Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: e-commerce, low hanging fruit, metrics, products viewed
I often get asked the question, “what is the lowest hanging fruit,” in terms of improving a given e-commerce web site. The answer obviously differs hugely from retailer to retailer – some seem to go out of there way to make their home and landing pages look like a Yahoo store, others make navigation more painful than abdominal surgery – but if I had to name a single universal bit of dangling deliciousness, I would point to the average number of products viewed per visit.
For virtually every online retailer, the products viewed number, like the overall site conversion rate, is just absurdly low. We count a product to be “viewed” when the shopper looks at some of the details of the product, so just seeing an image of the product doesn’t count. A typical average, even for a relatively good retailer, is two or three products viewed per visit.
Think about that for a second: you have a customer who typed a URL, clicked on a search engine link, responded to an email blast, or otherwise performed a proactive step to visit your site, and yet in all likelihood, she will actually look at no more than three products before leaving. Is it any wonder that overall conversion rates run 2 to 3 percent?
Clearly e-commerce sites have to find a way to put more products in front of shoppers in an easier and more compelling way. The passive electronic page metaphor just doesn’t cut it.
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Yes, and I think packing more products into a monumental scrolling grid is not the answer. Like you stated, this needs a simpler, easier approach. I’m all for grids as a way to structure content, but it’s amazing how unsatisfying it is to look at 50+ thumbnails per page all based on the same grid. How can customers tell the difference between the black basic jeans for $30 vs. the more tailored $200 black jeans in this format?
Comment by George December 3, 2008 @ 10:55 am