Nissan discovered an innovative way to collect detailed information about product preferences (such as car category, model, and color) using Google Analytics e-commerce tracking-even though visitors weren't conducting e-commerce transactions. By analyzing this information, Nissan"s Global Marketing Strategy division can understand which vehicles are in demand, and can make decisions tailored for each local market. These insights have enabled quick decision-making on critical business activities, as well as facilitating website optimization.
Goals
Gain deeper understanding into audience product preferences
Make informed decisions about serving demand in local markets
Approach
Added e-Commerce tracking tags
Implemented custom reporting to facilitate knowledge sharing
Results
At-a-glance reporting enables quicker, more accurate decisions
Nissan Motor Company owns a network of websites across the world that helps consumers decide which Nissan vehicle they'd like to purchase. On these sites the visitor can explore products and services, download localized versions of promotional materials, and submit a reservation for taking test drive.
Start your engines
While a traditional Google Analytics implementation for a non e-commerce site simply uses goals to measure conversions, Nissan wanted to access much greater detail — such as users preferences according to car type, model, and color — to enable them to measure more information about each inquiry within their Google Analytics reports and to make better decisions about the allocation of inventory in local markets.
Google Analytics e-commerce tracking functionality is a powerful measurement tool for online merchants, but Nissan discovered an innovative application for tracking their non e-commerce activity. The approach is incredibly straightforward. A visitor requesting a test drive or brochure is prompted to complete a form that includes not only contact details, but also the vehicle they are interested in — including category, model, and color. Nissan simply places an e-commerce tag on the 'thank you' page that follows the user's completion of a brochure or test drive request form, and this enables the product preference information to be captured.
Ready to roll
By analyzing the resulting reports, Nissan's Global Marketing Strategy Division can understand which vehicles are in demand, and can make decisions tailored for each local market. These insights have enabled quick decision-making on critical business activities as well as facilitating website optimization.
To facilitate the dissemination of information, Nissan takes advantage of Google Analytics' flexible profile setting and custom reporting. Google Analytics Certified Partners Ayudante provided expertise and guidance in optimizing these features. As a result, Nissan has been able to decentralize access to their different market operations. While the Global Marketing Strategy Division can quickly check results from the world, each country manager can also check his or her own result at one view to quickly assess the popularity of models for a specific region.
For Nissan, the advantages of using Google Analytics in this way have been significant. Although the user experience remains seamless and no complex setup was necessary, it's now easy to assess product popularity globally and by market. Custom reports allow Nissan to easily perceive complex information in one view, dramatically reducing the time to summarize multiple reports, document the findings, and share this within the organization. Finally, Google Analytics gives Nissan access to timely information, which enables more accurate decision making that has a real effect on the company's bottom line.
