Also, return on ad spend or ROI is a superior metric to conversion rate for measuring most online marketing efforts.

You can have a fantastic conversion rate, but if you paying to much per conversion, you won’t last long…

Interesting analysis of it all, and I’d have to agree. Perhaps their main benefit is that they don’t have to do Adwords or SEO, so those entering are already more qualified.

Their site architecture must work well for them as well, as their search feature does not have any form of spell checking enabled either, so you’ve gotta get it exactly right. But, it can’t be removed from them that this is a company evidently aware of selling products to people without them being physically present. Going from retail to the Internet often results in a fair number of myths as to what works, but their route and research results in some very interesting and valuable intellectual property.

Still, I think they could benefit from some Persuasion Architecture

Very good points, and I know what you mean. If they didn’t have an entire network dedicated to moving their products, I don’t think they would convert nearly as much as they do online. It’s not a brand that appeals to a very web-savvy demographic, so customers are also more likely to spend more time on the site to find the products they want. In other words, they’ve established themselves as THE place to get particular deals, so visitors dropping-off to pursue similar deals on other sites seems less likely.

Still, it definitely shows the power of strong mulit-channel planning. I’m sure they must be updating the site constantly to make sure that the products visitors see on the site match what they see on TV.

I’m sure that even QVC, at 16.8%, is leaving plenty on the table.

Their product descriptions and images, though, certainly make up for these points.

It’s definitely true that customer experience requires a lot of elements over a variety of customer touch-points. This is why we recommend our clients focus on improving their “overall conversion.” There’s plenty one can do from a tactical level to improve online conversion without improving the customer experience. But that’s not where the real money, or the real value, lives. I think Jim nailed it when he mentioned repeat purchases.

Besides, customers don’t care if they buy from you directly online, in a store, over the phone, or online six months after they first considered your product. It should feel like a continuous experience from their perspective. (Thanks for bringing up this point!)

Yet ProFlowers isn’t LL Bean… In other words, their brand has been built entirely online and entirely by word-of-mouth/mouse (someone please correct me if I’m wrong). To become the top-converting e-commerce site and engender so many repeat customers is a big deal for a new brand. To be remarkable, a brand has to transcend being just specialized and start being special.

I’m sure you’re right on both accounts. A common thread among them seems to be that they use either catalog, email or other multi-channel efforts to stay relevant to their customers. For instance, ProFlowers sends highly-targeted emails that help remind forgetful people (especially guys like yours truly) of birthdays, anniversaries, holidays and so on. Seems they always have a discount right when I need it. Coincidence?

Some might say I don’t buy enough flowers, but one thing’s for sure: I don’t buy flowers anywhere else.

Regardless, all of the sites on this list could do even better! We’ve even used some of them as examples of what not to do within certain contexts (image views for some LL Bean products, for instance). But this is exactly why companies need to figure out what’s best for their customers; to find their own “best practices.”

Also, repeat buyers are going to convert at a higher rate, yes? I bet if you looked into the customer bases of these companies you would find they also have some of the highest repeat buyer rates in the industry.