I’m Messing With Your Metrics

An Open Letter to the Web Analytics Professionals at Nashbar.com:

I’m sorry. Really. I realized today what I’m doing to you, but I can’t stop myself. I’m messing with your metrics. At least let me try to explain.

If you’ve been following me on Twitter, you know that I recently took up cycling. I’m training for RAGBRAI, as a matter of fact. Naturally, I need a few things: shorts, jerseys, a new helmet and a bike rack for my car. The problem is that I’m a really picky shopper.

You can’t track this, but several friends told me about your site, so I started there first. That was probably a week or so ago, but I still haven’t bought anything. Like I said, I’m a picky shopper. I can’t decide which jersey I want, but I’ve got a few in mind. They’re all open in different tabs in Firefox. And almost once a day, I sit down at the computer and try to choose. All I’ve really done is end up with different items in each of the different tabs. Until two days ago, when I added a pair of shorts and a helmet to my cart! Maybe tonight I’ll complete my purchase, but please don’t get your hopes up.

I know this is causing you all kinds of problems. I’m sure you use persistent cookies, so if you want to track me from start to finish, you can find out my initial visit was direct. But you’ll probably notice a few abnormalities–visits supposedly referred by your own site, for instance. Or a high number of days to purchase or visits to purchase. On the flip side, if you’re measuring Engagement, you might want to thank me. Visit duration, page views, recency… it’s all there in spades.

All in all, one of the metrics that matters most will come your way soon: conversion. Hopefully you’ll forgive me for the trouble I’ve caused to your other reports. Or maybe I’m not that unusual after all…