Which Resources Drive the Most Traffic to Your E-Commerce Website?

With all the resources available to draw traffic to an ecommerce website, it is hard to determine where to put the most effort. The obvious answer is to choose the resources that result in the most website traffic and that have high conversion rates, but, which resources are those?

Monetate did some research and provided data about where ecommerce traffic comes from and how it is converted. The data was gathered during the first quarter of 2013. The full report can be downloaded here.

When it comes to direct ecommerce traffic, the report states that:

• 31.43% landed on an ecommerce website from a search engine
• 2.82% from an email and
• 1.55% from social media.

When this information is compared to the first quarter of 2012, note that traffic from email has decreased from 3.72% in 2012 and so has social media traffic, which was 2.36% in 2012.

This does not mean that social media is irrelevant for ecommerce. While social media may not bring a lot of traffic to a website, it still drives purchase decisions. Research from Google showed that instead of being a last interaction, social media often acts as an assist in the purchase decisions. Consumers often use social media in the early phases of the decision making process. With that said, focus on driving traffic using search engine marketing and use other marketing strategies to entice consumers across social media and with email.

Other statistics in relation to traffic and conversion rates were also included in the report form Monetate. When it came to conversion rates:

• email came in first with 3.19% 
• followed by search at 1.95% and 
• social media at 0.71%.

Looking at the same sources, the add-to-cart rates were as follows:

• 10.51% from when coming from email
• 6.81% from search and
• 3.24% from social.

And finally, average order value from each source was as follows:
• $96.32 when coming from search
• $83.72 from email and
• $72.31 from social.

Simply having an ecommerce website is not enough. With all the inbound marketing strategies available, and many of them for free, it is important to figure out what works for your business in order to consistently drive website traffic and sales.

How to Decrease Shopping Cart Abandonment and Increase Conversion Rates

One of the biggest elements of an ecommerce website is the checkout page. This is where conversions are finalized. So, what are some things that can be done to avoid shopping cart abandonment and to increase conversions?

An infographic created by Fifth Gear highlights some reasons why online shoppers bail on their purchases. The infographic can be viewed here. To highlight a few points:

•  44 % thought shipping costs were too high.
• 27 % wanted to shop around.
• 14 % did not want to create an account with the merchant.
• 11 % thought the checkout process was too complex.
• 7 % said their preferred method of payment was not available.

Taking these points into consideration, there are three key elements that you should consider when it comes to your checkout page and shopping cart abandonment.

First, always offer the option of guest checkout. Consumers view creating an account as an obstacle, which may lead them to bail on their purchase. Guest checkout also makes the process of making a purchase easier for them.

The second key element is to provide consumers with incentives for shopping at your store. These incentives might include free shipping, buy one/get one specials or percentage discounts. With ecommerce, consumers rarely have to pay full price for an item. Further, since the Internet makes everything so convenient, it is easy to shop around and look for a better deal. In order to ensure your customers purchase the items they place in their shopping cart, promotions are crucial.

And finally, make sure all information is clear to customers. This includes listing prices and shipping rates, clearly displaying security icons, showing error messages when a form is missing an important piece of information and a progress bar that shows the user how many more steps need to be completed. All this should be done with a simple, organized design scheme.

Implementing these strategies will help increase your conversion rate and decrease your shopping cart abandonment rate.

Are Your Social Media Strategies Helping You Drive Sales?

Social media is one of many digital marketing tools available to businesses. Further, many know that listing their business on these social sites and posting to them regularly is important; but, are you measuring your success rates to know if your efforts are worth it? A survey conducted by Vision Critical provided some statistics on how customers use Pintrest, Facebook and Twitter and how likely these customers were to make purchases either online or in-store. Some of the key points are highlighted below. For the full report, follow this link. The survey included almost 6,000 respondents.

When you look at usage of these three social networks, you will find that 15 percent of the population uses Pintrest, 73 percent uses Facebook and 24 percent users Twitter. Of those people, 29 percent of Pintrest users made a purchase after sharing or liking an item, 38 percent of Facebook users did that same and then last were 22 percent of Twitter users. Taking those statistics into consideration, it is important to discover which social media networks your customers use as different topics are popular on varying platforms.

The survey results showed that for do-it-yourself projects, recipes and fashion and beauty tips, users look to Pintrest. Facebook was most popular for human interest or funny stories and topics that fall under arts and entertainment are popular across all three platforms.

Survey results also showed that 21 percent of Pinterest users made purchases in-store, 22 percent online and 29 percent made purchases both in-store and online. When it came to Facebook, 30 percent of users made in-store purchases, 29 percent did the same online and 38 percent did both. Finally, with Twitter, 17 percent of users made in-store purchases, 18 percent made online purchases and 22 percent made both.

There is no question that consumers use social media to research products that they will either buy in-store or online.  The question to ask yourself is which platform will help your business draw the most sales. In order to figure this out, you will need to consider your industry, customer demographics and determine what it is they use social media for. Then you can work on earning your portion of social media generated sales and hopefully in time, grow that number.

In addition to detailed statistics about purchases in relation to social media usage, the report also includes questions to ask your customers that will help you determine how to make these social media networks work best for your business. To join the world of ecommerce so you are able to take full advantage of these social media platforms along with other digital marketing tools, visit our website to learn about our solutions. Azox develops ecommerce websites that integrate fully with Microsoft Dynamics GP. We also provide payment processing solutions and online bill pay.

Join Us For a Webinar in July

Our monthly webinars are next week. If you are interested in learning more about ecommerce, payment processing or online bill pay for Dynamics GP, be sure to sign up and attend! Register for webinars by following the links provided below.

Integrated ECommerce for Microsoft Dynamics GP
Tuesday, July 15
1:00 - 1:30 p.m. EST

Having an ecommerce website built on Microsoft Dynamics GP allows you to reach the global market and provides customers with the ability to shop any time, anywhere. Our solution features advanced search capabilities to help consumers find what they are looking for with ease. It also offers real time pricing and inventory information, a shipping calculator, one-page guest checkout and more. Attend this webinar to view a live demo of our solution in action.

Secure Credit Card Processing in Microsoft Dynamics GP
Wednesday, July 16
1:00 - 1:30 p.m. EST

No web store is complete without the ability to processing payments. Azox Credit Card Extension is a PA-DSS Certified solution that stores data securely offsite through the use of tokenization. This solution includes the ability to pre-authorize, post-authorize, sale, void and credit. Both credit card and ACH payments can be processed. Attend this webinar to learn more.

Advantages of Online Bill Pay for Microsoft Dynamics GP
Thursday, July 17
1:00 - 1:30 p.m. EST

Consumers are increasingly paying more and more bills online. Therefore, offering customers this option from your web store will provide them with a desirable and convenient tool. From your ecommerce website, customers will be able to log in and view, print and pay invoices 24/7/365. Attend this webinar to learn more.

Tools Used to Acquire E-Commerce Customers and a Look at Their Effectiveness

As an ecommerce business, what tools are you using that have helped you successfully obtain and keep customers? Custora did some research and created a report highlighting the most popular channels used to acquire customers along with which ones offer the best customer lifetime value, which is described in the report as “the future profit a company expects to earn from a customer throughout his or her relationship with the business.” The survey included 72 million customers from 86 U.S. retailers in 14 different industries and can be read in its entirety here.

The survey results show that the top channels used for acquiring new customers online are organic search, CPC (Cost Per Click), email marketing and referrals. It may be surprising to see email marketing at the top of the list given that so many of us receive and delete such messages on a daily basis, but according to survey results, since 2009, the amount of customers that ecommerce businesses have acquired using this tool has quadrupled. The other tools at the top of the list are no-brainers as most of us go straight to search engines to find the products and we are looking for along with reviews of those products.

Now, the tool used to acquire a new customer is important, but if it does not offer a strong customer lifetime value (CLV), is it worth it? According to survey results, customers acquired from organic search traffic have a CLV that is 54 percent above average, followed by CPC customers who have a CLV 37 percent higher than average and then those that become customers through email marketing have a CLV that is 12 percent above average. On the other hand, when social media is analyzed, customers acquired from Twitter have a CLV that is 23 percent lower than average and customers coming from Facebook have a CLV that is just one percent above average. Does this mean social media is a waste of time? Absolutely not; social media is a great tool that can be used to give a brand a personality and also gives customers an outlet for writing reviews or sharing testimonials.

There is no question that ecommerce will continue to grow. For some, doing business online can be a lot of work, therefore when it comes to digital marketing efforts, knowing what tools are most effective can help. Read the full report from Custora for a deeper look into the survey results.

Data Shows That Online Shopping Habits are Conducted Similarly on Mobile Phones, Tablets and Computers

It goes without question that consumers are using mobile devices more frequently for online activities. New data released by eMarketer shows that online shopping activities are conducted almost equally across computers, mobile phones and tablets.

The survey conducted included 180,000 web users in 31 countries. Results are reflective of the first quarter of 2013. Of those surveyed, 93 percent said to have been using a computer, either a desktop or laptop, during the last couple years. Further, 60 percent said that they used their mobile phone to access the Internet and 66 percent said they used a tablet to access the Internet.

When it comes to online shopping activities, the data showed that 68 percent of those using a computer used the Internet to search for a product or service to buy. Likewise, 61 percent of mobile users and then 60 percent of those using a tablet did the same. Of these consumers, 61 percent using a computer made a purchase online while 52 percent of mobile phone users and 52 percent of tablet users did the same. The percentage of Internet users that purchased services was a bit less with only 35 percent of computer users, 32 percent of mobile phone users and 37 percent of tablet users completing this activity.

Aside from buying habits, the research showed that 50 percent of computer users, 50 percent of mobile phone users and 52 percent of tablet users reviewed a product or brand online.

While Internet users still turn to their computer a small percentage more than to a mobile phone or tablet, the use of these technologies is on the rise. With that said, consumers will continue to demand websites that are friendly to their devices without limiting any functionality. Keep up with this trend and give your consumers what they want by creating a mobile-friendly ecommerce website.  For the entire article, which includes additional statistics, visit eMarketer’s website here.