One of the oldest cities in Eastern Europe, with a history dating back to 482 (not a typo), Kiev is a cosmopolitan city of 3 million, roughly the size of Chicago. From the beautiful Maidan Nezalezhnosti (Independence Square) to the baroque majesty of St. Andrews church, Kiev is a blend of the ancient and the modern. And in recent years, the city has emerged as a high tech hub, home to a highly educated and skilled workforce that has spawned a number of innovative technologies and companies.
At the end of 2011, Gorilla announced the acquisition R3Si, a former Magento Silver partner located in Kiev. This so happens to be just a stone’s throw from Magento’s local offices where the ecommerce platform was first developed. Following the announcement, Gorilla Principal Brian Grady and COO Justin Finnegan traveled to Kiev to meet the team, learn more about their work culture and environment and instill their vision for the future of the company.
Enthusiasm for the visit was immediately apparent when a half dozen members of the Kiev team greeted Brian and Justin at the airport. From there, Brian and Justin spent their first day touring the city. It so happened that this fell on Orthodox Christmas, one of the most important days on the Ukrainian calendar, which provided a unique insight into the city’s rich heritage, and equally rich cuisine.
Day 2 was spent at the Kiev offices formally introducing the Kiev team to Gorilla and vice versa. First came a tour of the office and the carpal tunnel-inducing realization that the office wi-fi password was 64 characters long—courtesy of our security-conscious Director of Technology, Igor Rafalovsky. The first order of business was to have this changed. Next came a walkthrough of the 2012 business plan and an overview of Gorilla’s overall philosophy. This included an organizational realignment or resources to better support the rapid growth of Gorilla’s dedicated Enhanced Managed Services offering GEMS and our newly launched In Store product development business unit.
Following the company meeting, one on one discussions were held with each staff member to answer questions and solicit their input and suggestions. And to bring a taste of the camaraderie that is a core part of Gorilla culture, the entire group embarked on a team-building exercise that translates to any language: bowling.
Overall, Brian and Justin were tremendously impressed by the professionalism of the entire Kiev team and what they will bring to Gorilla as we continue to grow. Chicago and Kiev may be 5,000 miles apart, but our people are already more closely aligned than any of us could have imagined.
We’re committed to changing the way we do things around here. A lot.
One of the changes on the horizon is to push our design services in a direction closer to a human-centered approach. That’s a tall order when we practice a medium that is roundly criticized for doing more to make people anti-social than anything else. Adopting design methods historically reserved for industrial design and product development won’t be easy in interactive design, but we’re committed to it as a path for Gorilla.
Aren’t you just talking about user-centered design?
I get that question a lot. In some ways yes, but Chad Camara has a post on his blog that encapsulates the differences very well in my opinon. We’re striving to focus on real, human improvement in our offering, not just improving efficiency. I will be challenging all of Gorilla’s clients to consider how their product or service improves the lives of their customers. Focusing on holistic design concerns in addition to efficiency is something we’re seeing as critical to the mutli-channel environment. People are smart enough these days to know when you’re trying to sell to them versus have a relationship with them. For a lot of our clients, user-centered just isn’t going to cut it anymore.
We’ve got a lot of work to do in this respect. The ephemeral nature of digital media is going to be an advantage and a drawback. The technology moves far too quickly to be mired in research for too long, but the relative ease of deployment means when you consider the long view, you can take a cyclic approach that will put human concerns first.
It will be interesting and challenging no doubt to see where this direction takes us in the years to come.
It can be tricky to break into the game of analytics, especially when competing against the likes of Google. This didn’t stop Chartbeat from aspiring to become a go to name in the world of web analytics. Launched in 2009 by Tony Haile and a team of five employees, Chartbeat didn’t seem like a company that had the potential to be the go to analytical source for Forbes, The Onion, and Gawker. In two short years Chartbeat has cemented itself as a force to be reckoned with by providing companies with a better way to analyze customer traffic online.
The purpose behind Chartbeat is it provides companies with real-time information on what people are viewing while they visit their website. Unlike traditional analytic services that gives companies insight into what visitors are looking at during a period of time, Chartbeat lays out what people are looking at the second they click on a link. This allows clients to take advantage of trending pages the moment it happens, giving them an edge over their competitors.
Data Express Train
So you have an analytics account linked to your e-commerce web page, and it gets a few views here and traffic may spike occasionally, but have you ever wondered what those viewers are looking at while they’re on your site? Well that’s basically where Chartbeat comes into play. The data that Chartbeat collects isn’t just views, clicks, and amount time spent on the site. It allows clients to see what a visitor is doing while they are on a website. For example, if a viewer is scrolling through an article on your site, Chartbeat will display this information in your dashboard. This is key because a viewer who is actively engaging with your website is going to be a much more valuable asset to your business than someone who left the page open while they left to pick up their kids.
Chartbeat also gives clients the ability to see how their visitors are finding them. The Traffic Source feature diagrams how many visitors are coming from a direct source, a search, or a link from another page. In addition, Chartbeat goes even further to breakdown which sites viewers are linking from as well as the words used in a search, which gives clients the ability to capitalize on SEO opportunities with trending keywords that work.
It’s Not Rocket Science
Analytics can be a complicated and daunting task for an average online retailer or blogger. Occasionally being able to read between the lines to draw insights about your customers’ online viewing tendencies can in fact be a little overwhelming. To combat the feeling that you’re in over your head, Chartbeat has laid out all of your analytic data in a way that is easy to read and navigate. Located near the top of the page are modules for a 24 hour time line, Active Visits, and Top Sites. Located further down the page are modules for viewer locations, Source Traffic, Site Performance, Viewer Engagement, and Conversations.
All of these statistics are broken down in a way that is easy to comprehend, and because all of this data is being updated in real time, it’s clear to see what pages or products are worth promoting. Using the Conversations module puts Twitter conveniently into the Chartbeat dashboard, allowing you to see what people are commenting on when they tweet about a product or article on your webpage, without having to open as second tab or window. By simply clicking on a username you’re able to quickly respond to their tweet making it easier to stay in touch with visitors who are interested in your site.
Analytics on the Go
Today it can be a considered unfortunate to some that work doesn’t end when you leave the office, but for those of us who have a website to run it can seem like work never ends. Chartlabs has added some mobile features that can be crucial to anyone with a website let alone an e-commerce website. In addition to having real-time updates, Chartbeat also enables you to receive email or SMS messages with important data on your site. This means that if there’s a spike in visitors on a page, or if the site itself slows to a stop, you will be the first to know.
The addition of the Chartbeat application in the iPhone App Store makes it easy for you to make decisions on trending (or not trending) pages right from your phone. A mobile version of the Chartbeat dashboard is available at your fingertips. This translates into being able to account for and quickly react to unexpected increases and decreases in traffic while you’re away from your desk.
What Does It All Mean?
With the variety of features that Chartbeat has to offer it’s easy to see how and why they went from being a small and relatively unknown name in the business of analytics, to servicing over 2,500 corporate customers. Despite the undeniable usefulness of this real-time analytics service, I feel that it’s important to note that for all the good things Chartbeat does, it still doesn’t completely replace Google Analytics. It’s not exactly like comparing apples to oranges, but the two services are used for different tasks. Chartbeat lays out this concept by saying,
“Traditional analytics services are focused on understanding usual behaviour across persistent content. For example, how well a sign up flow converts a visitor into a user. In contrast, real-time analytics is focused on unusual behaviour, the peaks and troughs of the social web, and it is focused upon transient content: content that might not have existed yesterday, might not be looked at tomorrow but today is driving your site.”
It’s clear to see that while Google Analytics and Chartbeat seemed to be competing in the same race, they’re actually striving towards a common goal, which is to help you make the most out of analytic data. That is until Google’s recently launched Real-Time Analytics feature becomes a full feature of their analytics service instead of just being a beta. Then it’s game on!
There are some website management services that include Chartbeat analytics in their amenities. One management solution that we know very well here at Gorilla is our very own Gorilla Enhanced Managed Support, or for short GEMS. Our GEMS service offers 24/7 web maintenance for Demandware or Magento websites. Every subscription to GEMS includes a Chartbeat account that can be used to monitor your ecommerce website. Click here to learn more about what our GEMS can offer.
In an ecommerce world that is always changing, the most important thing is to stay on top of consumer trends. Having the ability to track your viewers in real-time as they view your site can be a key way to gain a competitive edge against any other retailers within your industry. Online trends are changing every day and it forces websites to respond in a matter of hours instead of days. In an online e-commerce world where timing is everything, Chartbeat could be the analytic edge that gets you the worm.
Click here to visit Chartbeat’s website to find information on all of their real-time analytics solutions.
Should you stop by our West Loop office on a Friday, you’ll likely find that Gorilla has gone to the dogs. Literally. That’s because Dog Day Fridays are a tradition here at Gorilla, where employees are welcome to bring their canine companions to the office. While here, our furry friends are free to sit in on meetings, roam around, grab a snooze beneath a desk, eat Beggin’ Strips, snarl menacingly at our Marketing Director, John Budz, and give their owners and co-workers a little break in the day.
Dogs Fridays is just one of the many ways our hard working Gorillas beat stress at work and lighten the mood. Other benefits of dogs in the workplace include increased morale and productivity, happier employees, lower absenteeism rates, and even improved relationships among coworkers and increased camaraderie among employees. And if you don’t believe me…
A study out of Central Michigan University reveals that dogs in the workplace can lead to more trust between coworkers and that leads to more collaboration among team members! Research also shows that pets in the workplace can lead to a more creative work environment. (We also come up with great ideas between Monday and Thursday as well.)
Take a look at a few of our regular Gorilla visitors:
Xiomara Ortiz’ (Front End Developer) Kirikou, a Bichon-poo, and Chris Englerts’ (Application Engineer) Shitzu Snarf battle it out to see which is Alpha Gorilla.
We recently published a post comparing merchant business practices for both Amazon and eBay. In that post, we surmised that Amazon doesn’t always play nice with merchants who use the Amazon platform to sell their wares. To reinforce our assertion, both the Wall Street Journal and The Atlantic Wire have recently reported about a lawsuit filed by an Amazon merchant accusing the ecommerce powerhouse of a host of unfair and anti-competitive business practices.
From The Atlantic Wire article: “An accessories company has sued the Internet giant for alleged sabotage, making it the latest in a series of little guys who are calling the retail giant a bully.”
This is far from the first time these types of charges being leveled against Amazon, and will undoubtedly not be the last. As the Internet Giant continues to borrow from the Wal-Mart playbook, small merchants need to be especially wary of how they sell through the Amazon ecosystem. You can find the full article here: http://www.theatlanticwire.com/business/2011/12/lets-count-all-ways-amazons-big-bully/46736/
We recently published a post comparing merchant business practices for both Amazon and eBay. In that post, we surmised that Amazon doesn’t always play nice with merchants who use the Amazon platform to sell their wares. To reinforce our assertion, both the Wall Street Journal and The Atlantic Wire have recently reported about a lawsuit filed by an Amazon merchant accusing the ecommerce powerhouse of a host of unfair and anti-competitive business practices.
From The Atlantic Wire article: An accessories company has sued the Internet giant for alleged sabotage, making it the latest in a series of little guys who are calling the retail giant a bully.
This is far from the first time these types of charges being leveled against Amazon, and will undoubtedly not be the last. As the Internet Giant continues to borrow from the Wal-Mart playbook, small merchants need to be especially wary of how they sell through the Amazon ecosystem. You can find the full article here: http://www.theatlanticwire.com/business/2011/12/lets-count-all-ways-amazons-big-bully/46736/
