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Buystream

Situation

Founded in February 1999, Buystream develops analytical and reporting software specifically for business-to-consumer Web retailers. Its research and consulting division provides clients with data mining, online surveys and visit-to-buy conversion rates. An international company headquartered in Ottawa, Buystream employs about 100 staff and has offices in New York, San Francisco, Austin, Texas and London.

Challenge

Buystream's tag line reads: "Measure what matters." To thrive in the increasingly competitive Web intelligence market, the company helps its e-commerce clients increase visitor likelihood to purchase, loyalty, and satisfaction by:

Solution

Since Buystream was founded, its research division has used SPSS regularly to perform advanced statistical modeling and analysis of Web site activity and identify patterns of visitor behavior.

Results

In today's stormy Web environment, online retailers are desperately asking: Who buys from my site? Why? How can I encourage them to come back?

That's where Buystream comes in. According to Darryl Somers, senior research consultant, "Our mission is to provide e-commerce companies with the critical metrics they need to run their business." The company's flagship product, Buystream Merchant, provides the analysis and metrics necessary to manage a business on the Web. Buystream Merchant measures, analyzes, and reports on the key business events on a Web site, including visit-to-buy ratios, revenues, and lifetime value.

In addition, the software collects valuable information about the hardware and software visitors use to experience the Web site, such as screen resolution, color depth, CPU type, and download times. Based on these data, Buystream assigns each site visitor to a high, medium or low TechnoCluster™ - a measure of the user's technological capabilities. As Somers said, "The level of technical sophistication determines the lens through which a visitor experiences the Internet." Thus, visitors whose technological capabilities match those of the site are more likely to be satisfied with their experience on the site.

Although Buystream's products provide basic analytical capabilities, often its customers need more detailed information about visitor purchasing behavior on their Web sites. That's when Buystream's research and consulting division steps in - and this division relies on SPSS to analyze Web data. "We use SPSS," said Somers, "because it offers a complete suite of products that work together. It can also handle the immense amounts of information that may be provided by our clients - sometimes, over a gigabyte of data every couple of days."

The better we can analyze activity on a site, the better products we can make...and the better consultation we can provide to our clients as well.

Darryl Somers
Senior Research Consultant
Buystream

Conducted custom research studies that generate 35 percent of all company revenues

About 30 percent of Buystream's clients require information that goes beyond the data supplied by its standard reports. These custom studies, performed with SPSS, generate about 35 percent of the company's total revenues.

In these studies, the research team uses SPSS to examine the data collected by their software in greater detail, often by combining it with other client data sources. The team attempts to answer questions such as: What is the relative importance of time of day or visit number in determining whether a visitor will become a buyer? In one example, Buystream worked with E-Color,™ a company that sells a technology that allows visitors to accurately view colors on a Web site, to measure the increase in buying that resulted from use of their product. By analyzing the data with SPSS, they found that E-Color-corrected visitors with high technological capabilities were eight times more likely to make purchases than visitors without color correction.

Proved that a Web site visitor's hardware and software is a predictor of Web buying behavior

TechnoClusters originally were Buystream's "educated guess" about the way that different technical measures interrelated with visitor satisfaction on a Web site. But the research team wanted to put this concept on a firmer foundation. What did TechnoClusters actually signify? "We examined the validity of what we were measuring with SPSS," said Somers, "and we determined that the clusters were a valid reflection of visitors' technical capabilities."

To see whether TechnoClusters predicted buying behavior, the research team asked Web visitors to complete online surveys, which included demographic information. While the visitors filled out the surveys, Buystream collected their technical profiles behind the scenes with its software. Somers said, "The combined data showed that people in the high TechnoCluster are more likely to make purchases from the Internet. However, a person's TechnoCluster does not directly relate to his or her income. So, the TechnoCluster is an independent predictor of a person's propensity to buy, possibly because it reflects level of comfort with the Web."

Gained competitive advantage by providing industry thought leadership

Pointing to Buystream's leadership role in Internet research, Somers stated: "We've tried to think one step ahead of the rest of the pack. In our own studies, we've applied SPSS to understand what goes into predicting who will be a buyer and who will not. As part of this effort, we deployed surveys across major e-commerce sites to collect baseline information on visitor satisfaction. Our clients now have access to these data, which enables them to compare their individual results to the industry norm."

Buystream's basic research has produced new service offerings. The company now conducts online surveys for its clients, combines the survey information with observational data collected by its software, and analyzes the results with SPSS. Its online questionnaires cover such topics as visitor satisfaction, to determine how people react to a site; site assessment, to determine how a site can be improved; segmentation, to identify which visitors are most likely to buy; and awareness/branding, to find out what visitors think about the company.

By tying together New Economy observational data and Old World survey data, Buystream supplies its clients with a complete picture of Web visitor behavior and buying patterns, enabling them to improve visitor satisfaction and increase loyalty. Its complex analyses - performed with SPSS - give the company's research team an extra dimension, raising Buystream far above its competitors.