Retail, in the eyes of the everyday customer

The purpose of a Pay Per Click (PPC) landing page is to incentivize visitors to get deeper into the site.  Let’s say you want to optimize a PPC landing page and design a completely new layout which you A/B test.  The results show that conversion rates went down a little but 12% more visitors reached product pages.  Should we draw the conclusion that the landing page failed because it didn’t lift sales or should we say it was a success because it brought visitors deeper into the site?  If the landing page brought people deeper but those visitors didn’t convert it means the steps after landing page need to be optimized.

Let’s look at another example.  You want to increase sales of a particular product so you rewrite product description and run an A/B test.  For such a test we should set conversion goal as visits to cart page.  The primary job of the test product description is to inspire visitors to add this item to their shopping cart.

My point is that each test has a very specific purpose and test success should be measured based on how well the variation page is able to complete that purpose.

This is the cart page on saffronrouge.com–

The shopper is about to purchase a $21 item.  As a store owner you know there is a 40%+ probability this potential buyer will abandon.  When I clicked CHECKOUT this is what I saw on next screen–

This is a genius conversion tactic for two reasons–

1: The shopper is being distracted by two free items.  This unexpected ‘gift’ completely shifts focus away from the $21 item and to the free items.

2: Saffronrouge.com presents shoppers 12 free items and asks them to pick any 2.  Studies show when shoppers can drive their own experience they covert at a higher rate.

Another clever touch is that if a shopper clicks Soothing Herbal Recovery Gel, one of the free items listed, product details are shown on the same screen–

It’s always a good idea to keep shoppers who start checkout within checkout flow.  We saw this in the eyebuydirect.com example too.

I was doing a Google search and noticed something new on a PPC ad …

On rockbottomgolf.com price match guarantee is written as though it were a conversation between the visitor and site owner (click image to enlarge)–

There is a prevalent belief that shoppers don’t read long form copy.  This is a wrong assumption.  What shoppers don’t read is poor long form copy.  But then, they don’t read poor short form copy either.

Highrisehq.com is a subscription service.  The business objective is to generate maximum signups.  This is their current page–

Here is what they tested–

Result: 37.5% increase in net signups over original.  [Screenshots above taken from (http://37signals.com/svn/posts/2977-behind-the-scenes-highrise-marketing-site-ab-testing-part-1?)]

Even mighty Amazon.com uses long form copy for its top selling Kindle– http://www.amazon.com/Kindle-Globally-Graphite-Display-Technology/dp/B004HZYA6E

If you have a page that converts first time visitors really well then it’s your job to make that page stand out.  The homepage layout of readymaderesources.com may be unconventional but it’s clear they want visitors to read their About Us info:

What’s really clever about the layout is that while it makes About Us the star it also efficiently highlights other important aspects of the site:

1. Their unique selling proposition is highly visible: Preparing You Today For Tomorrow’s Instability.
2. Popular Products are easily accessible.
3. Free Shipping call to action is impossible to miss.

Folica.com specializes in hair products.  Their site has 100s of products and 1000s of reviews.  How could we make reviews more persuasive?  They should pick a popular product and for any customer that buys this item two weeks after purchase mail out two pre stamped postcards requesting a handwritten testimonial.  Scan these testimonials.  Then run a split A/B test where one group of visitors see the old testimonial format and the other group sees the scanned handwritten format.

If conversion lift > cost of mailing out pre stamped postcards expand test to other product pages.

Most e-tailers understand the power of testing.  The problem is that they hate tests that fail and love those that win.  What they fail to understand is that failing and winning tests in combination make a healthy testing strategy.  I learn more from failing tests because these are the ones where I’m trying truly novel ideas.

I’m currently reading the book The Road Ahead.  Bill Gates wrote the book in 1995.  On page 105 where Bill is peering into the future he says, “Mobile devices will be able to send and receive messages, but it will be expensive and unusual to use them to receive an individual video stream.”

Bill was wrong.  On his journey to becoming the world’s richest man he made 100s of misjudgments.  Had be been hyper focused on avoiding all mistakes I doubt he would have achieved his full potential.

So stop worrying and start celebrating both winners and losers.

Lafumafurniture.com is testing a novel concept (observe orange box below)-

My first thought was, “Yikes, this is a horrible idea.  This call to action is casting purchase doubt less than 5 seconds of me landing on the site.  I should blog about how terrible this idea is.”

But then, when I read the details, I had a change of heart-

Couple of things stand out-

1. By using the language “As an experienced online retailer…” the company is letting shoppers know this policy has been developed after analyzing years of shopper data.  The tone is confident.

2. The retailer shares shopper testimonial.

3. They show an example to illustrate potential savings (pay $5 now and save $40 later).  As we’ve discussed before the brain is wired to be strongly risk averse.  The without return insurance option is interpreted as a $35 loss.

Lafumafurniture.com sells recliner chairs.  What’s key here is that the retailer has developed a strategy that complements their product line: heavier items with higher ticket prices.

What impact do you think these (shown in red boxes below) …

… have on conversions?