Especially for pets, people want the most accurate and descriptive information available to determine what to purchase.  

According to Alexa, Chewy.com visitors spend over five minutes on site per session, visiting 5.4 pages, and according to SimilarWeb, they spend over four minutes, visiting 6.5 pages. While there is a disparity there, they both are significant numbers in web analytics speak. Certainly Chewy tracks these metrics as well and understands that people are willing to spend time on its site to research products. Chewy.com supplies a lot of information to keep customers on its site and give them reason to not feel they must go elsewhere for comparison shopping. For example, each product shows customer reviews, price discounts from list prices, price discounts with auto-shipping, and even demonstration videos with happy Chewy employees and veterinary specialists giving the viewer warm and fuzzy feelings about making that purchase for their pet. Clicks and view times on these videos must contribute to the long session duration of each visit and conversions overall since the retailer uses them even for products it might not have to.

  

As a customer, I know Chewy has a robust tool tracking my every move on the site, including browsing and purchasing. When signing into the homepage, I immediately see my five most recently purchased products.  It also shows me my auto-ship items and most recent order so I can track things. It’s possible that Chewy put those at the top after seeing via web analytics tools that they were some of the most frequently visited pages.  Making them immediately accessible from the homepage adds a convenience factor for the customer that can be influential in their ongoing relationship with the retailer.

As long as Chewy keeps tracking its customers’ activity so smartly to give them convenience and information where they want it, I see Chewy continuing to lead the pack in all of e-commerce.