Cheat-codes for tomorrow’se-merchandiser (episode 1 of 7)

Attracting traffic to an e-commerce site is one thing. Converting it into sales is quite another. All too often, acquisition performance is still assessed through the prism of visitor volume or click-through rate, without any real consideration of the quality of the traffic generated. But a visit is only of value if it leads to real engagement and, ultimately, conversion.

In this first episode, we will look at why acquisition cannot be dissociated from the on-site customer experience. We'll explore the key indicators that enable us to measure the real impact of traffic, beyond the simple bounce rate, and how indirect conversions offer a more detailed view of the buying journey. Finally, we'll look at an often underestimated lever: the internal search engine, which plays a decisive role in retaining visitors and turning them into buyers.

Today’s visitors are tomorrow’s customers

Not all visits are created equal

The online retailer has one mission: to transform one-off visitors into customers.

Today, the most trusted KPI in terms of acquisition is too often still click rates or the volume of visits directed to the site. There is still a deep rooted belief that it’s enough to increase the number of visitors to a site in order to achieve a corresponding increase in sales. Unfortunately, a large proportion of visits are not qualified. A visitor may be there through simple curiosity ahead of a future purchase, or even simply a victim of “fat finger” - the accidental clicks that take place because of the way a mobile display is laid out. As an e-merchandiser, you have two analytics metrics at your disposal that will allow you to challenge your acquisition team about the quality of incoming traffic :

The first is the classic bounce rate. Instead of looking at this by landing page, the idea is to detect the level of engagement coming from different traffic sources. You will find this report in your Google analytics > Acquisition > Source/ Support > Bounce rate. The second is the Indirect Conversions Report which you will also find in Google Analytics, in Conversions > Multichannel Funnels > Indirect Conversions. Unlike the bounce rate, which only measures the entry into the conversion funnel, indirect conversions allow you to identify all the factors that contribute to a purchase. This KPI makes it possible to go beyond the basic «last click» reading to take into account the contribution made to your conversions by various traffic sources.

The on-site experience matters for customer acquisition. We know that it costs seven times more to win a new customer than to keep an existing one.

It’s not unusual to notice a big difference between the sales conversion rates of existing customers and those of visitors who have never made a purchase. Of course the rates vary according to sectors and business models, but we estimate that the average sales generated from existing customers is about 30% higher. Customer loyalty depends on a number of factors: brand image, loyalty programmes, the competitiveness of your prices, the uniqueness of your offer and how much work you’ve done on the ergonomics and UX of your site. Your search engine will also play an important role in generating customer loyalty. It is one of the pillars of customer experience and is crucial for the discoverability of your products. It is therefore worth considering whether customer loyalty can in fact also be measured by an increase in the use of your search engine. Can customer loyalty also be measured by an increase in the use of your search engine?

Cheat-Code 1 : Challenge your acquisition teams with KPIs based on the quality of traffic

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