Usable Sites Earn High Marks
Two high-performing sites, Honda and Kia, are found by J.D. Power to each focus on usability and allow shoppers to access information quickly and easily. As a result, both Honda and Kia perform well in each of the four measures examined in the study: speed, appearance, navigation and information/content. |
‘Edgy’ Sites Fare Worse
In contrast, some of the lowest-ranking websites use what J.D. Power identifies as an edgy, brand-centric design that put marketing goals ahead of meeting shopper needs. As a result, they perform particularly poorly in the appearance measure. Certain design elements on these sites hinder speed, ease of navigation and user access to information and content. Read more at www.marketingcharts.com |
The proportion of online retailers with mobile-tailored sites has tripled in the last year but still remains small, according to a new study. In its second annual mobile commerce audit, digital strategy firm Acquity Group found that 12% of the top 500 Internet retailers had sites optimized for mobile phones, up from 4% a year ago.
And despite all the buzz around mobile apps, the share of companies with downloadable mobile apps is only 7%, up from 2% last year. Only 5% had both a mobilized site and an app and only 2% had an e-commerce-enabled app. In terms of specific devices, 11% had apps for the iPhone — up from 1% last year — but few had ones geared to other smartphone platforms such as Android, Palm or the BlackBerry.
Only 12% of retailers had mobile sites that allowed customers to complete a transaction through checkout on at least one type of smartphone, and only 2% offered apps with check-out capability. Read more at www.mediapost.com |
Tying an online ad or piece of email marketing directly to a customized landing page that acknowledges the initial communication and has a specific call to action can improve lift by 40%, according to a survey by CrownPeak. |
| Product-specific advertising performed better than its holiday-themed counterpart, though many retailers still failed to direct the majority of ads to a clear consumer call to action. |
| 50% of product-specific advertisements linked either to a canned “search” or “category” page, or the website home page. |
| Some advertisers - primarily content aggregators - directed ads to specific landing pages, which then featured advertisements for other providers of the product.Read more at www.marketingcharts.com |
When mobile Internet users were asked to identify the top three elements that most influence their decision to return to a mobile Internet site, they reported: - The speed at which the site loads
- The ease of navigation on the site
- The quality of the content on the site itself
Among mobile Internet users, several small but telling differences were revealed when comparing smartphone owners to feature phone owners, says the report: - Both groups prioritized the speed at which a mobile site loads,
- Smartphone users looked next at the quality of the content, ranking ease of navigation as less important
- Feature phone users found ease of navigation almost as essential as their number one concern, how fast the mobile site loads.
Read more at www.mediapost.com |
The 2009 Omniture Online Conversion Benchmark Survey, conducted in July, reveals that most marketers miss opportunities to increase conversions. About 80% of the 1,000 online or interactive marketers responding to the survey do not serve up personalized content to Web visitors, not do they promote Web site content based on performance metrics. |
Forty-two percent of marketers participating in the survey spend less than five hours per week optimizing advertising media. Less than one-third frequently test online content. And 70% of the content decisions that appear on Web sites are made by one person, unsupported by data. |
| Your ads are often not selling the products that you designed them to sell. We have found that upwards of 48.38% percent of the time people end up buying a product different than the the one featured on ad they clicked on, and upwards of 11.28% of the time they bought a similar product, but not exactly the same product as the ad they clicked on. |
For each keyword and product combination we looked at, we placed them in to one of three buckets: Exact, similar and unrelated. “Exact” would mean they purchased exactly the same product or product category of the ad they clicked on. “Similar” would be if they looked for XYZ sleeping bag, but purchased ABC sleeping bag, meaning they still purchased a sleeping bag, but it was a different brand or model from their search. “Unrelated” represented when the users search had no relation to what they ultimately purchased.
After conducting this analysis, we found the following information:
Read more at searchengineland.com |
from Marketing Sherpa. Click the link to go to the full story and learn more about the top tactics | top three tactics to improve website conversions, as rated by nearly 1,500 ecommerce marketers |
| According to the latest Nielsen Global Online Consumer Survey of over 25,000 Internet consumers from 50 countries, recommendations from personal acquaintances or opinions posted by consumers online are the most trusted forms of advertising worldwide. 90% of consumers surveyed said that they trust recommendations from people they know, while 70% trusted consumer opinions posted online. |
| Forms of Advertising in Which Consumers Trust “Somewhat” or “Completely” (April, 2009) | | Advertising | Percent of Respondents Trusting | | Recommendations from people known | 90% | | Consumer opinions posted online | 70% | | Brand websites | 70% | | Editorial content (e.g. newspaper article) | 69% | | Brand sponsorships | 64% | | TV | 62% | | Newspaper | 61% | | Magazines | 59% | | Billboards / outdoor advertising | 55% | | Radio | 55% | | Emails signed up for | 54% | | Ads before movies | 52% | | Search engine results ads | 41% | | Online video ads | 37% | | Online banner ads | 33% | | Text ads on mobile phones | 24% | | Source: Nielsen Global Online Consumer Survey, April 2009 | Read more at www.mediapost.com
In a survey conducted by Jupiter Research for Bazaarvoice and richrelevance, 61% of reluctant shoppers said they could be positively swayed by online shopping resources.
The niches most affected by hesitation are:
- Automotive - 50%
- Travel - 46%
- Electronics - 43%
Consumers are shopping around and leaving their options open. 42% visited 3 or more sites to research their last purchase, and only 33% of online shoppers had made up their minds about the price they were willing to pay for their purchase in advance of going online to research.
That leaves some good wiggle room for sites and brands to compete. Before researching:
- 31% had made up their minds on which item or title to choose
- 23% knew which brand they wanted to buy
- 16% knew which store they would purchase from
- 13% knew when they would make their purchase
Once online, they trust the reviews and opinions of other consumers, so make sure your product offering is solid.
- 77% look to user ratings and reviews
- 66% use recommendations based on other consumers’ purchasing
- 65% use recommendations based on browsing behavior of fellow consumers
Read more at blog.searchenginewatch.com |
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Website Usability, Important Feature
