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Marketing
15 March
GA4: The new Google Analytics will bring big changes for ecommerce
The new GA arrives on July 1. Logical Position's Nick Tursi says site owners should migrate data now.

Photo by Myriam Jessier on Unsplash
To succeed in ecommerce, brands must not only tally sales totals and compare them to costs, but also analyze the drivers of those conversions. Putting the learnings about what worked into action can be used to optimize a site in a way that eases the path to purchase, and ultimately propels future sales even higher.
For years, Google Analytics, or GA, has helped brands uncover those insights. The service tracks, analyzes and reports data on traffic for website owners.
“Google Analytics has been a key part of the marketer’s toolkit for a very long time. It helps you understand where your customers are coming from, where they go on your site, how they interact on your site,” said Nick Tursi, Manager of SEO Strategy at digital marketing agency Logical Position. “You want to use all of that to make business decisions based on that information, and shape your site around that.”
For ecommerce brands, the data goes beyond counting and understanding users. It also measures how many of those users converted, and whether they returned to the site. This can all be used to seek the next set of customers, and drive more loyalty.
But GA as we know it is about to change.
GA4 is set to launch this summer, and it will completely replace the tool that is used now. On July 1, 2023, the current version of GA, called Universal Analytics, will be sunsetted. That means UA will no longer process data, and all traffic and analytics must be run through GA4.
That means the first half of 2023 is a period of transition. Rather than simply rolling out a new product release, the switch to GA4 is essentially creating a new platform. In order to avoid any risk of losing historical data, businesses must migrate to GA4. Tursi recommends website owners take that step well ahead of the official transition date, meaning that connected data will be flowing through both properties for a time. That way, historical data will be fully integrated into GA4, and in place once UA is retired for good.
“It is important to get set up as soon as possible,” Tursi said.
Making the switch soon can also provide a period to get familiar with the new Google Analytics. GA4 is set to usher in a series of changes. Google is making many shifts in the interest of privacy – in particular, it is scaling back the use of cookies and adding privacy controls. This move is designed to line up with where digital marketing is heading as a result of EU laws and new scrutiny on tracking in the U.S. that has resulted in privacy prioritization features like Apple’s App Tracking Transparency. In the near future, Google itself will also be making big privacy-oriented moves, as the shift to GA4 comes ahead of the company’s long-discussed, but much-delayed deprecation of third-party cookies.
For those who use GA4 every day, this focus on privacy will lead to changes in how Google Analytics reports and analyzes data.
“It’s going to be very important for you to find the information that you used to be reporting on and get familiar with that new layout and design,” Tursi said.
Tursi outlined the following features of GA4, and changes in key areas that site owners need to know:
Event-based: GA4 is shifting from reporting session-based hits on a site to event-based reporting. This is designed to provide a more comprehensive picture of users and how they interact with a site. This will provide a range of data, some of which is different and goes into more detail than what was available in UA. The idea is not only to protect privacy, but provide more insightful data. Some important metrics to hone in on include transactions, average order value and form submissions.
Multiple platforms: GA4 is designed to make it easier to track across both websites and apps. This will provide a more complete view of the conversion process, and how customers interact with a site.
AI: Google will use advanced data tools to provide insights and detect anomalies that occur on a site. It’s designed so that the site owner doesn’t have to sift through mountains of data to find a way to improve, or investigate what happened during an event. “They’re going to use AI and machine learning in order to keep the customer’s data safe and identifiable information anonymized, but you still get the actionable insights you need as a business owner.”
A new interface: The look and feel of GA4 will also be different. It’s designed to be better organized and easier to navigate. The reports and menus offered will also look different, so the faster site owners can get familiar with it, the more comfortable they can be when it is the only option.
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Operations
15 March
Marketplace launches AI-powered matchmaker for ecommerce M&A
Flippa's recommendation tool is designed to make it easier for buyers to find the right sellers.
Photo by Cytonn Photography on Unsplash
AI is being harnessed to power a new tool designed to support the M&A process for ecommerce businesses.
The news: Flippa, a marketplace where people can acquire online businesses and digital assets, launched an AI-powered recommendation feature that is designed to match buyers and sellers. Leveraging data gathered about user activity on the marketplace, the tool is designed to speed up the M&A process.
How it works: The recommender is designed to help business owners, advisors and brokers find prospective buyers within Flippa’s marketplace.
The algorithmically-based tool matches the buyers with suitable listings based on their actions and behavior within the Flippa marketplace. This process discovers what is known as latent intent in potential acquirers. Flippa Head of Product Tony Xu said the feature has gone through “a significant amount of training to help the model understand the intricate connections and interdependencies within our platform.”
On the marketplace, buyers can click “Invite to Deal,” and will be notified when a potential match is identified by the AI recommender. To date, Flippa said the AI-powered invite emails sent to potential buyers from the tool reached an 85% open rate, and a clickthrough rate (CTR) of 40%.
Key quote from Flippa CEO Blake Hutchinson: “Expectations are rising in today’s fast-paced online business M&A market, and buyers and sellers want to find the right deal partners fast. When business owners decide to exit, they want to quickly find qualified buyers who are likely to buy their business. Prospective buyers, especially institutional investors and family offices, want access to high-potential deal flow on tap. Flippa’s new AI-powered recommender tool uses machine learning to get even more specific about surfacing potential M&A targets, with high accuracy and at scale.”
AI for the aggregator? The tool arrives amid an active period for M&A in ecommerce businesses. Seeing the power of scale and shared resources at companies like Procter & Gamble and Colgate Palmolive, a new generation of consumer goods companies is aiming to create a portfolio of brands that have operations backed by data and technology, while being optimized to thrive on ecommerce marketplaces, particularly Amazon. Others are acquiring direct-to-consumer businesses. After a fast rise of this aggregator model in 2021 amid the pandemic ecommerce boom and frothy venture capital market, funding declined by 80% in 2022 when the market turned, according to Marketplace Pulse. However, the firm also found that the number of acquisitions declined by only 10-20%, even though valuations came down.
It means that aggregators still see opportunity, but they will need efficiency to keep growing. After all, more ecommerce brands are emerging, and many will go through the cycle and seek an exit.
Data-powered M&A: Flippa doesn't only cater to ecommerce brands looking to sell. With an aim to democratize M&A, the marketplace is also a destination to find websites, blogs, apps and even social media accounts. It is also seeing an influx of activity, as 300,000 new buyers entered the ecosystem in 2022. In the digital marketplace, M&A is built on speed and scale. That means dealflow volume is important, but the ability to find the right companies in a host of options also matters. M&A has long run on relationships, but it is increasingly also being powered by data. Flippa is showing how AI can be employed for this landscape.
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