Session

If we go by the literal meaning of the word Session, it means "time spent doing a particular activity or task". But, when we talk about a Session in terms of eCommerce, it refers to the group of user interactions that your website has within a given time interval. Think of it like this, if a buyer visits a cloth store, it could be called a session. The entire process looks like this -

• When the buyer enters the store, he/she begins the session.
• The buyer might look at the available variety of clothes in the store and might also ask questions about the quality of the product and its price before buying it.
• All these actions in the physical world could be related to the actions in the virtual world such as browsing, interacting, and buying.
• This is one complete session. However, if the same buyer visits the store again after an hour to buy something else, then that would be the beginning of the second session for that buyer.
  

A single user can visit your website for multiple sessions on the same day, or over several days, weeks, or months. As soon as one session ends, the gateway to a new session opens up. However, there are two ways through which a session ends:

• Time-based expiration occurs automatically after 30 minutes of user inactivity.
• Campaign change means the user visits your website via one campaign at first, and then leaves, but revisits your website for a different campaign.
  

Another thing you must know is that Pages per Session can be used as a measure of the visitors’ engagement level of your eCommerce website.

Your audience’s pages per session are the average number of pages or posts users view during visits. The concept of Bounces means when visitors leave your website without clicking anywhere else, meaning they view only one page in that particular session is closely related to the concept of Pages per Session.

How can you improve the Pages per Session of your eCommerce website?

• Present sidebar navigation links
• Implement a site-wide search function
• Utilize internal linking to connect related pieces of products or content
• Use exit-intent pop-ups
  

You can use Google Analytics to gain insights into the sessions of your eCommerce website.