Internet Retailer 100 Sites Deploy More Marketing Technology, But Data Lags Behind the Internet Retailer 501-600 According to New Comparison Research

PROVO, Utah, July 22, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- New research conducted by tag auditing company, ObservePoint, found that the top 100 online retailers as ranked by Internet Retailer still lags behind the Internet Retailer's 501-600 in data quality, despite leveraging more marketing technology. This research was presented at the 2014 Internet Retailer Conference and Exhibition by ObservePoint's vice president of sales, Doug Jensen.

Download the full report here.

The report "The Internet Retailer Top 100 versus Second 500 Audit" takes a look under the hood at how well the top Internet retailers manage their digital marketing technologies. Based on Internet Retailer's annual list, ObservePoint analyzed and compared marketing technologies of the Top 100 sites and the sites of Nos. 501-600 to compare how each group fared in categories that affect digital marketing data.

"This new research reinforces the idea that amid the emergence of new technologies, the need for transparency into how these technologies are set up is more important now than ever before," said Robert Seolas, CEO of ObservePoint. "Marketers' jobs are becoming increasingly more data driven and they are managing more technology than ever before. Auditing exposes trouble spots so marketers can make the most accurate decisions."

Key Findings
After conducting the audit and compiling the data, ObservePoint distilled the data into the following findings:

Tag Management and Data Quality
Based on the research, tag management systems are increasingly prevalent with Signal (formerly BrightTag) being the TMS of choice amongst top Internet retailers. Google Tag Manager is the preferred TMS among the 501-600.

When tag deployment rates of sites with a TMS were compared to those without, sites without a TMS had slightly better overall tag deployment rates. This is due in part to several sites failure to place TMS code on every page.

Blind Spots
According to the research, 1 in 30 pages are not tagged across all the Internet Retailer Top 100 and 500-600.

Complexity in Measurement
On average, a web site's primary web analytics system of record is collecting about 50 data points, while one of the leading big box retailers had the most complex deployment, collecting over 2,000 data points.

Deployed Digital Marketing Technology
Top 100 web sites use 26% more tags than 501-600.

Data Inflation
Thirteen websites have over 200% data inflation.

In addition to these key findings, additional comparative benchmark data was collected and is as follows:

For more information about ObservePoint, visit www.observepoint.com.

About ObservePoint
Based in Provo, Utah, ObservePoint is the leader in web tag auditing – a critical practice in digital marketing technology management. Auditing protects the ROI of digital marketing technology and resolves significant obstacles in marketing data analysis and data-driven decision-making. ObservePoint employs patented methods of simulating network traffic at a speed and scale unparalleled in the industry to detect errors in digital marketing technology deployments.

For more information about ObservePoint, visit www.observepoint.com

Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20140721/129119

SOURCE ObservePoint