Monitoring Web Visitor Behavior Gets Deeper

WebSideStory Inc., a San Diego, CA-based provider of outsourced e-business intelligence services today announced an alliance with Reston, Va.-based comScore Networks, a provider of data-based Internet infrastructure services, to launch HitBox Benchmarker, a new service offering detailed analysis of visitor behavior for Web sites.

In combining WebSideStory’s existing solution HitBox Enterprise, an outsourced visitor analysis technology, with data sourced from comScore’s global network of 1.5 million Internet users, HitBox Benchmarker aims to make it easier for Web businesses to compare their site performance against competitors.

WebSideStory says that comparisons will be based on a representative subset of users and can be made across variables such as referral sources, promotional activity, and usage patterns which it believes can ultimately help businesses can acquire more customers, improve conversion rates and visitor loyalty, prioritize resources and site enhancements, and develop a better understanding of their markets.

“Our partnership with comScore brings market research and analysis to a new plateau of sophistication and real-world business impact,” said John Hentrich, president and CEO of WebSideStory. “Many companies are developing a picture of visitor behavior on their own sites, but we can now add the invaluable dimension of behavior on peer sites and across the Web,” he explains.

HitBox Benchmarker is able to provide statistics that include a visitor’s top path taken through site; time spent; most requested pages; content groupings; referring URLs, domains and search engines; and new and returning visitor counts says Daniel Hess, VP Marketing Communications, comScore.

He argues that there is no competing technology that can continuously capture this breadth depth from this many Internet users and deliver the analytical capabilities to clients.

The service is currently being marketed toward Fortune 2000 companies and though a complete customer lists has not been issued yes, among the clients using the system include BestBuy and Starwood Hotels & Resorts.

“The HitBox Benchmarker service is an exciting addition to Best Buy’s ongoing and innovative efforts to more accurately understand our customers’ needs and behavior, both at BestBuy.com and other consumer electronics and entertainment sites,” says Barry Judge, vice president of marketing for BestBuy.com.

Michael Christian, senior VP at WebSideStory says the new service provides an important extension to the firm’s analytic and reporting expertise: “However, it is not our core business; it is instead an application of our core assets that include analysis and reporting and of comScore’s core assets – Web-wide consumer behavior data,” he explains.

Founded in 1996, WebSideStory provides outsourced Web analytics services and each month analyzes more than 10 billion of page views for its customers, including Cisco Systems, Walt Disney Internet Group, Alaska Airlines, Brooks Brothers, and many more. Within the last year, Aberdeen Group, Forrester, and MetaGROUP.