2022 is slowly coming to an end and we would also like to take this opportunity to give you a brief review of the current year, but also of 2023 and the planned work and changes.
First of all, it should be mentioned that active communication with our customers has definitely been neglected. Although we try to keep our customers as informed as possible about current work and planned features, this should be done more actively and in greater detail in 2023.
Review 2022
A lot has really happened at Trackboxx this year. A large number of new features and improvements have been developed and implemented. Above all, we have tried to implement features that have been repeatedly requested by users. This will be continued in the coming year. With Trackboxx, we want to provide you with a really practical and convenient product.
We spent almost the entire year working on performance and scalability. Due to the rapidly growing number of customers, we had to integrate new systems to ensure that the Trackboxx dashboard continues to load quickly and that filters can also be used effectively.
In this context, the decision was also made in the third quarter to make extensive changes to the technical infrastructure of Trackboxx. More on this later in the 2023 outlook.
It should also be mentioned that Trackboxx's customer numbers have developed very positively and this without active advertising measures. Trackboxx now has over 600 active customers and over 1000 listed websites. These include sites with > 1 million visitors per month.
The decision not to actively go into advertising for Trackboxx was a conscious one, as we wanted to allow the system to grow slowly in order to be able to react effectively to corresponding developments. The main focus here is of course clearly on performance. How do our servers and databases react to the increasing number of visitors being tracked and the amount of data to be stored?
In this context, various decisions have also been made in the current year:
- Adjustment of the price structure and subscriptions
- Introduction of a free tariff
- Removal of the option to use unlimited websites in each tariff (this is now possible via a chargeable add-on)
- Removal of the Google Search Console as a free standard feature (this is now possible via a paid add-on)
All in all, however, we are extremely satisfied with 2022 and have laid the foundation for a real take-off in 2023 - more on this in the 2023 outlook.
Outlook 2023
What is currently being worked on?
For several months now, we have been working for a large part of the time on the reorganisation of Trackboxx's entire technical infrastructure. This includes switching to our own server technology/infrastructure. This is clearly an investment in the future and offers us the opportunity to scale and grow better.
Of course, the servers will continue to be located in Germany - to communicate this clearly - in the data centre in Frankfurt am Main.
Furthermore, the server structure is being reorganised in this context so that we are able to process extremely high traffic with high performance and, above all, to scale up to 100% for the future in terms of the future increase in user numbers.
Another major change is the change in our database technology. We currently use MySQL in conjunction with Columnstore. The whole thing will now run with Clickhouse, which has improved performance by up to 90% in our tests.
We are currently transferring parts of Trackboxx to the new technology piece by piece and expect to have completed the whole process by the end of January.
This will be followed by various extensions for Trackboxx. These include, among others:
Ecommerce Tracking
This will hopefully give us a real unique selling point compared to our direct competitors. E-commerce tracking will be available as a paid add-on and will unlock a new area in your dashboard.
As the name suggests, this area relates specifically to e-commerce / online shops and will provide data on your products sold, top sellers, shopping basket views, etc. Here is one of the first screenshots, but without current data collection.
Improved reporting (PDF)
The current PDF reporting is very rudimentary. We are already working on a completely new system that will enable customised and detailed reporting in PDF format. The topic of "automatic reporting" will also be implemented as part of this process.
E-Mail / News Reporting
This refers to automated messages that our system sends to users. There is definitely room for improvement here. The aim is for you to receive messages automatically when, for example, your pageviews for 80% / 100% have been used up so that you can react accordingly. Other important system messages should also be set here and sent automatically.
User Journey
This is an extension that we are particularly looking forward to! The User Journey will analyse the data collected by Trackboxx, prepare it visually and then present it to you in a completely new view. The aim is for Trackboxx to do the work for you and list exactly which channels (e.g. Facebook) are performing particularly well or how individual users behave on your website. To give you an example:
User XYZ comes to your website via Facebook - has opened the pages XYZ and finally triggered the conversion XYZ. The analysis can refer to each individual user but also to complete channels such as Facebook, Google Ads and website XYZ. Here is a screenshot of this extension, which will also be available as a paid add-on.
Additional tracking mode by dispensing with one-time determination of the IP
Trackboxx currently uses a very data protection-friendly tracking technology that only collects the visitor's IP once and then encrypts it and automatically deletes it after 24 hours. Nevertheless, we would like to create an option that goes one step further and also dispenses with the one-off collection of the IP. The aim is to offer interested parties an even more "data protection-friendly" option. This option can be activated from the dashboard.
It should of course be mentioned here that this means that various data can be determined less accurately and some areas in the dashboard will no longer be available.
There are still many other areas we are working on. Please also have a look at our Roadmap over.
The Trackboxx Team
In order to be able to act even faster and more effectively in the coming year, we are also planning to expand our team. We are planning to hire another developer and finally start actively marketing / promoting Trackboxx. Even if there are of course still small errors and bugs here and there, after the last 12 months we can go into marketing with Trackboxx with a clear conscience.
