HSN.com E-Commerce Redefined

The Home Shopping network (HSN) based out of Saint Petersburg, Florida is a multi-channel retailer of jewelry, electronics, fashion, shoes, handbags, beauty, kitchen, health & fitness, crafts and home goods. For the past fifteen years, shoppers not watching the live programming have been visiting and shopping on Hsn.com (Alexa.com, 2013).

The online and mobile business at HSN now up to $1.4 billion a year in sales, comprises 35-40 percent of total revenues (Froelich, 2013). According to the three-month Alexa traffic rankings, Hsn.com, which is part of the “major retailers” category, ranks in at #1,677 in the world (Alexa.com, 2013). Domestically, Hsn.com ranks in at #371 (Alexa.com, 2013). 

The goal behind analyzing e-commerce web analytics is to improve a user's website and marketing experience — help with product discovery, education, or even entertainment — and simultaneously achieve the marketer's goals whether those goals are to sell more products or increase interaction (Roggio, 2011). For a large multi-channel retailer like HSN, increasing conversion rates and socializing shopping have been key drivers for the business, and both have played a role in HSN’s transition to “boundary-less retail” (Fiorietta, 2013). 

HSN.com uses graphics, promotions, and content to tell the front-end story on the website, but the web metrics reveal the back-end successes and failures of their e-commerce platform. Currently, according to published metrics from Alexa.com, visitors to Hsn.com spend approximately eleven minutes per visit to the site and 52 seconds per page view (Alexa.com, 2013). Visitors view an average of 8.4 unique pages per day (Alexa.com, 2013). Unfortunately, a turn off for visitors is the slow (2.622 seconds) load time for HSN.com, with 77% of sites loading faster (Alexa.com, 2013). Daily traffic is 94, 529 with 841,308 page views (Webstatzone.com, 2013).

In an effort to learn more about their customers engaging with the website, HSN deploys many methodologies, which are stated in their online privacy policy. Information is collected automatically, which may or can include a customer’s IP address, a customer’s browser type and language, access times, the content of any undeleted cookies that a customer’s browser previously accepted, and the referring website address (Hsn.com, 2013). In addition, HSN tracks their customer’s online interactions with cookies. Further stating, “through the use of a cookie, we also may automatically collect information about your online activity on our site, such as the web pages you visit, the links you click, and the searches you conduct on our site” (Hsn.com, 2013). Another tracking tool the brand leverages are web beacons (gifs, pixel tags, or web bugs), which may be used to deliver or communicate with cookies, to count users who have visited certain pages and to understand usage patterns (Hsn.com, 2013). Third parties may use tracking technologies, such as cookies, to collect information about users who view or interact with their advertisements (Hsn.com, 2013). 

The repository for all captured web analytics data is housed in the IBM Coremetrics platform. Coremetrics is the industry's only Web analytics platform that captures and stores all customer and visitor clickstream activity to build LIVE (Lifetime Individual Visitor Experience) Profiles that serve as the foundation for all successful e-business initiatives (Coremetrics, 2012). 

Initiatives HSN might employ to increase overall conversions might include: A/B Testing, landing page optimization, email integration, search engine marketing, on-site search optimization, or cross-sell promotions (Coremetrics, 2012). 

On January 8, 2013 HSN.com debuted a new website after careful testing and analysis. The refreshed e-commerce site helped elevate the customer experience by making the retailer's platforms faster, more efficient, and even more social (HSN.com, 2013). HSN CEO, Mindy Grossman stated after the website release “We are committed to giving our customers the opportunity to experience HSN on her terms, whenever and wherever she chooses” (Froelich, 2013). The company's e-commerce motto is based around the three principles of Content, Community, and Commerce (Froelich, 2013).

Content

“In 2012, Google Inc. made more than 500 changes to the algorithm it uses to rank organic search results, but the main purpose of those changes was to provide consumers searching the web with the best and most authoritative answers” (Enright, 2013). Brands able to produce content that Google thinks matches a query well will show up higher in results than sites Google finds less meaningful (Enright, 2013).

Conductor Inc., an SEO strategy company helps HSN with their search engine strategies. Seth Dotterer, Vice President of Marketing and Product at Conductor Inc. encourages brands like HSN to “Create new and relevant content regularly” (Enright, 2013). To create original content, Dotterer recommends spreading responsibilities for SEO and content creation across the organization, rather than keeping it as a strict marketing or technology function (Enright, 2013).

Hugo Guzman, HSN Senior Manager of Online Marketing has directly benefited from stakeholder buy-in for SEO opportunities. For example, Guzman states, Google recognizes the press releases the public relations department puts out for company news and earnings reports as highly authoritative, and that helps boost search engine optimization for HSN more broadly (Enright, 2013).

Content creation is just one part of the equation. Guzman further highlights that at HSN “We use Conductor to find terms that show for queries that show internally consistent trends to inform merchandizers about what we are not stocking and how they can use that information to improve their product line" (Allen, 2012).


Community 

Even though, Coremetrics provides holistic metrics of the Hsn.com customer, niche platforms are also integrated and analyzed by third party platforms and in-house web analysts.

Mindy Grossman, CEO states that on the community side, “that means engaging consumers on their own terms, with personal and flexible experiences.” One way the brand has realized her vision is by partnering with Mass Relevance, a social curation solution provider that collects and shares consumer insights, which are then released back across social networks in real time (Fiorietta, 2013). Customer feedback — such as reviews, questions and favorite product finds — is cross-published from Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram directly on to the HSN e-Commerce site (Fiorietta, 2013). 

“To keep up with consumers who want to browse and shop online with their web-enabled mobile devices and share comments and other content with family and friends, the new design also includes key mobile and social media updates as well” (Brohan, 2013). Since social media is a key business driver for HSN.com the marketing team marketers should leverage a platform like Hootsuite to manage and measure their network of engaged followers. 

Commerce

In 2012, HSN partnered with Foresee Technology to measure mobile customer experiences (Foreseeresults.com, 2012). According to Larry Freed, President and CEO of ForeSee "Even though HSN scores extremely high in the Top-100 Index, they are showing their commitment to consumer satisfaction by expanding its focus to include measuring mobile to better understand its multi-channel, multi-device customers even better ” (Allen-Short, 2012). 

As Hsn.com continues to reinvent their digital platforms, their web analytics team needs to keep current with emerging web analytics trends and platforms. One holistic platform like Coremetrics might not be the best platform to track all key performance indicators. In the case of Pinterest, Pinfluencer might be the best platform of choice to leverage. 

Hsn.com has all the tools necessary to continue to define themselves as a top of mind multi-channel retailer. The brand should continue to use web metrics as a benchmark to support any future business goals and platform improvements. Instinct alone is not enough in the retail world. 



Resources

Allen, Jonathan. (2012). How seo metrics impact hsn’s merchandizing strategy at conductor #c3ny. Retrieved March 3, 2013
http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2206738/How-SEO-Metrics-Impact-HSNs-Merchandizing-Strategy-at-Conductor-C3NY

Allen-Short, Sarah. (2012). HSN uses foresee technology to measure mobile customer experience.
http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/hsn-uses-foresee-technology-to-measure-mobile-customer-experience-165563786.html

Brohan, Mark. (2013). HSN infuses social elements into a major e-commerce site redesign. Retrieved March 3, 2013
http://www.internetretailer.com/2013/01/18/hsn-infuses-social-elements-major-e-commerce-site-redesig

Enright, Allison. (2013). Content is kind in a fast-changing SEO world. Retrieved March 3, 2013
http://www.internetretailer.com/2013/02/11/content-king-fast-changing-seo-world

Fiorletta, Alicia. (2013). HSN transitions to ‘boundary-less retail’. Retrieved March 3, 2013
http://www.retailtouchpoints.com/cross-channel-strategies/2284-hsn-transitions-to-boundary-less-retail

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http://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/insights/featured/fashions-new-homepage/

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Roggio, Armando. (2011). 10 web analytics solutions for ecommerce merchants. Retrieved March 3, 2013
http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/3062-10-Web-Analytics-Solutions-for-Ecommerce-Merchants