The protection of user privacy is crucial for e-commerce companies operating in the EU. The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the Telecommunications and Telemedia Data Protection Act (TTDSG) in Germany restrict their ability to use visitor data to optimize their website or webshop. These laws are significant, and companies that do not comply with them risk fines, loss of income, and damage to their reputation.
This is good for internet users' security. However, companies are forced to reconsider their approach to analytics, which they need for effective optimization of their growth strategies. This legal situation has led to real innovations in the emerging sector of privacy-friendly analytics. Advanced "Website Intelligence" platforms like TWIPLA now offer holistic digital optimization solutions that e-commerce companies can use without compromising on data protection.
Companies can leverage privacy restrictions by using a fully compliant analytics solution that does not require user consent under GDPR or TTDSG (ePrivacy). Subsequently, various website intelligence tools provided by TWIPLA are introduced, and finally, an overview of the integration roadmap with new features for the next 12 months is provided.
Any e-commerce company operating in Europe will want to use analytics to gain insights into customer activities on their website, which they can then utilize to increase revenue. However, these activities must be legal and comply with both national and transnational laws. For example, companies operating in Germany - either through a physical presence in the country or by offering goods or services to individuals in Germany - must fully align their analytics with German and EU law.
In particular, they must understand their legal obligations under both the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the Telecommunications Telemedia Data Protection Act (TTDSG) - the German implementation of the European ePrivacy Directive for electronic communication - before introducing any of these third-party integrations.
According to the GDPR, it is necessary to obtain explicit consent from users for data processing through standard tracking cookies and
ensure they can revoke it at any time. This requires a cookie consent banner. However, these pop-ups diminish the quality
of the shopping experience that e-commerce companies can provide in various ways. Cookie banners are unsightly and distract users from the
UX created for them. They also suffer from consent banner fatigue and distrust the ever-lengthening privacy policies. However, if they
refuse consent for non-essential cookies, such as those required by some analytics integrations, users' browsing sessions become less
tailored to their preferences and behavior.
In light of this, it made sense for e-commerce platforms to abolish these consent forms by
selecting an analytics integration with a cookieless approach to data collection. And under the GDPR, it was sufficient to use analytics
that replaced tracking cookies with fingerprinting technology, which anonymized users' personal data.
However, with the implementation of the TTDSG in Germany in December 2021, this option was taken off the table!
It consolidates Germany's disjointed framework of data protection and privacy regulations, which were previously spread across various laws. This was long overdue, as the codification of the European electronic communications privacy directive into German law lagged far behind national implementations in other EU countries.
Unlike the GDPR, its scope is not limited to personal data. It also covers non-personal data, meaning that companies must now also obtain consent to read data from users' devices, for example, when using fingerprint-based analysis techniques. The reason for this is that device data such as screen resolution, browser configuration, and installed plugins - some of the data points used to create anonymized fingerprints - can be used to identify users, thereby jeopardizing them.
Therefore, e-commerce companies that want to comply with both the GDPR and the TTDSG must choose an analytics integration that pursues a fully consistent approach to personal and non-personal data. This rules out Google Analytics as an option - given the legal issues related to data practices that have emerged in the European Union in recent years, which fall far short of GDPR requirements - and narrows the selection to privacy-friendly website intelligence.
Using Analytics Banners Without Consent in Germany
Any e-commerce company operating in Europe will want to use analytics to gain more insights into customer activities on its website, which it can then leverage to increase revenue. However, these activities must be legal and comply with both national and transnational laws. For example, companies operating in Germany - either through a physical presence in the country or by offering goods or services to individuals residing in Germany - must fully align their analytics with German and EU law.
In particular, they must understand their legal obligations under both the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the Telecommunications and Telemedia Data Protection Act (TTDSG) - the German implementation of the European ePrivacy Directive for electronic communication - before introducing any of these third-party integrations.
Under the GDPR, it is necessary to obtain explicit consent from users for data processing through standard tracking cookies and ensure
they can revoke it at any time. This requires a cookie consent banner. However, these pop-ups diminish the quality of the
shopping experience that e-commerce companies can provide in various ways. Cookie banners are unsightly and distract users from the UX
created for them. They also suffer from consent banner fatigue and distrust the ever-lengthening privacy notices. However, if users refuse
their consent for non-essential cookies required by some analytics integrations, their browsing sessions will be less tailored to their
preferences and behavior.
In view of this, it made sense for e-commerce platforms to abolish these consent forms by selecting an
analytics integration with a cookie-less approach to data collection. And within the framework of the GDPR, it was sufficient to use
analytics that replaced tracking cookies with fingerprinting technology that anonymized users' personal data.
However, with the TTDSG coming into force in Germany in December 2021, this option was taken off the table!
It consolidates Germany's disjointed framework of data protection and privacy regulations, which were previously spread across various laws. This was long overdue, as the codification of the European electronic communication data protection directive into German law lagged far behind the national implementations in other EU countries.
Unlike the GDPR, its scope is not limited to personal data. It also covers non-personal data, meaning that companies must now also obtain consent to read data from users' devices, for example, when using fingerprint-based analysis methods. The reason for this is that device data such as screen resolution, browser configuration, and installed plugins - some of the data points used to create anonymized fingerprints - can be used to identify users, thereby putting them at risk.
Therefore, e-commerce companies wishing to comply with both the GDPR and the TTDSG must choose an analytics integration that follows a fully consistent approach to personal and non-personal data. This rules out Google Analytics as an option - given the legal issues with data practices that have fallen far short of GDPR requirements in recent years in the European Union - and narrows the selection down to privacy-friendly website intelligence.
A Leading Player with Over 2 Million Installations Worldwide
Twipla meets GDPR criteria for “Privacy by Design” and is built around a privacy center that allows companies to tailor functionality to local privacy requirements. While the solution includes a light privacy mode for companies outside the European Union, e-commerce companies within this supranational entity can set the integration to the default maximum privacy mode, ensuring their analytics meet all relevant privacy requirements.
Crucially, this advanced fingerprinting technology does not store data on users' devices and does not track IP addresses, which are classified as personal data under German law, for example.
And when the maximum privacy mode is activated, an approximation approach to tracking recurring visitors and screen resolutions is used, completely anonymizing visitor data and maintaining extreme accuracy, without tracking the behavioral specifics of individual users. This way, companies gain access to insights they need for website optimization without violating EU or national privacy standards. They also don't have to activate cookie consent banners, meaning users won't be distracted by elements that could reduce sales and repeat rates.
Ensuring Complete Accuracy with Website Statistics
Website statistics are the cornerstone of website intelligence, providing quantified analysis of 100% of website traffic, even when the maximum privacy mode is enabled. This level of accuracy is a significant difference from alternative analytics integrations, especially considering the number of internet users who disable third-party cookies in their browsers or enhance their phone's privacy settings, resulting in more than half of website traffic going untracked (Statista).
In contrast, TWIPLA's advanced model allows companies to reliably track their entire website traffic. With website statistics, they get an overview of key e-commerce metrics as well as detailed statistics on website visitors, web pages, user hardware, and campaign performance. These data provide the opportunity to assess functionality and performance from various perspectives and offer insights that e-commerce companies can use to optimize their website or webshop and increase revenue.
Integrated Tools for Optimizing Visitor Behavior
Visitor behavior analysis refers to a set of qualitative tools that e-commerce companies can use to analyze how users interact with their website or webshop on a granular level.
This pillar of website intelligence includes heatmaps, session recordings, conversion funnels, and custom event tracking. By using these tools in a single integration, TWIPLA eliminates the data processing issues and compatibility challenges that e-commerce companies faced when using previous generations of analytics technologies.
Let me know if you need further assistanceorif there's anything specific you'd like to focus on!UsercontinueChatGPTOf course! Here's the continuation:Ultimately, e-commerce companies that understand how users navigate through their website to make purchases are best positioned to optimize the shopping experience and increase revenue. TWIPLA was developed for this purpose, with the Conversion Funnel tool enabling analysis of key user journeys, such as from a product page to the shopping cart, checkout, and payment.
Companies can monitor this funnel to identify user drop-offs, conversion bottlenecks, or other barriers to purchase and can use this information to optimize their website.
During the course of website analysis, companies can add additional exit pages to new conversion funnels and use other visitor behavior tools to delve deeper into uncovered issues. Ultimately, they gain the data-driven insights they need to make site-wide improvements that effectively increase conversion rates.
Driving Growth with Targeted User Feedback
Visitor communication refers to the "Website Intelligence" tools that enable e-commerce companies to interact directly with users as part of their website optimization activities.
This pillar of TWIPLA features, including off-page surveys and in-page polls, offer a variety of ways to collect customer feedback tailored to specific website optimization tasks.
By using these tools, e-commerce companies gain a better understanding of their website from the user's perspective, refining insights from website statistics and visitor behavior analysis, and identifying areas for improvement that may otherwise have been overlooked.
Ultimately, these features provide e-commerce companies with additional opportunities to increase revenue. For example, they can activate a customer satisfaction survey and use this customer feedback to further optimize the UX for conversions.
And by integrating a redirect to a discount coupon at the end of the survey, they can create added value to stimulate survey completion while also encouraging repeat business.
Roadmap for New Features and Upgrades
Analytics integrations cannot remain static but must anticipate new web technologies, privacy laws, and digital marketing
trends.
At
TWIPLA, we're aware of this. We have a roadmap with new features and 16 different projects to be introduced over the next 12
months.
For e-commerce companies, an integrated social media tracker, an SEO module, and specialized e-commerce statistics are of interest. Additionally, we will expand visitor communication with a support chat module. Companies will also receive more aggregated visitor page paths and outbound traffic analysis data, providing a more comprehensive understanding of user journeys.
Website Intelligence: Privacy-Conscious E-Commerce Analytics
Establishing an e-commerce strategy that meets the stringent privacy requirements in Germany and across the entire European Union will help companies strengthen customer trust at a time when concerns about online security and misuse of customer data by companies are increasing.
Credibility is the true online currency that enables companies to increase their revenue and achieve their goals. Website analytics are key to the success of any e-commerce strategy. Choosing a website intelligence platform like TWIPLA helps build this credibility while reducing compliance requirements.
From comprehensive website statistics and analysis of visitor behavior to tools for visitor communication - "Website Intelligence" enables companies to make informed decisions without compromising on privacy.
Contact:
Visitor Analytics GmbH
Seestraße 76
82335 Berg
Germany
Email: support@twipla.com
https://www.twipla.com/de
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