The Ultimate Guide to Optimizing Your Online Storepages.optimizely.com/rs/optimizely/images/eBook... · The Ultimate Guide to Optimizing Your Online Store 2 Welcome, Retailers! While

A retailer’s guide to Experience Optimization on the web & mobile

The Ultimate Guide to

Optimizing Your Online Store

The Ultimate Guide to Optimizing Your Online Store 2

Welcome, Retailers! While there’s no magic bullet when it comes to the success of

your online store, top-performing retailers do have something in

common: a growing focus on Experience Optimization.

Retailers use Experience Optimization to gather data about

shoppers and then use that information to serve up better, higher

converting experiences on the web and mobile. Done right,

Experience Optimization is a sure fire way to improve key retail

metrics, including purchases, average order value, customer

lifetime value, revenue, and more.

In this guide, we’ll highlight best practices, strategies, and lessons

learned from some of the most successful online stores in the

business.

Inside, you’ll find:

• Proven methods to grow revenue streams, increase cus-tomer lifetime value, and grow your online business

• Optimization strategies to decrease shopping cartabandonment on desktop and mobile

• Test ideas, pro-tips, and results from successfulonline retailers like Electronic Arts, VeggieTales, andBackcountry

• Quick (and easy) wins for e-commerce personalization


Table of Contents

1Section

Section

1 Optimizing YourOnline Store


Checkout FlowThe checkout sequence is ideal place to start testing because these

tests are closest to your primary conversion event (a purchase) and

are more likely to have a direct impact on your key success metrics

(revenue). Plus, you’re serving experiments to a more qualified

audience: users who have already signaled a high level of interest

in your offering and have spent a good amount of time on your site.

Successful e-commerce checkouts tend to focus on a few key areas

to move more visitors to conversion. The following pages will

identify those areas, as well as high-impact test ideas for each.

“Testing pays for itself. With all the gains in conversions,

in addition to how fast I can get a test turned around –

those are huge impacts to our business. It’s not just value

creation, it’s also resource saving.”

–David Yeom, VP of Marketing, The Honest Company


Clearer calls-to-actionShoppers are exquisitely sensitive to calls-to-action (CTAs) in the checkout process.

Cumbersome, vague, or unnecessary CTAs cause friction, resulting in abandoned

shopping carts and lost profits. But fear not! Small tweaks to your site’s CTAs can

reduce friction and result in huge improvements.

GOAL: Increase CTA clicks and conversions

TEST IDEAS: • Test the placement and prominence of your primary CTAs. For an

e-commerce site, these are likely the the “Add to Cart” button on yourproduct pages and the “Continue to Checkout” CTAs from there. Tryadding duplicate CTAs above and below the fold to give shoppersmore opportunities to click through.

• Test out different CTA messaging and text:“Buy Now” vs. “Purchase” vs. “Add to Cart”vs. “Checkout”. Oftentimes, more descriptivetext results in more clicks.

• Experiment with using text, icons, or both.

• Try increasing your CTA button sizes.

• Test different CTA hover states to make itmore obvious that buttons are clickable andcreate a feel of interactivity for your shop-pers.

• Try using CTAs as a progress meter, telling customers how many stepsare remaining in the process.

pro-tip:

pro-tip:

WHERE’S YOUR VALUE PROP? If you have a key value proposition such as “Free Shipping” or “Easy Returns”, try featuring it as close to the primary CTA as possible.

YOUR STORE

BUY NOW

PURCHASE

ADD TO CART


Keep shoppers focused at every stepThe best online retailers spend time and resources to make shopping

on their site a delightful user experience. Shopping experiences are

guided, friendly, and even emotional, as the store tries to connect

with the shopper to add products to their cart. But oftentimes, as

soon as a shopper is ready to make their purchase, that experience is

swapped for an impersonal “checkout” look and feel.

Focus on making the checkout experience just as enjoyable as the

browsing and shopping experience to keep shoppers moving for-

ward. Customers become more invested in the process the further

they travel down the checkout funnel, making it even more import-

ant to knock that first step (or two, or three) out of the park.

INSOUNDOnline music retailer InSound saw a huge win when they tested their standard checkout CTA, “Continue”, against a more specific CTA: “Review Order”. The team hypothesized that “Review Order” signaled both A) buyers won’t be charged yet, and B) buyers were almost done with the process. This small change increased total sales by 29%. Now, their checkout funnel converts more than 54% of shoppers who enter it.

“There’s a break in the experience from cart to checkout,

and it causes a disconnect for the customer. It’s this

disconnect that leads to the highest level of cart aban-

donment at the very first step of the checkout.”

– Nirav Sheth, Creator, Awesome Checkout


GOAL: Increase completed purchases

TEST IDEAS:• Eliminate registration barriers. Asking shoppers (espe-

cially those who are new to your site or haven’t made apurchase in a while) to register or log-in is a heavy liftthat accounts for a great deal of cart abandonment.

• Remove distractions. Experiment by removing thingslike product offers, promotions, or shipping informationfrom each page of the checkout flow. Oftentimes, shop-pers prefer a simplified experience.

• Make coupon code fields less prominent. When shop-pers see a coupon field they tend to feel less special.They may open a new tab to search for a discountcode. If they don’t find what they’re looking for, they’reeven more likely to abandon the purchase.

• Try removing navigation to any pages outside thecheckout funnel.

30% of shoppers abandon their cart when asked to register. Of the top 100 grossing online retailers, only 24% require account creation to make a purchase.

Source: Smashing Magazine

pro-tip:

pro-tip:

ADD AN “ADD TO CART” CONFIRMATION When a shopper clicks an item to add it to their cart they are no longer browsing, they’re purchasing. Make it as obvious as possible that the item ended up in their cart and make it easy for them to continue down the purchase funnel from there. Many e-commerce sites do this with a subtle animation, revealing awindow that shows the product in the cart with a dedicated CTAto nudge them along through checkout.

9The Ultimate Guide to Optimizing Your Online Store

Finding the right number of stepsWhile studies have shown that websites with 6 or fewer steps tend

to perform best, a successful checkout is less about the number of

steps in the process and more about what the customer has to do

at each step. For instance, Apple, Walmart, and Gap all have 7 step

checkouts that perform very well, because they focus more on what

is required of the customers at each step. Testing and optimization

will help you find the sweet spot for your own site.

GOAL: Decrease bounces from within the checkout funnel

TEST IDEAS:• Test the number of pages in your funnel. How does

packing more information on one page compare tospreading information across multiple pages?

• Try replacing smaller steps within your funnel withmodal boxes.

pro-tip:

pro-tip:

COLLABORATIVE FILTERING Try suggesting additional products before your customer checks out based on what other customers purchase. This is one of the most effective ways to increase AOV.

Browsing vs. Buying:Many shoppers abandon their cart because they weren’t ready to checkout in the first place. So what are they doing there? Common reasons visitors end up in the checkout funnel before they’re ready to make a purchase include wanting an easy way to estimate shipping costs and adding items to their cart to save a “Wish List” for later.

84% of online shoppers expect an online trans-action to be completed in less than 5 minutes. Do you know how long it takes your average customers to check out successfully?


Other ways to optimize the checkout process:

• Experiment with securityicons and messaging.Make sure your site issecure and tell peopleabout it, especially on thecheckout page.

• Autocomplete as muchinformation as possible.If you have a user’s nameand address already,there’s no need to makethem type it again. Takeit a step further and trymaking a shopper’s bill-ing address the same astheir shipping address bydefault.

• Be persistent. Rather than having a shopper’s cartcontents expire, try abandonment emails or retargetingads to bring shoppers back to complete the purchase.(Note from the author: This tactic works on me almostevery time!)

pro-tip:

pro-tip:

CLARITY AND CONTROL Users want their shopping carts to meet two main criteria: clarity and control. Make sure they are clear on which items are in the cart, and how many, as well as the total cost after tax and shipping. Shoppers should easily be able to make changes to the quantity or remove items altogether.

CHECKOUT

11

THE CHECKOUT PROCESS TEAR-DOWNUsability testing is a great way to begin the optimization process, helping to identify pain points and friction across the user experience that can be tackled with testing. This exercise will help you take a step back and look at your site through your customers’ eyes.

INSTRUCTIONS:

Open an incognito window and enter your website’s url. Take out a

notepad and pen. Start a timer. Then, walk through making a purchase.

1. What item did you try to purchase?

2. How long did the purchase take?

3. How did you feel throughout the purchase process?

4. How did you feel when the purchase was complete?

5. How many steps or windows did you go through whilemaking the purchase?

6. Did you encounter any distractions along the way? Describethem. How did you react?

7. Were any steps confusing? Did you have to reread text orrepeat any parts of the process?

8. What parts of the checkout process did you find enjoyable?

9. What parts of the checkout process did you find annoying?

10. Describe your level of focus throughout the exercise. Atwhat point, if any, did you feel distracted? Was there anypoint at which you might have abandoned the purchase?

activity

activity

FOR BEST RESULTS, have a friend or relative do the exercise for you.

Watch as they make their way through the funnel and take note of any

areas of friction or places where they get caught up. Ask them follow-up

questions about the experience afterwards. The more perspectives,

especially fresh ones, the better.

pro-tip:

pro-tip:

The Ultimate Guide to Optimizing Your Online Store


Homepage The homepage is often a shopper’s first impression of your retail

site, so it’s important to get it right. Testing and optimization can

help you determine how to make the best use of this precious real

estate.

GOAL: Drive more visitors to product and category pages

TEST IDEAS:• Test different messaging, tone, and voice to see which

resonates best with shoppers.

• Experiment with different homepage layouts anddesigns.

• Your homepage is your front page. Just like a newspa-per, experiment with using the homepage to announcenew products, offers, or sales.

pro-tip:

pro-tip:

CAROUSELS & HERO IMAGESWhile you might find them pleasing to the eye, rotating carousels and large homepage hero images have been found to decrease conversions on most e-commerce homepages.


Product PagesQualified users + high traffic volume = testing gold mine! Product pages are a

great area for bold, fearless testing that can teach you a lot about your visitors.

The following section outlines some of the more interesting, unique ideas to

experiment with on these pages.

Go Bold: 3 Fearless Product Page Tests

1. SELL IN YOUR HEADLINES

You might have a very large catalog (or category you’re in charge of), but your top

selling few products have a hugely disproportionate impact on total sales.

Often, those top selling products have product pages which are titled like every other

product. It’s just “Canon VIXIA HF G20.” And it’s boring. Given that the customer

has already probably searched for that on Google or your site, and they’re looking at

a picture of the product, and the product name is already all over the page, why not

try selling it to them in the headline?

Try something like:• Canon VIXIA HF G20—the best camcorder for families• Canon VIXIA HF G20—rated 5/5 by Camcorder Dudes• Don’t miss a moment with the Canon VIXIA HF G20• A great first camcorder but powerful enough for pros

You can experiment with headline tests for five products in literally minutes. If they

increase sales for the target products, you can justify spending more time creating

and optimizing headlines for more products.

14

2. EXPERIMENT WITH PHOTOGRAPHY

One secret of the top e-commerce sellers—great photography moves lots of units.

Experiment with different types of photography you use to sell your product.

Try something like: • Product only• Person interacting with the product• Male vs. female interacting with the product. It can actually make a

difference!

We’ve seen adding photography to some listings increase sales for those products by

40%+.

3. TRY IT WITHOUT THE OFFER

Online retailers often use promotions, discounts, and offers to move volume.

Sometimes, however, it doesn’t work quite as well as planned. A/B testing lets you

see if these promotions (which are sometimes quite expensive) carry their own

weight.

ZAGGAlready got great photography? Try taking it to the next level. ZAGG increased average order value by 10% by upgrading to 360 degree views of their products. That’s an angle we can all get behind.

ELECTRONIC ARTSWhen EA launched a new version of their SimCity game, they offered a $20 discount on the buyer’s next order in return for pre-ordering the game. As it turns out, removing the discount increased sales by 43.4%.



Social Sharing & ReviewsRecommendations—especially shared online—are more influ-

ential on a person’s buying decision than brand or price. You can

encourage more shoppers to share on your site by optimizing the

sharing process. Here are a few test ideas to get you started.

GOAL: Increase social shares

TEST IDEAS:• Test various designs for your social share buttons.

• Experiment with the prominence of social sharing func-tionality.

• Try different incentives, offers, or messaging to seewhat compels more people to share widely. You canoffer different referral codes for incentives and measurewhich codes are used most.

• Experiment with timing. When is the best momentto ask for the review or social share? Is it during theshopping process? Immediately after the purchase? Orfurther down the line?

68% of Facebook

users say a recommen-dation from a Facebook Friend would make them more likely to buy a specific product or visit a certain retailer.

Source: Morpace Omnibus

Report

90% of consumersonline trust recommen-dations from people they know. 70% trust reviews from unknown users.

Source: Econsultancy

pro-tip:

pro-tip:

FOCUS YOUR EFFORTSKeep track of which channel is most popular. If you see shares to one channel outshine the rest then you can focus more time and effort there.

VEGGIETALESVeggieTales found that adding counters to the share buttons on their homepage increased revenue per visitor by 36.8%

16

Pricing, Shipping, & OffersFinding the right price point or shipping option can drive more

visitors to make a purchase. Use these tests to maximize revenue

from your online store.

GOAL: Find a price point that provides the greatest ROI to your business and the greatest value to your customers

TEST IDEAS: • Experiment with free and discounted shipping offers.

• Test having checkboxes auto-selected as default.For example, a customer’s billing address could bedefaulted to the same as their shipping address.

• Try adding or removing promotional offers.

“We try to dial in things like navigation, pricing, shipping

options, and promos before the holiday season. Then

we launch season-specific tests, like ‘Order in the next X

hours for guaranteed delivery by Christmas’ messaging, or

displaying things like gift certificates more prominently.”

-Nick Schlegel, Product Manager, Backcountry



Pop-ups & Modals: Information-collecting on your retail site doesn’t always have to be

intrusive. Try these tricks for building pop-ups and modals that are

pleasing to engage with.

GOAL: Increase successful information collection conversion (like email sign-ups) while also preventing bounces

TEST IDEAS:• Try targeted pop-ups to decrease friction as much as

possible, especially for new shoppers. Consider target-ing pop-ups only to return visitors because intuitionfor new users will be to close a pop-up without evenreading it.

• Test a pop-up alternative. Some examples include fea-turing the text input fields on the page itself or intro-ducing a floating fixed element that reveals from theside rail or bottom of the page that scrolls with the user.These methods can be far less intrusive than a pop-up.

• Test requesting information at different stages inthe funnel. Many e-commerce sites experiment withrequesting contact information at multiple stagesof the funnel, including at the end when a user hasadvanced to checkout. Email credentials are thenrequested to create an account in lieu of completing apurchase as a guest.

pro-tip:

pro-tip:

WOO THE SHOPPERAvoid making a pop-up or modal the first element that a shopper interacts with. Enable them to interact with some site content, and ideally navigate beyond the homepage, so their purpose for visiting your site is fulfilled before requesting personal information.

Section

Section

2 Shopping on Mobile


Mobile shopping is on the rise in a big way, and higher mobile

traffic presents a great opportunity and incentive to optimize the

mobile experience of your e-commerce store through a mobile

website or native mobile app.

Mobile website optimizationGOAL: Increase conversions on your mobile website

TEST IDEAS: • Optimize jump paths. Mobile web visitors want to reach

many different destinations with just few taps. Test pro-moting different destinations earlier in the flow to dis-cover which shortcuts (or jump paths) reduce bouncerates on your site.

• Strike a balance between creative design and function-ality. Art and creative design is often most impactfulat the top of the mobile purchase funnel, when you’reaiming to make an emotional connection. As mobileshoppers advance through the funnel, they becomemore task-oriented. Aim for a simpler layout that keepsthem focused on making a purchase.

• Try adding more steps to your checkout process.On mobile, form fields (like those in the purchaseflow) work well when they’re broken up, creatinga sense of achievement throughout process. Trycomplementing this format with a progress baracross the top or bottom of the screen to provideusers context of where they are in the process.

• Optimize your calls-to-action specifically formobile. Experiment with placement: above thefold, below the fold, or sticky CTAs that scrollalong with shoppers. Try increasing pixel size of

Shopping on Mobile

STEP 1/3


important CTAs and text links, making it as easy as pos-sible for touchscreen shoppers to tap.

• Simplify your mobile site or app experience to showshoppers the features, messages, or products that mat-ter to them. Try pairing down navigation menu options,or removing hero images and large headers from themobile homepage experience.

• Get the navigation right. Experiment with differentmenu patterns popular on mobile: banners, buttons,and blocks.

pro-tip:

pro-tip:

SCROLL VS. CLICKShoppers on mobile touchscreen devices are much more willing to scroll below the fold to browse for more products or information than shoppers on desktop. In fact, they often prefer scrolling to clicking through to a new page.

pro-tip:

pro-tip:

IMPROVE YOUR STORE’S SEARCHSearch is the #1 mobile browser activity. What leads to more searches on mobile? Auto-complete functionality and promi-nence of the search bar have been shown to increase searches on mobile.


Native mobile appsGOAL: Increase engagement and retention

TEST IDEAS: • Optimize usability. Mobile users are extremely

goal-oriented. To keep their attention, makeit as easy as possible for users to complete adesired task quickly and seamlessly. Try testingyour app’s onboarding experience and CTAsto ensure users are traveling through the appexperience in a quick, informative, and reward-ing way.

• Optimize UI. Users prefer apps that areboth functional and aesthetically pleasing.Optimization will help you strike the right bal-ance. Try testing the flow of your app to seehow users move from one task to the next andmake those transitions as seamless as possible.You can also experiment with the look-and-feelof your app – what designs do your users findthe most pleasing to engage with?

• Optimize performance and stability. Nobodylikes a buggy app! Optimization helps youdeploy new bug fixes and features to userswithout waiting on the app store review pro-cess. This means, when you find a bug, you canact quickly to resolve it.

Optimizing Your Mobile AppMobile users download apps to make thier lives easier

and with so many choices out there, they have pretty

high standards – especially when it comes to retail apps.

Optimizing key areas of your app experience will keep

users engaged and active at each tap along the way.

Focus on readability:You want users hear your

message loud and clear, and

with limited screen real estate,

that can be a challenge. Try

testing placement and size

of test, as well as the amount

of text overall. Oftetimes on

mobile, less is more.

Section

Section

Personalization for Online Retailers

3


75% of US customers appreciate when companies customize

messaging and offers to them, but most companies struggle to

achieve this in the digital space.

Approaching customers with a one-size-fits-all marketing

strategy is far from a best practice. Visitors to your website differ by

source, browser, purchasing habits, and other important attributes.

Personalization allows you to take all these factors into account

and serve up an experience tailored to each shopper.

How are online retailers creating tailored experiences?

Today, best-in-class online retailers deliver experiences that are

tailored to each shopper’s needs and preferences. Here are a few

places where personalization comes into play in online retail.

MERCHANDISING:Show shoppers different products and deals based on what they’ve previously purchased, where they are geographi-cally located, whether or not they have shopped with you before, etc.

EXAMPLE: A shopper from Fargo, North Dakota may see an offer for winter coats, while a shopper from San Diego, California may see an offer for bathing suits.

“There are so many opportunities on the horizon, from

mobile exclusives to geo-located offers to better filtering

and searching. We’ve only scratched the surface of what’s

possible with personalization.”

– Michelle Peluso, CEO, Gilt Groupe


MESSAGINGChange the content a user sees based on their unique needs and preferences.

EXAMPLE: A new visitor to your site may see a “Welcome!” headline, a description of your store, and an introduction to your company, while a returning visitor sees messaging about products they might be interested in, based on their past purchases.

LANDING PAGESTailor landing page content directly to each shopper based on their location, referral source, and more.

EXAMPLE: Paid traffic gets a more tailored landing page experience based on the keywords they searched for; traffic from an email campaign gets content that expands upon the email’s message.

OTHER AREAS TO PERSONALIZE: • Pricing structure• Search results• Sales and offers• Cross-sells and up-sells

Now that you know some areas where personalization works

best, let’s take a look at a few key segments that online retailers

commonly focus on. Understanding these segments will help you

decide how to best serve up tailored experiences on your site.


When optimizing your e-commerce site, audience segmentation

provides a framework for running intentional, well-hypothesized

experiments that drive value. Experiment data gathered from

specific visitor segments will help you to provide a more person-

alized, engaging experience. Here are a few examples of segments

all online retailers should be thinking about.

1. Visitor TiersEXAMPLES: Logged-in vs. Guest; VIP status; Repeat shopper vs.

First-time visitor

Loyal visitors don’t behave the same way as first-time visitors,

and should be treated accordingly. Once you have visibility into

their behavior on second visits and beyond, you can optimize the

experience of each segment.

2. Recent buyersEXAMPLE: Users that have (or have not) completed an order in the

last 30 days

A customer who purchased something several months ago could

be tempted to purchase a new product with a promotional code.

A customer who recently purchased might not need a special

promotion to purchase again, as they already have your products

top-of-mind.

7 Essential Customer Segments for E-commerce Optimization


3. Top purchasersEXAMPLE: Visitors with historically high cart values

While we’re on the topic of identifying visitors who have purchased

something from you before, what about those visitors that are

most valuable to you? According to RJMetrics, as little as 1% of your

customer base can spend as much as the bottom 50% combined!

These visitors are definitely worth your time and you want to make

sure that you’re optimizing their experience to the fullest.

4. LocationEXAMPLE: Shoppers in Europe; Shoppers in California; Shoppers

in Washington, DC

Break down your major visitor populations into key locations to

understand the differences in their behavior. Just as brick-and-

mortar retail companies are “going local”, you can (and should)

follow this same philosophy with e-commerce. The first step

is understanding which “local” markets you should tailor your

experiences to.

5. Source TypeEXAMPLE: Visitors acquired from Search; Visitors referred from

your email newsletter

Understand where your customers are coming from to make smart

decisions about how much to spend to convert these visitors and

whether you should tailor experiences to this particular segment.

For example, understand how visitors coming from search engines

are behaving compared to social media sites where you have a large

presence.


6. Device TypeEXAMPLE: Desktop; Mobile; Tablet; etc.

Mobile visitors already account for over a quarter of total web

traffic so understanding how your mobile visitors behave is

extremely important. You should have visibility into how each one

of your key conversion metrics is received by mobile traffic. To

take it one step further, you can create a custom segment to focus

specifically on tablets as a larger screen often encourages different

visitor behavior than mobile phone traffic.

7. Personalized DataEXAMPLE: Gender; Income; Style; Age; etc.

You’re probably already capturing and tracking specialized data on

your customers, whether you’re asking for it during the purchase

process or collecting the information based on visitors’ actions on

your site. This information is likely aligned to overarching goals of

your organization and its important to view your experiment data

from the perspective of these customer attributes.


ConclusionFor online retailers, Experience Optimization is an critical

component of a successful digital marketing strategy. Building

testing and optimization into your team’s workflow is a proven

method to increase revenue per visitor, average order value,

customer lifetime value, and a number of other important e-com-

merce metrics.

We hope this guide serves as a actionable starting point for high

impact tests on your retail website, mobile website, or mobile app.


ABOUT THIS GUIDE


Written By:Robin JohnsonContent Marketing Specialist

@robinmjohnson

Designed By:Jon SaquingCommunication Designer

@jsaq

Thank you to: Ural Cebeci & Cara Harshman

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The Ultimate Guide to Optimizing Your Online Storepages.optimizely.com/rs/optimizely/images/eBook... · The Ultimate Guide to Optimizing Your Online Store 2 Welcome, Retailers! While