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When it comes to online sales, there was no such thing as cross-device tracking a few years ago. If a customer turned off their desktop computer and opened their laptop later that evening, tracking tools would see the laptop as a different user.
Today, Google is changing the game.
If a user closes their laptop and turns on their tablet or smartphone, websites will see them as the same visitor. Other tech companies are eyeing technology that'll allow it to do the same, too.
With that said, here are a few ways that cross-device tracking will help generate more lead sales.
With cross-device tracking, you're able to gather more information about your customer than you previously had. For instance, how many customers research a product on a smartphone before buying it at a later date on a tablet or desktop computer?
With cross-device tracking, you can gather data and change your website to make the user feel comfortable purchasing your product on a smartphone rather than a desktop. This could generate sales that you would've otherwise lost because the customer forgot to go back and purchase the item on their desktop computer.
Rather than focusing all your advertising efforts into a certain item or service, being able to track users across devices will allow you to see which advertisements are working and which aren't. Being able to accurately judge the number of unique visitors to a certain page will help you repurpose and refocus your marketing efforts on pages that have low visitor numbers.
We're seeing a trend where online retailers are dropping their prices well below what brick-and-mortar stores are offering. This is leading to people treating stores like Target and Best Buy as "showrooms" for Amazon products. However, those stores started price matching Amazon, which lead to users now looking at products on Amazon and buying them in-store.
Some stores offer free Wi-Fi now, and cross-device tracking allows those stores to see whether the customer looked at prices online before making a purchase. They can see the products that customers looked at on their device and competitively price or market their items with more effectiveness. They can also track the customer around the store, regardless of the device they connect with, to see where they spend the most time. Best Buy and Target also have loyalty programs, which they can use data from to determine whether sales were made online or offline.
Your traffic could be coming from people who are visiting from multiple devices. With cross-device tracking, you're able to see how many unique visitors you actually have. This will allow you to see who you're reaching and through which method. When you discover that most of your users are coming from a desktop computer, you can change up your mobile layout to attract new unique visitors.
This data will also help you determine which version of the site needs improving by determining which platform is getting the least amount of sales. Analyzing and reacting to this information to change the floundering version of your site will give you the ability to correct any user interface, design or processing issues on the fly to help from losing any potential customers.
Have you ever seen a product and said something like "Yeah, that looks great, but I'll wait for the price to drop before I buy it"? If so, you're not alone. A lot of customers will wait for the price to drop before making their purchase. With cross-device tracking, you can see if a certain customer is constantly checking on a certain product. If they're constantly searching for one thing across a variety of devices, you can safely assume that they're waiting for a deal.
You can then offer them their own exclusive discount on the item, moving a product that would've otherwise remained unsold. This doesn't just apply to products, either — this type of information would be great for companies offering subscription services.
Either way, cross-device tracking can be a very useful tool, and the data that it provides allows you to be more responsive and make the right changes that’ll hopefully lead to more sales.
What do you think? Leave a comment below and let us know.
JT Ripton is a business consultant and a freelance writer who enjoys writing about a myriad of topics, business and technology being a couple of them. You can follow him on Twitter @JTRipton.
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