[intro] Before you begin this Guide, you need to ensure that you have pointed a domain name to your EKM online shop and that customers can purchase products using a payment gateway. When you have completed this guide, you will have set up heatmaps and funnels on your EKM online shop. [/intro]

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If you want to find out how customers interact with your EKM online shop, the Hotjar platform will give you a unique visual insight. It’s free for personal use and definitely worth adding to your EKM online shop so you can tell at a glance if there are any issues with your design and navigation structure.

This method is a lot more reliable than asking friends and family for feedback (where their opinions may be skewed because of their relationship with you) and will allow you to make informed decisions about the design and structure of your EKM online shop going forward.

You can use Hotjar to see what visitors to your EKM online shop click on via mouse movements and taps, which is useful for seeing if any hyperlinked design images are performing better than others.

Hotjar can generate reports for you which provide in-depth insights into the data collected from each visitor’s journey through your shop. You can also collect feedback from visitors that may help you make improvements to the design and navigation in the future.

Opening a Hotjar Account

1. To begin, you will need to make a Hotjar account. Click here and then click Try It For Free:

2. Add your name and your email address to the fields provided and click Let’s Get Started:

3. Add a password to the field provided and tick the Terms Of Service box before clicking the red Next button:

4. You’ll need to tell Hotjar a little bit about yourself and your business. Select your role, and enter the name of your business before clicking the red Next button:

5. Finally, you will need to add the domain name of your EKM online shop into the field provided, and select Ecommerce for Site Type before clicking the red button:

Installing and Verifying your Tracking Code

6. You’ll then see your Hotjar dashboard. Click the grey Copy To Clipboard button to copy the Hotjar tracking code:

7. You now need to open a separate tab on your browser and log into your EKM online shop before clicking Design on the left-hand menu:

8. Now you need to click Theme on the drop-down options:

8. Click the More Actions button next to Theme, and from the drop-down menu, select Inject Custom Code:

9. You should now paste the Hotjar tracking code into the HTML Head Code field:

10. When you have done that, the code should display something like this:

11. Scroll to the foot of this page and click the green Save button:

12. Return to the browser tab where you are looking at the Hotjar dashboard, and click the Verify Installation button on the left-hand side:

13. You then need to verify that you have pasted the Hotjar code by clicking the green button:

14. If you have correctly installed the code, a window will open up, displaying the homepage of your EKM online shop with a verification confirmation in the top left. Click the X on the top right to close this window and return to your Hotjar dashboard:

[remember]If you don't see the Verified badge within the window on Hotjar, you may need to wait an hour or so before trying again. If you don't see the Verified badge, your shop has not been verified. [/remember] 

Setting up Heatmaps

15. Now that the code has been verified, you have to configure your Hotjar account so it knows what data to record for you. To begin, you need to set up a heatmap. Click Heatmaps:

16. Click the green New Heatmap button:

17. You can set up a heatmap on different pages of your EKM online shop, to record and analyse how visitors react to the homepage, a category page and a product page, as well as any Webpages such as a contact page. Firstly, we’ll create a heatmap of the homepage. Add the name of the heatmap into the field provided and click the green Next button:

18. As you have set up a free Hotjar account, the heatmap will only record the behaviour of the first 1000 customers. If you want to record more, you will need to upgrade your Hotjar account. Click the green Next button:

19. You then need to tell Hotjar the address of your homepage by adding your domain name into the field provided before clicking the green Next button:

20. Finally, you need to click the green Create Heatmap button:

21. You’ll then see the heatmap for your homepage listed:

It’s a good idea to repeat this process for a category page and a product page too, as this will provide a better idea of how customers interact with your chosen theme and content as a whole.

Setting up a Recording

Heatmaps provide a static view of how visitors interact with your EKM online shop, whilst Recordings allow you to see actual videos of customer’s journeys.

22. Click Recordings on the menu:

23. Click the green Record Visitors button:

24. As you are on the basic free account, you are only able to record up to 100 visitors- if you want to record any more than this, you will need to upgrade your account. Click the green Done button:

25. On the basic free account, you can only record customers when they visit any page of your EKM online shop. To record them after a specific page has been landed on will require an account upgrade. Click the green Done button:

26. On this page, you can select the kinds of recordings that are created. Make your selection by ticking the boxes and clicking Done:

27. Finally, you need to click the green Start Recording button:

28. You’ll then see the Recording display on the dashboard like this:

Setting up a Funnel

A funnel is a way of seeing how many customers complete a specific journey in your EKM online shop; for example, we would like the customer to visit the homepage first, and then a Category page, a Product page, the Cart page and the Order Success page. That would indicate to you that the customer arrived at your EKM online shop, found the product they wanted and paid for it. This is useful if you have recently posted your domain name in lots of different places online, so you can get some data on how well this worked.

Alternatively, you may have posted a link to a specific product page on your blog or other social media, so you could make a separate funnel which registered when a customer clicks that Product page, then the Cart page, then the Order Success page; Funnels are an excellent way of gauging how well external links to your EKM online shop are performing.

29. Click Funnels on the menu:

30. Click the green New Funnel button:

31. You need to give the Funnel a name in the field provided and name each step as you go along. You can also use the drop-down boxes under the Page URL header to ensure that all possible pages are represented. A basic Funnel on your EKM online shop would look something like this:

32. When you have completed your funnel, click the green Create Funnel button:

33. You will then see your Funnel display on the dashboard like this:

Allow Hotjar around a month before your account to download data collected from your Funnels, Recordings and Heatmaps. You’ll then be able to see how customers interact with your EKM online shop to implement changes and promote it accordingly.

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[contact] If you need our help with your EKM online shop, contact your Ecommerce Expert or the Customer Support Team, who will be able to point you in the right direction. We're open from 8am-6pm weekdays and 9am-5.30pm weekends. If you'd like to suggest a feature or an upgrade on any of the EKM platforms, please let us know on the EKM Suggestions Board. If you have a non-account-specific question to ask the EKM Team, join us in the EKM Community. [/contact]