How many times does a customer visit a website before making a purchase?

Compared to three years ago the average shopper now has an additional 7 interactions with a brand before converting, according to new research.

The study, from Rakuten Marketing, indicates that shoppers are no longer making impulse purchases, with the average customer making 9.5 visits to a brand before buying.
This is an increase of 7 visits since January 2011, when shoppers visited just 2.5 times before converting.

With a recent survey from Deloitte showing that 95% of online sales are incremental to store sales, there is a clear importance in the industry today of providing an omnichannel experience to customers.

Seth Richardson, CTO at Rakuten Marketing comments: “Consumers’ confidence in the web means they move around very quickly between devices, channels and websites. They know what they want and understand how to find it, so are making more comparisons between retailers before taking the decision to buy.”

Over the last four years, the average number of channels used before conversion has also risen from 1.25 in January 2010 to 3.25 in 2014. Mirroring this trend, last Christmas John Lewis found that 1 in 3 of its click and collect customers purchased an additional item in store, and Tesco saw that 40% of grocery orders were created using more than one device. Clearly, consumers are no longer shopping just in store or only online.

Richardson continues: “Marketers now know that focusing on a single channel means missing the ‘modern shopper’ at crucial stages of the purchase journey. Certainly, there are operational challenges to achieve an omnichannel approach, but the real challenge is to accurately measure performance.”

Richardson adds: “Without effective measurement in place, brands can’t fully understand which of their campaigns are really working, and therefore how to spend their budgets wisely. With the right tools in place, marketers have the power to consolidate and clarify data, improving campaigns continually based on real-time responses.”

View some examples of retail best practice here:

Download the full whitepaper here: http://rakutenmarketing.co.uk/modern-shopper

According to recent research, an overwhelming number of consumers visit a brand’s website to do anything else but make a purchase – so why are sites so focused on first-time conversions?

Think about the last time you wanted to make an online purchase. When you visited the website, did you find and purchase the product you wanted straight away? The answer is most likely no – and the vast majority of people agree with you. 92% of us won’t make a purchase when we visit an ecommerce website. According to the same research, 45% of customers visit a website to research the product or service they’re after on their first visit, and 26% are simply there to compare prices.

If your customers aren’t likely to buy something on their first visit, how can you ensure that you get the sale in the end? It’s important to make sure that your website is one that people actually want to return to. A good customer experience is at the heart of all transactions, so websites must be easy to navigate, with a simple shopping and checkout process.

However, as customers are faced with more and more choice, a great site isn’t always enough. Knowing how people are using your website, and what they’re likely to come back for, can help to guarantee that final purchase. There are numerous web tools out there that will not only show you how long a user stays on a page, but where they scroll, where they hover and what they’ll click on. From there, you can work out what information you need to include – for example, would a reviews section help people to make a purchase?

It’s not just about having that insight on the page, either. Featuring rich, helpful content across a number of different mediums is vital to help customers convert. Think about the type of content you’re putting onto social media – instead of just shouting about offers, think about showcasing new and upcoming products and sharing news about products within your industry.

GAME, the video game retail chain, do this well, featuring short news blasts about different products in between various memes and videos. Posts that are specifically about a product they offer are actually in the minority, and the content they post encourages users to come back again and again.

Retargeting should also be an option, but used sparingly. This works best in tandem with an existing campaign, rather than simply pushing products onto your customers again and again. Retargeting people on social media is usually more effective than retargeting via display advertising, and often cheaper – as the ads are appearing in a trusted space, shoppers are usually more receptive to them. However, dropping prices in retargeting adverts should be avoided – if you continue to drop your prices, then that’s what customers will expect.

As per usual, the key to securing that sale is rooted in best practice. Focusing on your customer experience, while providing the best information possible, will help to push people past that first visit and back onto your site to make the final purchase.

Ready to take your e-commerce to the next level? Read on:

• 80% of shoppers shared Christmas ideas over dark social last year
• Craving mobile success? Time to banish the pop-ups
• A matter of influence: using video to finalise sales

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# Web Design, Digital Marketing, E-Commerce

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