how to turn web traffic into sales - ecommerce trends in 2010

Sucharita Mulpuru, Vice President, Principal Analyst, Forrester Research

Matt Poepsel, VP of Performance Strategies, Compuware Gomez

© 2010 Forrester Research, Inc. Reproduction Prohibited2 © 2009 Forrester Research, Inc. Reproduction Prohibited

Turning Web Traffic Into Sales

Sucharita Mulpuru, Principal Analyst

September 15, 2010

© 2010 Forrester Research, Inc. Reproduction Prohibited3

There is no silver bullet…

but there are lots of things to do.


Key eCommerce trends in 2010

Recommendations

Agenda


1. Social didn’t supplant search


Hopes were high

~120MM unique per month

2x UK’s population!

Hmmm…0.1% of that x 1% conversion for an average ticket

of…


vs. Q1 2007

13%

na

19%

15%

19%

33%

52%

Because more people are social more than ever


Retailers want to do everything“Please indicate which social marketing strategies you have already implemented.”“Please indicate which social marketing strategies you plan to implement or enhance in 2010 or later.”

Source: July 2010 “The State Of Retailing Online 2010: Marketing, Social Commerce, And Mobile”


Social tactics are still experimental

“To what extent do you agree with the following statements?” (Top 2 box of 5)



A framework to think about


2. Banners though, may very well supplant search



Email still works, but it’s not the future

Source: North American Technographics® Benchmark Survey, 2009

Base: US online adults (age 18+)


A little known datapoint from the past

Source: June 2009 “The State Of Retailing Online 2009: Marketing”


A visit to, say, Kraft.com

will surface this ad later

on for a user…


It’s a complex landscape but this could be the future of interactive marketing


3. Easy still wins

2009No browser has more than half

the market

2004 One browser dominated


4. Mobile isn’t just hype


How people access the web is rapidly changing

“How frequently do you access the Internet on your mobile phone?”

Base: 41,249 US adults with a mobile phone *Base: 37,327 US adults with a mobile phone**Base: 30,453 US adults with a mobile phone

Source: North American Technographics® Benchmark Survey, 2008(US, Canada)*Source: North American Technographics® Benchmark Survey, 2009 (US, Canada)**Source: North American Technographics® Benchmark Survey, 2010 (US, Canada)


This is impacting retailers’ web traffic



This is happening with barely any effort



5. But mobile isn’t everything

Facts

Opportunity to help sell soft

goods more effectively, including

reducing returns

On-site video can be executed as

inexpensively as a few dollars per

video

Ability to create a “channel” that

could rest in other areas such as

YouTube


6. eCommerce has no borders


This is increasingly common


7. Usability and site performance still need work…everywhere


ESPECIALLY during the holidays

Source: Forrester 2010 Post-Holiday Retail Online Survey

Base: 1,003 online consumers

“Thinking about the online purchases you made in November-December 2009, please indicate

any problems you had while shipping online.

38% of

consumers

experienced

some problem!


8. Shipping matters maybe more than just about anything


Checkout checklist

• Make it easy for customers to buy from the product detail page and even category pages

• Enable customers to access the cart from every page

• Provide hints on the checkout page when consumers forget their username and/or password

• Ensure that security and privacy policies are clear

• Incorporate clear error messages

• Let customers talk to someone if they want (especially during checkout!)

• Expose shipping information early

• Enable guest checkout

• Jump to the next box when consumer fill in key data points (e.g. area code)

• Provide flexibility in payment options

• Merchandise those payment options

• Don’t force the email opt-in

• Cross-sell simple offers to increase units per transaction

• Test across different browsers (including mobile)


Other best practices

• Ability to toggle between category and product detail pages is critical (site should NOT merely rely on customer using “back” button)

• When hitting “back” customers should be able to go to the section on the page last viewed, NOT the top of the page (e.g. if the customer clicked item 95 of 96 on a category page, then when they click the back button, it takes them to the bottom of that page)

• Site taxonomy should be clear to users; products should be double-exposed if they are likely to be searched in multiple departments

• “Add to cart” button defaults to 1 and doesn’t force customers to enter “1”• Verbiage defining cross-sells is clear (e.g. “we also recommend…”, “other

customers who bought this item also purchased…”, “you may also like…”)• Ability to view maximum number of items (e.g. view all, or up to 100 items);

ensure that that default is set for the remainder of the session so consumers do not have to reset their preference for viewing items in every subsequent search

• Visual accompaniments where relevant (e.g. shoe charts, jewelry/ring sizing, Coach’s bag ‘try it on’ feature); provide scale where possible (especially important for jewelry or accessories)


Key eCommerce trends in 2010

Recommendations

Agenda


What retailers need to think about

Leverage customer ratings and reviews, and product sharing through

social networks

Include behavioral targeting in your interactive marketing mix

Invest in mobile, but modestly (for now); QA your site across the major

mobile browsers

Invest where relevant in features like on-site videos to drive conversion

Consider shipping internationally

Constantly monitor site performance

Ensure that shipping rates are in line with shopper expectations

How To Turn Web Traffic Into Sales - eCommerce Trends In 2010

Matt Poepsel, VP of Performance Strategies, Compuware Gomez

MajorISP

Local ISP

Mobile Carrier

Internet

Content DeliveryNetworks

3rd Party/Cloud Services

Browsers and devices UsersUsers

Storage

Web Servers

App Servers

DB Servers

Mainframe

Load Balancers

Mobile Components

Network

The Web Application Delivery Chain

The Challenge Of Delivering Quality Web Experiences

• Inconsistent geo performance• Bad performance under load• Blocking content delivery• Incorrect geo-targeted content

• Network peering problems

• Outages

• Configuration issues• Oversubscribed POP• Poor routing optimization• Low cache hit rate

• Network peering problems

• Bandwidth throttling

• Inconsistent connectivity• Configuration

errors• Application

design issues• Code defects• Insufficient

infrastructure

• Network resource shortage

• Faulty content transcoding

• SMS routing / latency issues

• Poorly performing JavaScript

• Inconsistent CSS rendering

• Browser/device incompatibility

• Page size too big

• Conflicting HTML tag support

• Too many objects

• Content not optimized for device

• Low cache hit rate

Systems management

tools: “OK”…user is NOT happy

“Outside-in” customer point of view

Test & monitor your site the way your customers use it:• What they do (key pages and transactions)• Where they do it (geographic locations)• How they do it (browsers and mobile devices)• When they do it (normal and peak usage)

Determine the impact on their behavior and your business

Customer Expectations Are Rising For Web & Mobile Applications

47% of consumers expect a Web page to load in 2 seconds or less

58% of mobile phone users expect websites to load almost as quickly or faster on their mobile phone than their PC

Mobile Browsers Should Not Be Forgotten

Morgan Stanley predicts mobile users will outnumber desktop internet users within 4 years

Source: Mary Meeker, Morgan Stanley

Major Difference In Mobile Vs Desktop Browser Performance

iPad 3.2 - 18.7 sec.

Firefox 3.6.3 - 6.5 sec.

Internet Explorer 7.0 - 9.8 sec. iPhone - 43.0 sec.

“Full website” performance tested on mobile browsers using WiFi

Different Browsers Offer Different Performance

Source: Gomez Real-User MonitoringReal users around the worldBroadband

466M pages over 30 days200+ sites

Chrome 3

Chrome 4

Chrome 5

FireF

ox3

FireF

ox3.6 IE6 IE7 IE8

Opera 10

Safar

i4

Safar

i5

iPad Sa

fari

iPhone Safa

ri0

5

10

15

20

25

Load Time Perceived Render

Seco

nds

Measure Your Customer Experience By Region

Atlanta3.4 Seconds

New York2.7 Seconds

Chicago4.1 Seconds

Dallas4.3 Seconds

Los Angeles6.8 Seconds

San Francisco8.2 Seconds

How is your conversion rate impacted by Website response time?

Ensure Mobile Websites And Applications Perform Optimally Under Peak Traffic Conditions

Mobile Website traffic exceeded expectations and overwhelmed mobile infrastructure

leading to unbearably slow load times

Mobile site powered by 3rd party

The More Things Change…the More they Stay the Same

Questions

Reduced downtime 45%

Reduced seven-step transaction time by 50%

Increased conversions 10%

Validated decision to consolidate three data centers

Achieved under 3 second response time and 99%+ availability

Reduced homepage load time from 11.3 seconds to 3.4 seconds

Improved page load times 23%

Saved 50%+ in staff and fees

Gomez Customers Enjoy Measurable Benefits

For more information visit Gomez.com or contact us at +1 781.778.2700

How Fast Is Your Website Across Browsers And Geographies?

Free Gomez Multi-Browser Performance Test

Tests Webpage response time across- Firefox 3.5 & IE 7- New York, Seattle, Los Angeles

& Chicago

URL - http://www.gomez.com/multi-browser-performance-test

how to turn web traffic into sales - ecommerce trends in 2010

Technology

social commerce

social marketing strategies

mobile isnt

mobile phonesource

state of retailing

online consumersthinking

online purchases

us online adults age