Despite traffic to product pages continuing to rise, global conversion and add-to-basket rates have been steadily declining since the first quarter of 2014. This revelation is placing increased scrutiny on the tactical efficiency of retailers’ ability to entice customers to complete the purchasing process.
Currently the tactics in place, namely product recommendations, are proving to be tempting shoppers enough to click and browse, but not enough to actually buy.
There is however one large exception that is using the power of personalisation to fight off the global decline – Europe. So what are marketers across Europe doing well that their US counterparts are falling behind on? They’re employing personalisation to increase customer engagement and sales in a highly competitive online environment.
Conversion rates
You’ve achieved the first step and you’re getting visitors to your website but all retailers will know there’s plenty more to be done to make sure a sale is completed. Once shoppers are on your site, how can you to ensure serial browsers are converting their baskets into profit.
Brands need to be implementing tactics such as product recommendations, banners, badging and estimated delivery dates to push the purchase all the way through until card details have been entered and customers are receiving their order confirmation email.
Scandinavian adventure clothier Helly Hansen is a prime example of a European brand leading the way in conversion. Facing a disconnect across global consumers, it created a personalisation strategy to target geographic segments.
The brand generated a 170 per cent conversion and 52 per cent new visitor conversion in Germany through a weather targeted rainwear banner.
Overall, US conversion rates for the first quarter of 2015 have fallen to a low of 2.53 per cent with European rates still climbing to almost 3 per cent.
Average order value (AOV)
Along with conversion rates, average order values have also been declining globally each quarter for the last year.
However, RS Components, the leading high-service distributor of electronics is bucking this trend in Europe. It created a ‘Category Affinity’ campaign to retarget visitors who returned to the site’s homepage from a category page within a previous session. Focusing on its highest traffic category pages gave the team an actionable starting point.
Running multiple promotional strategies based on different customer journeys is extremely effective when understanding how to increase average order value. Rather than offering the same to all, reviewing a group of personalised promotions on the site can help to understand which strategies work best.
Refining web pages with estimated delivery dates, free shipping messaging and one-page offerings for repeat customers is a great start.
RS Components achieved a 15 per cent increase in revenue per session when retargeting customers who had visited their Semiconductors category page, and a 26 per cent lift in revenue per session when retargeting customers who has visited its Cable and Wires category page.
Bounce rates
Previously global bounce rates have remained fairly flat or on some occasions have even been on the decline; however bounce rates are now showing a more problematic trend: they are on the increase.
Currently sitting at 35.25 per cent, the average bounce rate is nearly 6 full percentage points higher year-over-year globally.
UK bed retailer and manufacturer Dreams found that online customers came from a mix of 50 per cent desktop, 25 per cent mobile and 25 per cent tablet users. The company saw how, as the use of mobile devices and tablets continued to grow, desktop users were dropping rapidly. To react to this Dreams deployed a lightbox menu that appeared to users as they first visited the site. This lightbox allowed customers to navigate to key areas of the website including the store locator and sales sections. Implementing this lightbox lowered the bounce rate of mobile users by 10 per cent.
Despite the name - the solution to improving performance through product recommendations isn’t just done by recommending products to customers; it’s about making these recommendations relevant within a variety of contexts.
Using a combination of previously collected and real time data gives marketers a meaningful insight into what customers want and allows them to cater offerings specifically to each individual. Product recommendations are a starting point. For a truly personalised approach, an array of tactics should be used. Not only does this make the experience more relevant but also positions your brand as going the extra mile to create a memorable service for customers.
By Mike Harris, VP EMEA at Monetate.
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