“Having such accurate data about one’s Internet site is as important today as information that is collected in the store.” Olivier Hameau – web marketing and e-advertising manager – BOULANGER

Boulanger, the hypermarket specializing in household appliances and multimedia, was founded in 1954. Today, Boulanger is the number 2 player on the French household appliance market, with 5.5% market share. The chain has 84 stores in France and a multichannel e-commerce site.  

Boulanger.fr, much more than a shop window on the web

When the site was first created, it was above all a virtual shop window for customers. For the site to become a real online commerce alternative for the store, the information placed online had to be analyzed for relevance; it was important to determine who visited the site and traffic potential had to be evaluated… According to Olivier Hameau, web marketing and e advertising manager for boulanger.fr, “Boulanger did not want to operate blindly; just like in the store, the important thing is to know one’s customers.” The main objectives of the Boulanger site are: • Generate traffic the stores by prepping in-store purchases. Big-ticket items, such as major electrical appliances, require thought and planning, and the boulanger.fr site allows customers to review preliminary information before buying. Forty-six percent of customers said that they had turned to the boulanger.fr site before making their in-store purchase. • Reach a broader clientele, particularly in cities or areas where the chain does not have a store. • Win over new customers, in part by using a number of e-advertising operations.  

Advertising campaigns

• Advertising campaigns, a real sales tool The majority of purchases made in Boulanger are not impulse buys, thus the importance of remanence for assessing implemented ad campaigns. Boulanger’s 2007/2008 objective for sponsored links was to be present in the “profitable” product families for the e-commerce site. To determine what those were, Boulanger needed to put a web-analytics solution in place. AT Internet – XiTi was the obvious choice. « I was already using the free XiTi solution for my personal use and was very satisfied with it. Once I came to Boulanger, I immediately thought of AT Internet- XiTi. After an invitation to tender and an Analyzer II product demonstration, I selected AT Internet-XiTi, which I trusted completely. Since we began collaborating, they’ve proven themselves to be very resourceful and have a great ability to adapt that is completely in sync with our needs», states Olivier Hameau. AT Internet-XiTi has been partnering with Boulanger for five years; ever since the complete website makeover. Five or six people work on web analytics in-house every day at Boulanger.  

Analyzer II

• Analyzer II, a unique performance management solution for boulanger.fr With an ease of implementation that is unequalled on the market, Analyzer II from AT Internet-XiTi lets all the company’s managers analyze and optimize their online performance using a single interface. The interface constitutes a genuine digital workspace. Users can measure, compare, group, segment, and distribute, in real time, the entire dataset related to the business and to the objectives of any kind of site. Analyzer II allows Boulanger to manage its e-advertising and, more specifically, the sponsored link campaigns, which the company studies in detail. It analyzes 100% of the traffic sources (whatever the partner) and 100% of the orders. It also provides an aggregate or detailed analyses, depending on the read level desired. A service like Analyzer II has plenty of advantages for boulanger.fr: • For site animation: – Test new animations on the site (for example, special Valentine’s Day animation, creation of a new products boutique…) and see whether clients like them. – Increase investments to develop various flash animations for boulanger.fr customers. • For e-advertising: – Analyze and program e-campaigns – Qualify key word purchases by determining those which create traffic without orders, those which create traffic and orders, and those which create little or no traffic, and therefore no orders. • For site strategy: – Analyze audience growth – Access traffic forecasts – Adjust animations, site content…

A web tool that has become utterly indispensable

Using data collected by Analyzer II, and based on seasonal product variations, Boulanger can invest its sponsored-links budget wisely by managing ad groups/ key words based on profitability. This helped Boulanger reallocate 60% of its sponsored-links budget to a more profitable ad group. Boulanger nevertheless maintained for the short term certain less profitable sponsored links which could prove to be more profitable in the long run. Links to flat screen TVs, for example, which generate a lot of traffic but few online purchases. « Having such accurate data about one’s Internet site is as important today as information that is collected in the store. We need statistics to keep our site relevant and cutting-edge. Precise, simple, immediately adaptable, complete… Analyzer II is the tool no one can do without. » The next boulanger.fr site project will be in-depth behavioral analyses of email to help the company tailor its messages as effectively as possible. As Boulanger’s e-commerce business gains clout, the company is choosing increasingly higher-end AT Internet-XiTi solutions, those which best meet the chain’s needs as it continues its commercial expansion.