Chart of the Day: Average Product Page View, Add-to-cart and conversion to sale rates for eretailers
In our compilation of average ecommerce conversion rates we compare different sources, showing the challenge of converting retail site visitors to add-to-basket sessions and sale.
I'm sharing this funnel-based view of the conversion process since it also shows the conversion rates to product page views which aren't published so often:
As would be expected, the number of sessions with product page views is much higher than the other micro-conversions, approaching 50 percent. This provides a useful benchmark and prompts retailers that it's useful to track conversion to product page views when making site design improvements.
It also reminds us of the value of following up on interest in specific products and categories via sending personalized browse abandon emails which is the focus of the post where I…
You can add smarts to your experience in one of two main ways: either by adding human intelligence - and with it, a dose of empathy or by adding an automated form of intelligence
‘Work smarter, not harder’ has always been my mantra. While I haven’t always been able to achieve this, it’s still a noble goal. Thankfully, with the latest technologies and sales techniques, it’s now easier than ever to create smarter - and better converting - e-commerce shopping experiences.
You can add smarts to your experience in one of two main ways: either by adding human intelligence - and with it, a dose of empathy, or by adding an automated form of intelligence (empathy not included?). On the human side, I’ll share how to plug in online chat agents, and incorporate some neuromarketing principles into your designs. On the automation side, I’ll discuss…
Successful business communication entails tailoring messages to different types of audiences
Not so long ago, digital marketers and influencers used to make bold statements such as Email marketing is the best communication channel and shall continue to dominate for eternity. Today, the tables have turned and such statements make little business sense. Many businesses are relying on mobile and desktop push notifications to communicate and engage with different types of audiences. And importantly, push messages are agnostic to ad blockers. No wonder ads are playing second fiddle to push messages!
Unfortunately, many marketers are not fully aware of using push notification services to their advantage. The express purpose of this article is to throw light on how to drive ecommerce sales with desktop push notifications.
If you are looking forward to best practices, read on.
[si_guide_block id="79186" title="Download our Business Resource – 10 ecommerce mistakes" description="Smart Insights have put together a new list…
Those in ecommerce industry tend to consider benchmarks, budgets, and trends to streamline their businesses. Unfortunately, they ignore risks
Every year, around this time, Shopygen publish a post on important risks that cannot be ignored by our readers’ businesses and clients.
[si_guide_block id="79186" title="Download FREE Resource – 10 ecommerce mistakes" description="Explore the top 10 ecommerce mistakes and how to avoid them. Ecommerce is a fast-moving environment and we actively keep our mistakes up to date so you’re always making the most of your marketing"/]
Ecommerce Online Security
From a perspective of tackling cyber fraud, stringent security standards should be implemented. For a broader overview of different types of cyber threats, consider the following list:
Phishing
Hacking
Credit card fraud
Data errors
Unprotected online services
Adoption of techniques such as…
Chart of the Day: Which are the most popular merchandising techniques used by online retailers?
Best practices for creating effective user experiences for Ecommerce sites are often discussed along with how to improve experiences through conversion rate optimization. However, it's less common for retail merchandising techniques to be discussed. To help retailers learn best practices, we've created a new online merchandising guide by retail Expert Mark Hall which is available to Business members.
To highlight some of the merchandising techniques available this research reviews techniques used based on a review of the Ecommerce sites of some of the 50 top global Ecommerce brands.
The results suggest a variation in merchandising adoption with some techniques such as top sellers, trending now and top-rated products having a surprisingly low adoption. This in turn, suggests, the challenges of including merchandising features when retail brands are looking to simplify experiences on mobile devices…
Sales guru Jim Rohn aptly said:
‘Success is neither magical nor mysterious; it’s the natural consequence of consistently applying the fundamentals.’
I agree wholeheartedly. In order to sell better online you need to know the fundamentals, or essentials, of persuasive selling. These same principles apply whether you’re selling face-to-face or on a website. Only by doing so will you achieve your overarching merchandising goals: more add-to-carts and conversions, triggered by higher click-throughs on your website’s sales pages.
In this post I cover essential selling practices. I discuss best practices and optimisation techniques separately.
Start with the essentials
For us humans, the essentials are food, water and rest. For online merchandising, selling essentials are more emotion-based, and include:
Understanding your prospects needs and desires
Earning the trust of your visitors
Using persuasive selling tactics
Tailoring your pitch to your shopper’s stage
Creating a Product Finder tool
Offering proactive customer support
Understanding your prospects
Here’s another saying…
How and where to get human input for your web experiences
We live in an age of high online connection, but low interpersonal connection. Even in relatively casual settings, people just don’t chit-chat as much anyone. And this bums me out in my gut. Why? Because, as social animals, we long for human interaction. In fact, recent research shows that people with strong social ties are not just happier, but they live longer.
[si_guide_block id="79186" title="Download our FREE Resource - 10 ecommerce mistakes" description="Ecommerce is a fast moving environment and we actively keep our mistakes up to date so you're always making the most of your marketing.."/]
It’s the same on the Web; true social interaction - not just posting content and comments - is limited. True, some websites do offer phone and chat support, but it’s often handled by entry-level employees untrained in sales tactics, and sometimes lacking interpersonal empathy. We’re…
Chart of the day: customers expect more personalized experiences according to businesses and that's why they are prioritising improving CX
Customer Experience (CX) improvements are being led by customers wanting more personalized experiences according to new research. Customer expectations are essentially driving CX prioritisation.
7 in 10 businesses said they were improving CX because customers expect more personalization, whilst 6 in 10 simply said they want to improve customer loyalty, which makes sense, we all want loyal customers!
I think they are right though, customers expect far more personalization and many businesses are still not personalizing the experience for customers. It's great to see that businesses realise that customers have a desire for personalized experiences, but now they are expecting this and therefore it's important that businesses start to prioritize this and act fast.
You'll notice the least concern was competitors delivering a better experience,…
An easy, visual guide to help you implement AMP for ecommerce to increase conversions
E-commerce is all about creating an amazing shopping experience online for the visitor with the intention of getting them to click, convert, and become a customer.
With changes in consumer shopping behaviors, online brands have had to adjust how they market to prospective customers, as well as the user experience, to ensure an enjoyable experience.
The largest change has come from the adoption of mobile technology.
There are more than 4.9 billion people globally utilizing smartphones, representing around 66% of the world’s population.
And as of January 2017, mobile phones accounted for 50% of internet traffic. That’s a 30% increase from last year alone.
…
Key steps and best practices to win with Amazon - digital advertising
In the previous post in this series (key steps and best practises to win with Amazon - Ecommerce) we looked at the exponential growth of Amazon and the share of mind it has gained globally over the last ten years, surpassing many older, more established brands with an unwavering focus on innovation and the customer experience.
[si_guide_block id="5676" title="Download FREE Resource – Digital marketing plan template" description="Our popular marketing planning template built on the Smart Insights RACE planning system."/]
Amazon’s drive to become the ‘everything store’ has led the company to move into many new and different areas, including technology, original content and web services (BBC iPlayer and even Netflix run on Amazon!). Whilst Amazon is more widely known as an ecommerce platform, the company’s move into media and its burgeoning advertising business is starting to cause tremors…
