Business Intelligence for B2B eCommerce using FullStory

At Corevist, we operate on a continuous improvement model. We’re constantly researching (and implementing) new features that take our SAP eCommerce solution to the next level. Our goal is to increase the value of our product for our clients.

To that end, we’re proud to announce that we’ve implemented FullStory analytics on every Corevist-powered website. In this post, we’ll talk about how we got to this point, what FullStory means for you, and for us, and what it means for customer privacy. (Don’t worry, it’s all good news!)

How we discovered FullStory

It was 2016. Sam Bayer, CEO of Corevist, was frustrated with our support ticket process. As a cloud services company, shouldn’t Corevist be able to handle a ticket without asking the user for more info?

The legacy support ticket process needed to be streamlined. Whenever a ticket came in, the first thing we had to do was shoot it back to the client and ask for more details about what exactly had gone wrong in the website session. If the affected user was a client’s customer, that added yet another layer of communication–and another layer where things could get lost in the shuffle. We needed a granular data-gathering tool that could give us this information without having to bother the client again.

FullStory was that solution. We implemented it on all client websites, and the results have been phenomenal.

We’ll talk more about that in a moment. But first, what does this mean for your eCommerce website? How can it give you insight into customer behavior, and what can you do with that insight? What steps are in place to ensure your customers’ privacy?

We’ll cover all of that below.

How you can use FullStory

What kind of data is available in FullStory?

As FullStory puts it, their service allows you to “search your customer experience like you search the web.” You can filter for literally any parameter relating to customer behavior on your site. For example, you can search for all instances of customers receiving a specific error.

The examples are too numerous to list—but here are a few more:

• You can search for all abandoned carts.
• You can search for all sessions related to a material number.
• You can search for all sessions associated with a user ID, name, or email address.
• You can find the customer’s entire website session with the order number alone.

What can you do with this data?

FullStory provides you with a huge amount of data—but this data is only as useful as what you do with it. You need to understand this data so you can use it to make intelligent business decisions.  

Because FullStory is so deeply searchable, the number of potential applied use cases is nearly infinite. However, here are a few examples of actionable business intelligence which you can get by interpreting FullStory data.

• You can watch the entirety of any session to understand customer experience from beginning to end.
• You can find the part of the session where a problem occurred.
• You can determine how many people are ordering X item.
• You can determine why customer Y always abandons their cart.
• You can find out which users are online right now, in real time. A CSR can reach out to them personally with “spooky business intelligence” and ask if they need assistance with item X.
• You can see users who got an error because they mistyped a product SKU. Users may not always be aware of an error they’ve made.
• You can validate (or critique) elements of your site design based on real data.

How we use FullStory

A tool for continuous improvement

At Corevist, we have access to FullStory analytics for all clients. We use this data extensively to drive continuous improvements in user experience across our app. Whether you decide to use your FullStory data or not, we’re working behind the scenes, leveraging FullStory to create better performance on your site.  

Over the long term, this creates a better Corevist product at no additional cost to you. We believe that’s our duty to our clients—to use every type of data we can find to hone our product.

User experience monitoring

FullStory lets us pinpoint user experience issues related to specific pieces of functionality on your site. It gives us precise data on when and where these issues occur. That means faster resolution times to support tickets. It also gives us the intelligence we need to create permanent solutions to those issues.

For example, we can search for sessions related to specific HTML elements—customers who clicked a button or received a popup screen. We can also pinpoint user experience issues by browser, device type, and top referrers. This allows us to create solutions that address those specific issues.

Can we brag for a moment? :) Once a client’s site has gone into production, we don’t get a lot of support tickets. Our agile implementation process ensures that nearly all potential issues are ironed out before we go live. We’re not looking for ways to handle mountains of tickets. Rather, we’re looking for precise, pinpointed data on unique issues when they arise. FullStory gives us exactly that.

Data privacy: What is collected, and where does it end up?

At Corevist, we are committed to airtight security and user privacy. It’s important to note that for our part, we use the information which we collect only for the internal purposes outlined above. We never sell information to a third party, and we never will. In the actual data which FullStory collects, identifying information is obscured. We have no credit card data from your customers.

All data collected by FullStory remains within our FullStory account and internal Corevist communications, which are rigorously secured. This information is never shared with a third party in any way.

The question may arise, “Do we need to inform our customers about FullStory?” The answer is yes. Please see http://help.fullstory.com/spp/159396 for more information. However, note that it is not Corevist’s responsibility to inform our clients’ customers; it is our client’s responsibility to inform their customer of the ways in which data is collected on the eCommerce site.

For more information on the security and privacy of FullStory technology, please see the FullStory website, particularly this page.

We take privacy and security very seriously. Our commitment to these policies remains strong. If you need more information, please do not hesitate to contact us.

How clients can gain access to their FullStory data

If you would like access to FullStory data for your eCommerce website, please contact Corevist. You will need to set up a new, standalone FullStory account, and we will need to take you off the Corevist FullStory account. In that case, we would also request that you give us access to your new account. That way, we can go on troubleshooting your support tickets and monitor your site to make general improvements in user experience.

The Bottom Line

At Corevist, we’re fully committed to data-driven improvements of our product. In turn, we want to educate our clients on the use of analytics tools. We’ll continue to announce product improvements in the coming months and years. We hope you’ll capitalize fully on the business intelligence data that’s available in our app.

Let us know if you have any questions on FullStory and what it means for your business.