If you run an e-commerce business, you must be aware of Shopping Cart Abandonment Statistics of your website. For those who have never heard of this term before, Shopping cart Abandonment rate is the percentage of shoppers who placed products in the Shopping Cart but did not complete the check-out process

According to researches, the average Shopping Cart Abandonment Rate of e-commerce websites is 65.23%, which means that shoppers didn’t complete the checkout process 65 times out of 100.

Our infographic on “Shopping Cart Abandonment Rate Statistics” covers some interesting facts about the following:

• Shopping cart abandonment
• Online conversion
• Major reasons why shoppers never complete the checkout process
• What you should do to reduce the shopping cart abandonment rate of your website to increase your sales

Infographic by- Website Optimization Company Invesp

To Publish this Image on your Blog or Website . Copy this code

<a href="http://www.invesp.com/shopping-cart-abandonment.jpg"><img src="http://www.invesp.com/shopping-cart-abandonment.jpg" alt="Shopping Cart Abandonment Rate Statistics" width="580"></a> <p>Infographic by – <a href="http://www.invesp.com/">Website Optimization</a> Company Invesp

The average online conversion rate is 2.13%

The average value of an online order is $116.58

Why Web Buyers abandon Shopping Carts

81% of the organic traffic of E-commerce sites comes from Google

Average Conversion Rate of Different Traffic Channels

7 Elements Of The Checkout Process In Terms Of The Importance

1. Fears, Uncertainty & Doubts
2. Incentives
3. Trust indicators
4. Visitor Persona
5. Buying Stage
6. Complexity of purchase
7. Engagement

Top 10 Conversion Optimization Problems In The Checkout Process

1. Insecure checkout
2. Not allowing for “Guest Checkout”
3. Displaying website navigation during the checkout process
4. Loosing customer input when a submission causes an error
5. Layout page design that conflicts with eye flow
6. Similarly designed multiple calls to action buttons in close proximity
7. Not displaying visitor’s progress in the checkout process
8.  Displaying discount code box late in the checkout
9. Requiring unnecessary information
10. Using cross-sells and up-sells during the checkout process

Posted in Conversion Optimization, Shopping Cart

So far we’ve avoided writing a post on that seemingly ubiquitous blog topic: Pinterest. Until today.

In case you’ve landed here looking for Pinterest basics, here they are: Pinterest is a photo and video sharing social network. The site began 2011 with 10,000 users and finished the year with almost 10,000,000; good enough to make the Hitwise list of top ten social media sites, beating out LinkedIn and Google+.

The Value of Pinterest for Ecommerce Businesses

Pinterest users, or pinners, “pin” images of things they find interesting into their Pinterest account. If LinkedIn is the social site for business, and Facebook is for friends, Pinterest is viewed by many as a site for sharing your lifestyle and values, or those to which you aspire.

So what is the value for ecommerce sites of a social network where people post pictures of the things they like? Aside from the obvious, there’s a number of practical advantages to Pinterest:

• Traffic – A number of sites, including Time Inc.’s Real Simple and Hubspot, have noted a higher number of referrals from Pinterest than from other sources, including Facebook and Google+.
• Links – Every pin includes a link back to the source of the image. While the links are ‘no-follow”, they’re still valuable as users need only click on the image to get to your site.
• Social Sharing – Pinterest lets pinners login with their Twitter and Facebook accounts and all users can share posts through Facebook, Twitter or email.

What About Sales?

Traffic, links and social sharing are all wonderful and useful, but you can’t take them to the bank.

Sales, that’s what you want, and they’ve been sorely missing from most social media marketing for ecommerce sites, including storefronts on Facebook.

But some early research shows Pinterest outperforming Facebook for sales and new customers. According to a study of social media traffic by jewelry and accessory retailer Bottica.com, whose founders include former eBay execs, Pinners outspend Facebook users by a whopping $180 to $85 and Pinterest was Boticca’s biggest sales channel, driving 10% of sales versus only 7% from Facebook.

This is just a single study, not definitive, but significant.

It shows Pinterest to be a place for browsing, comparing one’s likes to others’ and tapping into the buzz, all of which are part of the ritual most shoppers go through immediately before buying something.

Posted in Business, Ecommerce, Sales & Marketing, Social media

Note: If you attend our webinars, you know that seating runs out very quick. We will limit registration to the first 100 participants.

Date: Thu, May 17, 2012 12:00 PM – 1:00 PM EST

How do you design your product pages to persuade visitors to convert? How do you measure the effectiveness of your existing product pages? We will use recent product page designs and MVT testing to demonstrate some of the essential principals of designing converting product pages.

Learn how to:

• Prioritize calls to action on the page
     Emphasize “the add to cart” button
     Add urgency to the “add to cart” through limited time offer
• Remove distractions
      Consider the location of the upsells/cross-
      Place product description & specification in the correct format: I will show how linear format
      bears tabular format for most retailers.

Limited Seating. We can only accept the first 100 registrations to the webinar!

After registering you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the Webinar.

Posted in Conversion Optimization

Available only to select advertisers since September, 2011, Google recently completed the full launch of Google Adwords for Video. All advertisers now have the opportunity to launch a YouTube video ad campaign as easily as a regular Adwords campaign.

Similar to Adwords’ pay-per-click model, Google’s TruView pricing for Adwords for Video  means you only pay if your video is viewed for at least 30 seconds, regardless of how many times it’s played. With video producers now adept at delivering their message in the 15 second format that’s common for existing YouTube video ads, that’s plenty of time to get your point across – and perhaps not pay for the impression.

Staying true to their efforts to offer flexible options for advertisers, you can choose to have your video ad appear in one, all or any combination of the following places:

• YouTube searches
• As a pre- or post-roll on other videos
• Listed in the “Related Videos” column

Adwords advertisers will also be happy to see, in addition to keyword targeting, familiar options for their video campaign, including budgeting, geo-targeting and language settings.

As video continues to grow in popularity online, the advantages it offers a digital marketing campaign grow with it. At a basic level, video content enjoys a special place in search results thanks to Google’s perceptive acquisition of YouTube in 2006. On other levels, the capabilities of that video content, including product demonstrations, testimonials and viral marketing, not to mention YouTube being the second largest search engine, is more than enough reason to consider a video campaign.

But, there’s another major advantage of Adwords for Video that has nothing to do with Adwords or video.

Google’s All-in-One Privacy Policy

Yes, the new Google privacy policy that combines user information across platforms; much maligned by governments and privacy watchdogs, yet barely given a second thought by users, makes Google Video Adwords even more inviting.

Why? According to Greg Jarboe of Search Engine Watch, before the new privacy policy, only 2 to 3% of YouTube viewers had YouTube accounts, which eliminated over 97% of viewers from demographic targeting.  “Now, with the linking of Google and YouTube accounts, 5 to 10 times more people can be targeted by demographics”.

The significance of these numbers can’t be understated.

Indeed, for any advertisers with a focus on driving targeted traffic to their product pages, the numbers make Google Adwords for Video exponentially more attractive.

Posted in Ecommerce, Sales & Marketing, video

Nielsen recently released the results of their latest Global Trust in Advertising Survey (see below). They did their first global survey in 2005 and the findings have since been used by marketers to underscore the high level of trust consumers have in earned advertising, otherwise known as word-of-mouth.

Consumers are almost twice as likely to trust word-of-mouth – recommendations from family and friends – than advertising messages.

Too often, with the release of new data that echoes past findings, we tend to glance over it with an “I knew that” attitude. But, while this survey reinforces what all online marketers and advertisers should already know, a closer look at the numbers shows why they deserve your attention:

• 97% of consumers trust word-of-mouth recommendations from people they know. Only 47% trust TV, magazine and billboard advertising, which is the highest level of trust for traditional advertising media.
• At 70%, the form of advertising with the second highest level of trust is consumer opinions posted online – another type of word-of-mouth.
• 48% – the increase in the level of trust from the most trusted form of traditional advertising to the least trusted word-of-mouth advertising.
• 18% – the increase since 2007 in the percentage of consumers who trust recommendations from family and friends.
• 15% – the increase since 2007 in the percentage of those who trust consumer opinions posted online.
• 24%, 20%, 25% – the decrease since 2009 in the levels of trust for TV ads, magazine ads and newspaper ads respectively.
• 23% – the increase in the level of trust for websites over TV, newspaper and radio ads.

You can draw your own conclusions, but there are certain undeniable facts illustrated by this survey:

1. Word-of-mouth is the most powerful way to spread your message and develop consumers’ trust in your business – and it is getting more powerful.
2. Less than half of all consumers trust traditional advertising messages – and the number is dropping at a remarkable rate.

Trust is a major factor in improving your ecommerce conversion rates and it is increasingly clear which is the best form of advertising to develop it.

Nielsen-Consumer-Trust

Posted in Business, Conversion Optimization

Way back in March, 2000, Business Week ran a cover story about internet privacy that included a survey of users, the vast majority of which were either “somewhat” or “very” concerned about the privacy of their personal information online.

It’s an excellent article, with suggestions for developing a universal icon to indicate privacy protection, advice on reassuring users and, in a nod to just how long ago this was, there’s a quote from “New York District Attorney Spitzer”.

Fast forward 12 years and online privacy in now entrenched in laws like the federal Child Online Protection Act (COPA) and the California Online Privacy Protection Act, which generally requires that, if you collect personal information online from residents of California, you must have a clearly visible link to a privacy policy that outlines the information you are collecting, how the information may be shared with others and how users can edit the information.

When you add to this the evolution of cloud computing, the digitizing and networking of employee information and the various efforts to integrate electronic health records online, it becomes quite clear that privacy of online information goes far beyond names, addresses and credit card numbers.

If most internet users were concerned about the privacy of their online data 12 years ago, imagine their level of concern today. Those users are your potential customers.

So where is your privacy policy listed on your web site?

While users’ concerns and the laws of the land are very compelling reasons to create and/or raise the profile of your privacy policy, they are not the only ones.

Google,Yahoo and Bing produce web results in ever-increasing competition with each other, which makes them very sensitive to the quality of their product.  If any of the results they produce are tarnished by issues of privacy, or lack thereof, it could have a devastating effect on their market share. In an effort to ensure some quality control, search engines have enacted protocols and guidelines for privacy policies on web sites.

And we all know what’s at risk when we don’t follow a search engine’s “guidelines”.

There is the potential for your site to be suspended or lose its search engine rank if it collects personal information, but does not have an adequate privacy policy.

Your Privacy Policy & Your Conversion Rate

With the heightened concern your customers have about the privacy of their information, increasing demand for privacy policies through law and search engine guidelines, you may want to consider the following:

1. Even if you’re not an ecommerce site, you should have a privacy policy. If all you want to ask for  is an email address, make sure you have a visible privacy policy.

2. The link to your privacy policy should be more than a grey item in your footer menu.

3. Don’t just cover your ass. Make sure the wording of your privacy policy focuses on your customers’ deep, well-founded concern about their privacy in clear, comprehensive language.

4. Highlight the link to your privacy policy by placing it near “checkout”, “add to cart”, “buy” and other points of purchase.

5. Use more engaging wording than “Privacy Policy” for the link, maybe even design an icon or button.

What happens if you do these five things? You will have created a competitive advantage by making your customers’ privacy a high priority. How? Look around – do you see a lot of other sites with prominent privacy policies?  The trust and credibility you create can only boost your conversion rate.

Posted in Business, Conversion Optimization, Ecommerce

The recording of our last webinar, Ecommerce Checkout Optimization, is available now. The webinar covered:

• A systematic process for optimizing your website that addresses the FUD (fears, uncertainties and doubts) surrounding the purchase process
• How to perform a heuristic evaluation on your checkout process for design and usability
• Tips for breaking out of your testing rut

Please click on the following button to view the webiar

Posted in Conversion Optimization

I talked recently to a customer who ran a test that produced excellent increases in conversion rates. The customer complained that they did not see an increase in revenue as a result of deploying the wining combination. This was very unusual. And while it might look at first glance that the test did not produce results, a careful examination reveals a good explanation.

Let’s drill deeper to understand what is going on.

The test resulted in a 16.1% uplift in conversion with a 99.7% chance to beat original according to Google website optimizer. The test concluded on the first of March (about 45 days ago). So, how come there was no revenue impact?

Explanation:
1- This test was ran on the main homepage of the site. While the site gets most of its traffic through its main homepage, not all traffic to the site goes through that homepage. The uplift is specific to the traffic that goes through the main homepage. That means that the overall site conversion rate and revenue will not see the full 16.1% uplift in conversions. When taking that into account and based on a mathematical formula, we expect the overall revenue to see about an 8.05% impact as a result of this test.

2- When we examined the data again, we discovered that the customer did not allow the winning combination to run on the site. The customer’s team decided to run another completely new test on the page few days after the conclusion of the test. This new test had several new combinations that ran against the winning combination from our first test. To simplify the matters, let’s assume that the customer ran a new test with 3 challenging designs to the winning design. As a result of the new test and since the traffic is divided equally between the 4 designs, our winning design only gets 25% of the traffic. So, right away, the uplift impact is reduced further. And the site now, can only see an 8.05% * 25% = 2% uplift.

3- The final question is to examine the conversion rate for three challengers running against the main homepage. Are any of these challengers causing a drop in conversion rates? Let’s assume that one of the challengers is causing a 5% drop in conversion rates. You can right away see how that 5% for that one challenger will completely wipe out the 2% potential uplift in conversions.

What is the moral of the story?

Conversion optimization provides the most accurate means to measure the impact of producing a new design to your bottom line. You need however to carefully examine the data and what you are doing on the website before you jump into conclusions.

Posted in Conversion Optimization

One of the most appealing truths of Conversion Rate Optimization is that it’s a game without end. Regardless of how well your ecommerce platform converts, you can always do better. Even if you reached that mythical place of 100% conversions, you can start driving more traffic and creating more web properties to continue to improve your returns.

Why is that so appealing? It means that once you get into the game, you will be focused on constantly improving the most critical point of your sales cycle.

But don’t start planning a trip to the bank just yet. The idea that it is a constant pursuit is the easiest part of CRO to understand.

Conversion is a complex balancing act that includes technical platforms, web design, value propositions and marketing. But the biggest and most important CRO variable is a human one, your target consumers, and they are the final judges of your CRO.

Consumer fickleness is well known, and on the web, your potential customers can act on fickle whims far easier than at any other point-of-purchase, even when they are about to checkout.

Want to learn more about minimizing cart abandonment and improving your CRO? Register today for “Ecommerce Checkout Optimization” another in the series of informative Invesp webinars that help online retailers generate more sales.

So overcoming consumer skittishness is at the very core of CRO. For that reason, you’ll find no shortage of advice on doing so on the web. And no end to misguided information.

Briefly, the three main areas of consumer behaviour you must consider in your CRO programme, and the ones for which you will find the most mis-information online, are:

• Personality – A quick web search will uncover lots of information about how the four main personality types: Analytical/logical, results driven, sensitive/emotional or enthusiastic/impulsive. The conventional wisdom is, if you cover those four bases, you’ve got game.In fact, we are all unique combinations of the four main personality types and, if you really get into it, we are actually combinations of the combinations. Game on again.

• Buying Cycle – If your overall CRO is focused only on those people who are ready to buy, you will miss the majority of shoppers who still shopping. Your CRO must include people at various stages of the sales funnel, including those who are developing awareness about you and your products, comparing product features and making buying decisions

• Trust & Credibility – Regardless of their personality type regardless of where they are in the buying cycle, regardless of what you sell, consumers will buy more if they trust your company, your offering and are confident that both are their best option.

Why is CRO a wicked game? Not playing any one part of it properly can mean you have little chance of winning.

Posted in Conversion Optimization, Ecommerce, Shopping Cart

Note: If you attend our webinars, you know that seating runs out very quick. We will limit registration to the first 100 participants.

Date: Wed, April 18, 2012 12:00 PM – 1:00 PM EST

With average cart abandonment rates falling anywhere between 55 and 72%, it’s no wonder checkout optimization is the number one concern for ecommerce marketers. But redesigns and A/B tests often fail to move the needle because they focus only on checkout design, and ignore the psychological reasons customers are abandoning their purchases.

In this webinar you will learn:

• A systematic process for optimizing your website that addresses the FUD (fears, uncertainties and doubts) surrounding the purchase process
• How to perform a heuristic evaluation on your checkout process for design and usability
• How to perform a heuristic evaluation on your checkout process for design and usability

Limited Seating. We can only accept the first 100 registrations to the webinar!

After registering you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the Webinar.

Posted in Conversion Optimization