The good folks over at Internet Retailer rolled out their 2009 tell all of the top 500 retailers at the IR show in Boston last month.

We here at Sitebrand have been around for 9+ years, and now have a nice reference library of past editions collecting dust. The inner nerd in me took it upon himself to do a little extra data analysis above and beyond the call of duty to see what we can deduce from building some year over year, rank over rank metrics.

Using a trusty spreadsheet, I built up the numbers in a number of ways.

Let’s start by considering some trends within each year; comparing same year revenue numbers for #500, to #400, to #300 and so on. It is fascinating to see that every year, the delta between the same year hundreds keeps widening at a staggering rate. Pretty cool. Explosive growth, year over year up through the ranks.

The numbers start to tell a different story though when same rank revenue is trended year to year (i.e. Comparing position #500 revenue for the past 4 years, position #400 for the past 4 years, etc) …not specific company revenue, but the reported revenue for the same IR position, year over year. Confused?

Sitebrand's Dan Auns has found some unexpected trends over the last few years from IR500 reports

Knowing that the company in position #1 has remained the same for all 4 years, let us forget the fact that every year a different company occupies every other position. Let’s pretend that my year to year report is for the same 5 companies, year over year, and compare position x00 year over year for the past 4 years…

Almost across the board, the year over year growth rates have been declining year over year since 2005. The two exceptions occur at either end of the report, the #1 position and the #500 position.

The #1 position posted 26%, 38%, and 30% growth.
The #500 position posted 71%, 16%, and 41% growth. Growth across the board, but all over the map and unpredictable at best.

The trend for positions 100, 200, 300, and 400 show a -7% to -9% decline in same rank revenue growth year over year, for the past 4 years. Not exactly the results I was expecting.

Let’s keep in mind that these are growth rates, +20% growth no matter how you slice it is exceptional, and all stats can be spun if you look hard enough (Most often are). What do you make of these trends? Shoot me an email and I will share my workbook with you to take a closer look.

A good friend of mine, who I have known since high school works in a car dealership. We talk quite often about the trials and tribulations, pros and cons, even the risks and rewards of our chosen career paths. I always enjoy his perspective on how they measure their sales efficiencies.

I was fascinated to learn that they actually try to determine the number of qualified car shoppers that visit their lot each month. No surprise that they also monitor the number car sales each month, and that they try to maintain an acceptable ratio of shoppers to sales.  To be clear, my fascination was not simply that this was occurring – but that they tried to only quantify the ‘qualified’ car shoppers. They do their best to not factor in the kids, ‘tire kickers’ and other unqualified people who visit the lot with no intention of purchasing a new car in their manual performance reports. Fascinating.

Like most who don’t live and breathe eCommerce/analytics/optimization, my friend was not aware of the many tools widely available today to online businesses.  Methods to essentially provide the same sort of physical performance reporting that they do by hand.

All this business intelligence talk exposed some critical differences as well.

Now the manual subjective nature of qualifying people has huge room for error, but the intent is genuine. Some kids may just want to sit in the new Challenger – Great. But they don’t represent a lost sale.

Even with more sophisticated automated reporting tools, I don’t talk to many people who dissect their online business in the same manor.

The parallels are obvious – If you don’t ship outside of North America, why not generate a North American conversion report (for example)?

My take: Online stakeholders need to start to think about business analysis differently. This is not about better dashboards, reports, and ones and zero’s collected by your website. Real people are interacting with your brand, your store, and your products. Get to know them.

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Track me down in Vegas next week ……..Vegas, baby. Vegas.

D.

Before I get started with a regular by-weekly post …..a quick introductory/positioning statement.

As a Senior Account Executive here at Sitebrand for over 2 years, I have had the pleasure of meeting thousands of interesting people in all sorts of interesting roles. The common thread, the internet is a fundamental piece of their business strategy. From fellow vendors, to thought leaders, VP’s, C level exec’s, business owners and more – there are no shortage of interesting conversations in this space to be had, if you make it a priority to get out there and have them.

Fundamentally my role here is to meet people, and learn. As a vendor/solution provider, it is impossible for me to provide an option, if I am unaware of the ailment. Imagine going to a doctor, and getting a new miracle drug prescription at the reception desk with out ever speaking to the doctor? Analysis is imperative.

I find it fascinating that there are some universal themes, or undercurrents in many of my conversations that seem to impact everyone.

To get the conversation started, one of these predominant topics: Change.

Regardless of your business (Or thoughts on Web/eCommerce 2.0) doing business online implies change. Businesses are no longer wondering if online is viable, they focus on increasing conversion. The internet is not going away, this thing works.

A lot like how electrification was the catalyst for the (North American) Second Industrial Revolution. The parallels today to what electricity did for business back then, and to what the internet has done over the past 20 years – are hard to overlook. It is easy to pick out the players who embrace change, and those on the outside looking for answers.

Today, companies winning online seem to be better able to adapt and react to change. Be it planned (i.e. a platform migration), or otherwise (i.e. Google tweaking their algorithms). Change is also about thinking ahead, taking calculated risks, and sticking your neck out from time to time. The reward for status quo, is status quo.

I have had much more meaningful conversations with those who are effective at managing change.

I look forward to your feedback. Better yet, I look forward to many more meaningful conversations.

Cheers.

D.