B2C
Top 10 Online Retailers by Conversion Rate: February 2008
Here it is, the list of February’s top 10 converting retail sites*…
1. Snapfish - 17.4%
2. Vistaprint - 16.8%
3. Lands End - 15.2%
4. ProFlowers - 15.2%
5. Lane Bryant Catalog - 14.7%
6. LL Bean - 14.7%
7. HSN.com - 14.6%
8. 1800flowers.com - 14.2%
9. ebay - 14.0%
10. Blair.com - 13.8%
Last month, I wondered if we would see any Valentine’s day influence to this month’s list. What do you think?
This is the first time we are seeing Snapfish and Vistaprint. I wonder if they are being tracked for the first time ever or did they do something to move the needle. LL Bean dropped from a 23.6% conversion rate that they had in January and December.
Which one of our readers will make it to the list next?
*Source: Nielsen Online / Marketing Charts
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Written by:Bryan Eisenberg
Top 10 Online Retailers by Conversion Rate: January 2008
Here it is, the list of January’s top 10 converting retail sites*…
1. LL Bean.com - 23.6%
2. J Jill - 19.8%
3. Proflowers - 17.8%
4. Office Depot - 17.8%
5. Drugstore.com - 17.3%
6. Coldwater Creek- 15.6%
7. CDW - 15.0%
8. Chadwicks.com - 15.0%
9. Bose.com - 14.9%
10. eBay - 14.9%
Several new sites made the list that we didn’t see in December, November, or October.
LL Bean tops the charts with an impressive 23.6% conversion rate. They had the same conversion rate during the holiday season. They must have had some great campaigns this month. (If you have screen shots, please let me know.)
I can’t wait to see those February results. I imagine we’ll see some influence from Valentine’s Day on retailers’ conversion rates.
. .
*Source: Nielsen Online / Marketing Charts
[Editor’s Note: Our original report on the top-converting sites for January 2007 mistakenly credited a previous year’s data. It seems a fellow blogger cited outdated numbers and we overlooked the error during fact check. Bryan stands by his analysis, however, as it was not intended to be time sensitive or bound to any particular retailers’ performance.]
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Written by:Bryan Eisenberg
Is Something Wrong With Your Design?
I’m still settling in from my trip last week to the Internet Retailer Design conference. If you didn’t attend, you missed a great first-time show, so you’ll have to check it out next year.
Over 800 people showed up to hear the speakers and meet with consultants (like me) to evaluate their current websites — and some even discussed mock-ups and prototypes of new versions of their sites. My back-of-the-napkin calculation is that Internet Retailer gave away around $150,000 worth of consultations, but I’ll ask you the one common question I asked several of the companies I met with just for the price of spending a few minutes reading.
What makes you think the new design you’re working on is going to work any better than the one you have today?
I recall sitting with one of the most recognized brands on the Web and him pulling out his mock-ups. They felt that they had issues around how products were presented and how their navigation worked. They offered a complex menu with way too many options in their current navigation, and were hoping to improve it by using a top level menu with a javascript rollover.
“What research do you have that indicates that new navigation will work better than the current one?” I asked. He was honest and said, “None.”
So why don’t you test it?
Internet Retailer did a pre-conference survey and asked the top 500 retailers if they’re doing multivariate or A/B testing, and included the results in their Website Design & Usability Guide.
Amazingly, 76.7% of retailers surveyed don’t test!
Huh? Now that you can get A/B and Multivariate testing tools for free from Google, why aren’t you testing?
We’ve also found that it’s safer to roll out a redesign in stages, in order to avoid the initial drop in conversion that often results from a redesign. Why not roll this out as a series of tests?
If you need help, call us at 877-643-7244 (ext. 3316). We’d be happy to help you make more money before and after your redesign.
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Written by:Bryan Eisenberg
Top 10 Online Retailers by Conversion Rate: An Analysis
[Erratum: The following report on the top-converting sites for January 2007 has been corrected, as it mistakenly references a previous year’s data. It seems a fellow blogger cited outdated numbers and we overlooked the error during fact check. Bryan stands by his analysis, however, as it was not intended to be time sensitive per se.]
Here it is, the list of January’s top 10 converting retail sites:
1. Proflowers.com - 14.1%
2. Coldwater Creek - 13.3%
3. FTD.com - 13.0%
4. QVC - 12.8%
5. Office Depot - 12.4%
6. eBay - 11.5%
7. Lands’ End - 11.5%
8. Tickets.com - 11.2%
9. 1800flowers.com - 10.0%
10. Amazon - 9.6%
[Source: Nielsen Online / Marketing Charts]
Only four of these companies were on December’s list:
(4) Amazon - 17.60%
(6) Lands End - 17.20%
(7) QVC - 17.10%
(8) Coldwater Creek - 17.10%
A big retail SIGH! If only people’s buying habits stayed consistent all year long, to be like they are in December.
My friend Craig provides an interesting analysis of this month’s numbers. He’s right on the money when he says:
There are many things most sites can do to dramatically improve conversion rates. There are also much smarter ways to measure and consider conversion rates than the overall site average. While that may be an interesting for conference-room conversation, it’s a lot more important to break down conversion rates by method-of-contact (email vs organic vs display vs PPC), based on the place in their buying cycle where visitors engage with you, or based on user intent as evidenced in their actions/expressions.
But then he tries to explain, then excuse, why small retailers supposedly can’t have a 10% conversion rate:
The message it seems is that if you need to deliver an overall conversion rate of 10% or greater, you need 30M registered users who buy from you 3-5 times per year, a 24-hour television channel, a pattern of inflicting back pain on innocent mailmen 3-4 times each year, or to sell products which are purchased as a result of some ages-old game of emotional blackmail.
Craig’s as smart as they come, but while offering an insightful analysis, he doesn’t nail the primary reasons. Then again, he hasn’t been focused exclusively on conversion for almost a decade, so allow me to shed some light: The number one reason the “average” small retailer hasn’t achieved a conversion over 10% is because they haven’t worked hard enough to deserve it.
Have you?
Oops! Have I tossed a turd in the punch bowl? (Don’t be offended, please continue reading.)
Several of the websites on this month’s list have been clients of ours and most of the others have staffs that I’ve known professionally for many years. What most of them have in common is they work harder consistently, year after year, at continuously improving their websites for customers than you (the average) do. Their results demonstrate it.
Let’s examine more carefully at some of the points Craig makes since, in one form or another, they are often repeated excuses that pass for the conventional wisdom about conversion rate optimization.
Catalogs Alone Are Responsible For High Converting Websites
It isn’t just having a catalog that gives you a high converting website. If it did, L.L. Bean that was on the list in December with a healthy 23.60% would show up the rest of the year. Lands End, however, has been on it in December, November, and September. Where are all the other thousands of catalogers? Why aren’t they making the list? A strong catalog brand can be a factor, but it isn’t always the primary driver of website conversion.
Television Home Shoppers Aren’t Auto Converting
I love it when Craig says, “QVC. What’s their conversion rate for TV viewers? Their website is functionally a cart, so it could be argued that they’ve got 86.2% cart abandonment.” Absolutely.
However, why doesn’t HSN (Home Shopping Network) or the other large DRTV advertisers show up consistently on the top converting list? While it’s true that many of these shoppers come pre-sold from watching the show hosts sell them the product, they aren’t arriving to the website in a hypnotic trance with credit cards in hand ready to click on that final order confirmation button.
Just Because People Replenish Staples Frequently, Doesn’t Mean…
Craig refers to OfficeDepot.com as having “many no-point-in-comparing products and I assume lots of business orders from people who have accounts and replenish online frequently.” So do Staples, OfficeMax, Quill, FreshDirect and many others. Why don’t they show up on the list? Again, while this might contribute to conversions it doesn’t guarantee a top converting website.
But You’re No Amazon
Craig’s right. Comparing eBay and Amazon to almost anyone today isn’t fair. Part of what helped these companies to become who they are is their commitment to the customer experience. They each had significant competitors but Amazon and eBay just kept pushing the bar higher. In the offline world, there are very few companies that could touch the retail influence of WalMart. Why doesn’t WalMart.com make the the top converting website list regularly?
Wal-Mart’s absence is simple enough to explain. Until recently, Wal-Mart hasn’t worked as hard online as they should have. Wal-Mart has been successful but, like other online retailers, sales volume online often covers up for all those customers that would have converted but didn’t.
Eliminate The Excuses
Do you have a road map to improve your conversion rate from where you are at today, then one to exceed that tomorrow, and then again after that?
FutureNow can help. I invite you to email or call us: 877-643-7244.
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Written by:Bryan Eisenberg
Top 10 Online Retailers by Conversion Rate: 12/2007
Some very interesting results for the top converting websites from the holiday season. Last month, I wondered who you thought would be the top 10 converting online retailers in December. One of our readers guessed Amazon would make an appearance on this list, and sure enough, here they are:
The Popcorn Factory - 29.50%
L.L. Bean - 23.60%
Abebooks - 20.60%
Amazon - 17.60%
Hollister Co. - 17.60%
Lands End - 17.20%
QVC - 17.10%
Coldwater Creek - 17.10%
Cabela’s - 16.80%
Gymboree - 16.00%
[Source: Nielsen Online / Marketing Charts]
From a quick review of this list, I sure hope the clothes were ordered one size larger with all that popcorn people have been eating. 
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Written by:Bryan Eisenberg
Top 10 Online Retailers by Conversion Rate: 11/2007
Coldwater Creek - 23.7
HearthSong - 21.9
Tickets.com - 20.1
Lillian Vernon - 20.0
Roamans - 18.9
Oriental Trading Company - 16.9
Urban Outfitters - 15.9
Lands End - 15.4
The Sportsman’s Guide - 15.3
QVC - 14.9
Source: Nielsen/NetRatings
These results are quite different than those from October and September.
Anyone want to take a guess who might appear on December’s list? Amazon? eToys? 1-800-flowers? Who do you think?
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Written by:Bryan Eisenberg
Top 10 Online Retailers by Conversion Rate: 10/2007
ProFlowers - 27.02%
1800flowers.com - 21.26%
Roamans - 18.87%
Blair.com - 18.68%
Bath & Body Works - 17.06%
Office Depot - 17.03%
Lane Bryant Catalog - 14.84%
eToys.com - 14.07%
QVC.com - 13.52%
Real.com - 13.32%
Source: Nielsen/NetRatings
Check these results with those from September and July.
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Written by:Bryan Eisenberg
Guarantee Holiday Sales
In cubicles and corner offices around the e-tailing world, eager marketers and merchandisers are cranking up for the 2008 holiday season, with visions of plump virtual shopping carts dancing in their heads.
Meanwhile, shoppers go about their lives. Time ticks. The burden of seasonal shopping grows bigger as the number of shopping days until Christmas gets smaller.
Each year the season seems to start earlier. Shoppers are faced with more choices than ever, and online retailers are getting savvier, offering better wares and new technologies all designed to increase sales, average order values, and conversion rates.
How can you get a leg up on competitors? How can you ensure visitors buy from you and not the guys and gals on the domain just a few clicks away?
One powerful tactic is the return/exchange policy point-of-action (POA) assurance.
With current economy concerns, gift buyers are likely to be more frugal than they were in 2006, and online retailers must address that reality.
Continue reading my column on ClickZ…
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Written by:Bryan Eisenberg
Top 10 Online Retailers by Conversion Rate 9/2007
1800flowers.com - 29.4%
Proflowers.com - 25.9&
Roamans - 21.4%
QVC - 19.7%
Talbots - 17%
Lane Bryant Catalog - 16.7%
LL Bean - 16.6%
Ritzcamera.com - 16.2%
Office Depot - 16.2%
Lands End - 15.7%
Source: Nielsen/NetRatings
Tell me why your goal isn’t a 10% conversion rate…
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Written by:Bryan Eisenberg
Top 10 Online Retailers by Conversion Rate 7/2007
I’m hoping this list helps you raise your expectations and goals:
ProFlowers - 31.7%
LaneBryant Catalog - 17.6%
Office Depot - 14.6%
Coldwater Creek - 14.3%
L.L. Bean - 13.3%
Eastbay - 13.2%
Lillian Vernon - 13.1%
Blair.com - 13.1%
Amazon - 12.5%
QVC - 12.3%
Source: Nielsen/NetRatings
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Written by:Bryan Eisenberg
