Replicating Dwell Time in Ecommerce: A Guide to Shopper Efficiency

Replicating Dwell Time in Ecommerce: A Guide to Shopper Efficiency

In the world of big-box retail, dwell time—the amount of time a shopper spends in a specific area of a store—has long been a goldmine for understanding shopper behavior. It helps retailers assess the effectiveness of layouts, displays, and promotions. But what about ecommerce? How do we replicate this powerful metric in an online environment?

In this blog, we’ll explore the concept of dwell time, how it’s used by big-box stores, how it can be adapted for ecommerce, and the pitfalls to avoid. Plus, we’ll dive into how Google Analytics can help you analyze dwell time to better understand shopper efficiency.

What is Dwell Time?

Dwell time refers to the time a shopper spends engaging in a particular area of a store. For physical retailers, it’s a key indicator of shopper interest and engagement:

• A long dwell time in the electronics section might suggest high interest in gadgets.
• A short dwell time at the checkout line might indicate efficient service.

For ecommerce, dwell time measures the amount of time users spend on specific pages, such as product pages, category pages, or checkout flows. It’s a proxy for engagement and interest in your site’s content and layout.

How Big-Box Stores Use Dwell Time

Big-box stores use dwell time to:

Evaluate Displays and Layouts:

• Are endcap promotions capturing attention?
• Are shoppers spending enough time in high-margin sections?

Identify Bottlenecks:

• Is the checkout process causing delays?
• Are certain areas of the store too crowded or confusing?

Optimize Product Placement:

• High-dwell areas are prime spots for high-margin products.
• These insights are gathered using tools like motion sensors, heatmaps, and Wi-Fi tracking.

Replicating Dwell Time in Ecommerce

In ecommerce, dwell time can be tracked by analyzing how long shoppers spend on specific areas of your website. Here’s how to do it:

1. Measure Page-Level Dwell Time
   • Product Pages: High dwell time often indicates interest, but if it’s too high without conversions, it might suggest friction (e.g., unclear descriptions or pricing confusion).
   • Category Pages: Low dwell time could mean your filtering or navigation isn’t intuitive.
   • Checkout Pages: A long dwell time here might suggest difficulty completing the purchase.
2. Use Scroll Tracking
   • Track how far users scroll on a page. For instance:
     • A user scrolling 75% of the way down a product page likely read key details.
     • Users who leave after scrolling just 10% might find the page unengaging.
3. Monitor Engagement Events
   • Engagement metrics include:
     • Clicking product images or videos.
     • Reading reviews or specifications.
     • Adding products to the cart.
4. Heatmaps and Session Recordings
   • Tools like Hotjar or FullStory can visually show how users interact with your site:
     • Identify hotspots where users linger.
     • Detect areas with little engagement.

How to Account for Open Tabs

One challenge with online dwell time is users leaving tabs open and returning later. This can artificially inflate dwell time and skew insights. Here’s how to mitigate this issue:

1. Track Active Engagement
   • Modern analytics tools like Google Analytics 4 (GA4) measure active engagement, pausing the timer when no interaction (e.g., scrolling, clicking) occurs.
2. Use the Page Visibility API
   • This API detects when a tab is minimized or inactive and pauses dwell time tracking until the tab becomes active again.
3. Set Idle Session Timeouts
   • Define a threshold for inactivity (e.g., 30 minutes). If no interaction occurs within this window, the session ends or is marked as idle.

Pitfalls to Avoid

• Overestimating Dwell Time: Long dwell times can sometimes indicate friction, not engagement. For instance, a shopper may spend 10 minutes on a product page trying to understand unclear details.
• Ignoring Segment Differences: First-time visitors might have different dwell patterns compared to returning customers. Analyze dwell time separately for each segment.
• Neglecting Mobile Behavior: Mobile users tend to have shorter dwell times due to on-the-go browsing. Don’t use desktop benchmarks for mobile users.

Using Google Analytics for Dwell Time Tracking

1. Set Up Google Analytics 4 (GA4)
   • GA4 introduces new metrics, such as Engaged Sessions, which provide a clearer picture of active user engagement.
     • Engagement Time: Tracks how long users actively interact with your site (scrolling, clicking, etc.).
     • Engaged Sessions: A session with significant interaction (e.g., spending 10+ seconds on a page).
2. Implement Custom Events
   • For more detailed insights:
     • Track time-on-page for key product or category pages.
     • Create events for specific interactions, such as clicking reviews, watching videos, or expanding FAQs.
3. Use Enhanced Measurement
   • Enable Enhanced Measurement in GA4 to automatically track scrolls, clicks, and video interactions.
   • Understanding Shopper Efficiency with Dwell Time

Dwell time is a crucial component of Shopper Efficiency Ratio (SER), a metric that evaluates how effectively your site moves customers through the purchase funnel.

Example: SER and Dwell Time

If a product page has high dwell time but low add-to-cart rates, it suggests inefficiency. Use this insight to:

• Simplify product descriptions.
• Improve imagery or videos.
• Add social proof (e.g., reviews).

Conversely, a short dwell time on a category page with high conversions might indicate that your navigation and filtering are working well.

Key Takeaways

• Dwell time offers a window into shopper behavior, whether in-store or online.
• Replicating dwell time in ecommerce involves tracking metrics like time-on-page, scroll depth, and interactions.
• Open tabs and idle time can inflate dwell time—use tools like GA4 and the Page Visibility API to track active engagement.
• Combine dwell time insights with metrics like the Shopper Efficiency Ratio to optimize your product pages, category navigation, and checkout flow.

Action Plan:

• Start tracking page-level dwell time using Google Analytics 4.
• Identify pages with high dwell time but low conversions.
• Optimize those pages with better visuals, clearer information, and improved calls-to-action.

By understanding and replicating dwell time online, you can unlock deeper insights into shopper behavior and optimize your ecommerce site for efficiency and conversions.