Visitors' actions

Sales-n-Stats system defines and registers visitors' activity at your site as a number of certain actions for example, login, registration, add to cart, etc. All actions can be divided into two types according to the way of delivering information:

1. Pattern driven actions are identified by the system according to the URL pattern. For example, an action 'Viewing a Catalog' (view page A) is recognized when a visitor opens the site page that contains any catalog page in the web browser. The action results in viewing a single page that matches the pattern of this action. See more about action patterns in the 'Setting up action patterns' chapter.

2. External actions is another way of defining actions using Sales-n-Stats API. Instead of analyzing page views and matching them to patterns Sales-n-Stats receives information about actions from your web application through the special interface.

External actions are usually generated by a special piece of software (Sales-n-Stats integrator) that is installed into your compatible application like shopping cart, CMS software, etc. If you are using software for which no integration is currently available you can write your own integration module using integration toolkit bundled with the software.

Before you start defining the actions in the system think over what the visitors can do at your site, what actions are essential for your business, how knowing most frequently occurring actions benefits you. The next step is to work out the list of actions you want the system to register.

The following hints help you to define the list of actions specific for your business:

1.	There are some main actions specific for your site, for example placing an order, subscribing for services, downloading booklet or demo, joining the program, etc.

2.	Other actions show that your assistance is required, for example staying at the site for a long time, placing expensive products in cart but not heading to checkout.

3.	There are also actions that help you gather personal information about the potential clients and thus get to know more about their needs, for example using site search facility, adding products to cart or wish list, voting and filling surveys.

4.	Some actions serve as basis for generating reports, for example 'processing an online order' action supplies information to the 'Sales dynamics' report.

The Sales-n-Stats system is shipped with the preconfigured settings that can be easily loaded into the system. But if your business is unique you should be very creative when classifying visitors' actions specific for your business.