1: SMS Remarketing

This year we won at the MOMA Awards for our work with Firefly on SMS Remarketing. The stats below give an idea of just how effective SMS can be.

2: Which Days Have Most Abandonments?

Based on data from more than 1 billion abandoned carts, we know that Tuesday is the ‘worst’ day of the week for cart abandonment.

Fewest abandonments happen on a Saturday between 8 and 9pm, while abandonment is lowest around Christmas and similar sale periods, as people have less reason to delay purchases.

3: Add to Cart Rates by Device

Add to cart rates are highest on desktop and tablet devices (10.4% and 10.3% respectively). Overall conversion rates were 2.5% for Q3 2016.

4: Reasons for Cart Abandonment

Unexpected shipping costs, perhaps revealed late during checkout, are the number one reason cited for cart abandonment.

Other key issues include making customers register before they checkout, concerns about security, and confusing checkout design.

5: Cart Abandonment Rates by Sector

Abandonment rates vary by sector, with fashion retailers enjoying the lowest abandonment rates.

Relatively easy purchase processes and ease of return help here, and also explain why retail abandonment is lower in general.

Travel and finance abandonment is highest, partly due to the generally longer application processes, and perhaps the relative lack of digital maturity when compared to retail.

6: Sales by Hour on Black Friday and Cyber Monday

Using data from our clients, we had a look at sales and abandonments on Black Friday and Cyber Monday 2016.

The chart below shows sales patterns compare to a ‘normal’ shopping day, as well as the peak times for during the Black Friday weekend.

The peak period for completed sales was between 8 and 10am on Black Friday morning, while the second peak happened on Monday evening as the sales were coming to a close.

7: Why People Abandon Travel Bookings

Many travel bookings tend to be more considered purchases, with customers taking 45 days and visiting multiple sites before making a decision.

So the reasons for abandonment are different from retail. Indeed, the top two reasons are around research and price comparison while retail abandonment tends to be about checkout process issues.

This post originally appeared on the SaleCycle blog: Seven fascinating stats on ecommerce and cart abandonmentg, and is reproduced with permission. 

Indeed, every action a user takes within checkout carries a cost. This is sometimes referred to as an ‘interaction cost’.

Your customers will understand that a certain amount of information is required – to complete a transaction, to register etc.

However, it’s important to realise the drawbacks of being seen to ask too much of users. These are:

• Too many fields / pages in a form will lead a certain amount of users to abandon the process, costing lost sales and leads.
• People will also drop out if they encounter questions which they consider irrelevant. For example, they may wonder why their date of birth is needed to order a kettle.
• Even if people complete the form, if it felt like hard work to them, they may be less likely to make repeat purchases.

ClickZ and fospha will be hosting a webinar on this topic, How to optimize your forms for maximum success, on 15th November. We also have a free white paper to download: A Marketer’s Guide to Form Optimisation.

In the meantime, let’s take look at how much information is too much information.

The Question Protocol

How do you decide which fields are necessary and which can be left out? For this, the Question Protocol, (as explained by Lovehoney’s Matt Curry in our recent Ecommerce Checkout guide) is very useful.

It’s a way to decide which fields are actually important to the process, and which are unnecessary. It also has the benefit of keeping company politics away from decision making.

For every question you ask during checkout, ask the following:

• Why does the business need this information?
• Who uses the information and what for?
• Which users need to provide the information?
• How will the business check that the information is accurate?
• How will the business keep the information up to date?

Matt adds a follow-up question: How frequently is the information provided by users? If people aren’t bothering to complete a particular form field, then why include it?

An example of this is the field many sites still use, asking people where they heard about the business in the first place.

Yes, this may have been useful to the marketing department so they can tie a visit into a particular press or TV campaign.

However, most of the answers to such questions can now be found in analytics. If a customer came from an email campaign, or through search, then the figures are there to see.

Moreover, and especially when presented in long drop-downs as above, users will frequently ignore this field. Or, if forced to complete it, they may not take it seriously. I tend to pick the first answer just to get past it.

All of which means that the information may not actually be useful in the end anyway.

Other examples of unnecessary form fields include date of birth and gender. These are not required to complete checkout, though they may be of use to the marketing department.

ASOS, for example, asks for a date of birth. It does at least explain why, providing an incentive for people.

Perhaps this works for ASOS. It could be that the marketing benefits of such information outweigh the potential abandonments. However, businesses should be aware of the risks when adding extra fields to checkout.

You can sign up for the form optimization webinar here. It takes place on 15th November. 

For example, forms on travel and financial websites have to be longer than most by necessity.

Long forms like this can be off-putting for users as they can give the impression that the process is going to be time-consuming.

For example, 13% of users abandon bookings on travel websites because the booking process is too long or overcomplicated.

So how can forms be made more palatable for users?

The look and feel of the form

It can be about the customer’s perception of the form. If it looks like hard work, people will assume it is. This is one of the reasons why some websites use one-page or accordion checkouts, as even though they require the same amount of information as other sites, they can seem like less work.

One way to do this is by breaking up the form into more manageable segments. For example, Confused.com requires a lot of information for a car quote – job details, no-claims details, previous claims etc – but it does help to make it seem less work by breaking it up into sections.

Remove any unnecessary fields

One way to reduce form length, as previously mentioned, is to remove any unnecessary fields. Ask whether the information you need is really necessary to complete the process.

For example, the ‘how did you hear about us?’ fields in some web forms are just extra work for many. I doubt whether many people even take them seriously. Besides, analytics and other customer data sources should help you find the answer to this question.

Make data entry easier

There are ways to make things easier for users, simply by designing the forms more effectively.

Here, Confused.com opts for buttons rather than drop-downs for most fields. Also, on the occupation question, rather than making me choose from a list of job titles, it suggests roles as I type. This saves a lot of time.

Add shortcuts where possible

Small touches like allowing users to use delivery address details as their billing details help, and are now commonplace. Postcode lookup tools can also save time entering full addresses.

In-line validation

Well-implemented form validation assures that customers can correct any errors as they go along.

This saves time, as well as the frustration that results when customers attempt to move on to the next stage of the form, only to find they have errors to correct.

Here, HSBC presents a tick to confirm that some fields have been entered correctly, and clearly highlights those that need attention. (Taken from the Mapa Research guide to financial forms).

Show time estimates for form completion

Some forms provide an estimate of the time it will take to complete a form.

It could be argued that this will deter some, but I think it’s good to be upfront and give users an accurate estimate.

Here, Lloyd’s provides an estimate before customers embark on its forms. (thanks again to Mapa).

Save user details if they abandon

Where possible, saving user details already entered can really help. Perhaps they could save it to come back to later, or in case users bail out during the form.

Here, Confused.com tempts me back to the form I’ve abandoned with an email reminder. It also reassures me that it’ll only take five minutes.

Think about mobile

Mobiles are increasingly used for travel bookings, so sites need to cater well for mobile users, making forms readable, and adapting to the user’s device of choice.

Here, Hotels.com ensures that a) the calendar tool is easy to use (a common issue on mobile) and b) adapts for the kind of information required, so it shows the numerical keyboard for card entry (note that it also offers card scan for greater convenience).

Our new Marketer’s Guide to Form Optimisation, produced in association with Fospha, is free to download. 

To coincide with our new Marketer’s Guide to Form Optimisation, produced in association with Fospha, I’ve collated some examples of great form design, or aspects of forms that are worth learning from.

Schuh: easy address entry

Schuh uses this predictive postcode entry tool on its checkout, which suggests matching addresses as you begin to type them in.

This has two benefits:

1. The customer doesn’t have to spend time typing out their whole address.
2. It reduces the risk of making mistakes and subsequent delivery problems.

Threadless: use of micro copy

Some form fields can create confusion among customers, perhaps due to uncertainty about entry formats, or the information required.

This can often be solved with some explainer text placed next to the relevant form field.

Here, Threadless clearly explains what it expected in terms of card entry, and clarifies the security code format for different card types.

AO.com: easy input formats for mobile users

While form entry is always likely to be a little more difficult on mobile devices, thanks to a smaller screen, there are ways to use the features of smartphones to make it easier.

For example, AO.com defaults to the most appropriate mobile keypad depending on the type of data required – numerical keypad for phone numbers, email keypad for email addresses, and so on.

Booking.com: card scanning on mobile

Booking.com and other sites provide a card scanning option which uses the smartphone camera to shorten the process of entering payment details.

Moneysupermarket: addressing questions about form fields

Here, Moneysupermarket provides useful information next to many form fields which explain why some information is needed and how it will be used.

Autoglass: clear error messaging

Error messages should be clear and helpful. They should also be placed next to the relevant form field.

Lowe’s: offer registration at end for guest checkout

Guest checkout is an essential option for most retailers but it’s also important to encourage customers to create an account. The key is to avoid making it a barrier to purchase.

Here, Lowe’s presents this option at the end of checkout, and is only asking for the creation of a password.

Reiss: explaining why information is required

Some sites ask for information which some may not consider to be necessary for checkout. For example, some may wonder why a phone number is required, and worry that it will be used for marketing purposes.

Here, Reiss reassures customers that it will only contact them if there’s an issue around the order.

Selfridges: clear CTAs

Sites  shouldn’t leave users in any doubt about where they need to click to complete or move on to the next step of forms.

Selfridges makes sure that the CTA for delivery is clear and unmissable on a mobile device.

The report, A Marketers Guide to Form Optimisation is available to download free of charge now. 

The second annual State of Amazon study by BloomReach found that 55% of consumers start their online product searches on Amazon, compared to 28% who opt for a search engine.

The survey of 2,000 US consumers found that Amazon’s share of the action was up 11% year on year, and the figures down for search engines and other retailers.

The retailer’s reputation for price-competitiveness, (as well as the fact that it sells just about everything) means it’s the go-to destination for comparison shopping.

• 90% of consumers will check Amazon even if they’ve found their product elsewhere. 78% of these shoppers do this ‘often’ or ‘always’.
• It works both ways though, with 70% checking products they’ve found on Amazon on other ecommerce sites.  

Mobile shopping habits

The study also looked at shopping habits on mobile devices. Amazon still dominates here, but less so than overall.

• 50% of mobile shoppers try Amazon first, compared to search engines on 34% and other retailers on 16%.
• 76% of consumers shop on their smartphone, with 90% saying that they’ve made a purchase on a smartphone.
• Almost 50% shop on a smartphone weekly. 
• 92% say smartphone shopping can influence a purchase decision, while 52% say smartphone shopping often or always supports a purchase.
• 88% will use a smartphone to assist shopping in stores.
• 78% have a retailer mobile app, and 82% of those have a retailer app that isn’t Amazon’s.

These figures will of course be a major concern for competitors, as the risk is that many product searches begin and end on Amazon before they even have a chance to appeal to shoppers.

Jason Seeba, BloomReach head of marketing, says search still has a major part to play:

“While online retailers increasingly feel the pinch, search engines still play an integral part of commerce strategy. This study highlights that just because consumers start on Amazon, that doesn’t mean they ultimately buy from Amazon. Instead, they’re often comparing and researching products on search engines and other retailers.”

It can be a major challenge however, with constraints on time and so many sources of information to choose from. It’s easy to see why many senior executives simply don’t have the time to perform the detailed research tasks necessary to make sense of all this information.

It’s important to overcome this challenge though, as things can move so quickly and being on top of trends is key for executives.

It’s also very important to ensure that the whole company is also up to date. For this, executives need to become the thought-leaders within their own organisations, disseminating ideas and providing inspiration for ideas to develop.

Simply distributing updates isn’t enough though, effective thought-leadership is also about engaging people, adding value, and encouraging people to take new perspectives.

It’s also important to consider the best channels to distribute information to achieve the greatest effect and to encourage people to share and discuss.

Nick Gregg, CEO of EditorEye, on the best approaches:

“Two approaches work in organisations, email and collaboration. Email is still the most effective channel to reach your audience, using mobile-friendly curated briefings but keeping this to just a few key stories, and being careful to avoid overload.

“Collaboration is also key. At its simplest this means making it easy to share articles or alternatively central applications or apps for posting and commenting on content. Either way, getting to the right insights is vital.”

Ensuring that the right processes are in place within an organisation matters here. Emails are useful but can also be easily overlooked in busy inboxes. This is why it’s important to ensure that the collaboration happens, and that ideas sent through in emails are digested and discussed.

This is another important role that the thought leader has to play. It’s not just about disseminating ideas but also about ensuring that real debate takes place around these themes and that, ultimately, information is translated into ideas and actions.

New technologies and innovations can quickly sweep away well established and seeking solid business models within just a few years. There are plenty of such examples from the digital age, Blockbusters and Kodak to name just two.

In the latter case, Kodak failed to adapt to the growth of digital photography and the concurrent decline of photographic film, and a company which had traded for more than 100 years was forced to file for bankruptcy.

Blockbuster, which had itself been a disruptive company which saw the growth in home video and build a very successful business around this from the 1980s, failed to see the decline of video and DVD and the potential for online video.

It failed to adapt to the change and has fallen by the wayside while players like Netflix (which it famously passed up the chance to buy) dominate the same space today.

To underline the pace of disruption in this digital age, consider this fact: just 12% of the Forbes 500 from 1955 still existed in 2015.

So how can businesses remain relevant to their customers in these circumstances? The answer is to do what Blockbuster and others failed to do, and to adapt and innovate to survive.

The impetus, and thought leadership behind this needs to come from executives. They should lead from the front, and encourage their teams to think progressively and kick start innovative thinking within the business.

This isn’t thought leadership as it’s often understood: a kind of self-promotion practised in guest articles and conferences, but rather actually inspiring people within a business with innovative ideas and practical steps to turn these ideas into reality.

According to Editor Eye CEO Nick Gregg:

Thought leadership is a powerful way to inspire people both inside and outside of your company. Telling a credible story around a macro shift in your industry using real-life disruptive examples or insights builds authority and a consistent view across your team – driving innovative thinking and alignment on how the team needs to adapt to meet future client needs.

The challenge for executives, the Heads of Digital, Marketing Directors, Directors of Strategy and so on is to remain up to date with trends and developments in fast-moving industries when they already have so many demands on their time, stretched budgets and different priorities.

This has to be overcome for businesses and their executive teams though, as the ability to remain on top of events and how innovation and technological changes have the potential to affect their markets and clients is increasingly important.

The next stage is how executives can become the thought leaders within their organisations and find and disseminate key information to help them and their stay of top on events.

Five to ten years ago, after the release of the first iPhone and before the widespread adoption of responsive design, there was a genuine decision to be made between apps and mobile web for retailers.

For a time, before Apple’s rivals got their acts together, mobile web essentially meant iPhones. In turn, this meant that having a mobile commerce app was a real alternative to a mobile website, and could deliver a better user experience in many cases.

Now things are different, and few would argue that an app should be an alternative to a mobile web presence, but rather whether retailers should have an app as well.

In this article I’ll look at the stats, as well as the arguments for retailers building mobile apps to complement their mobile web presence.

Mobile web vs apps: the stats

Recent comScore stats revealed that, in five of the top European markets, the mobile browser is more popular than the app for shopping. 

A US Forrester/RetailMeNot survey (PDF) (August 2015), found that 43% of respondents had purchased by mobile browser in the previous quarter compared to just 30% who had purchased by app.

These stats suggest the mobile web is ‘winning’ but they don’t necessarily tell the whole story.

Indeed, in the UK, just 32% of retailers have mobile apps, while many more have mobile-friendly sites. So, many customers simply don’t have a choice between apps and mobile web, depending which retailers they choose to shop with.

Stats from a recent Criteo report show a different perspective. It finds that apps account for 54% of mobile sales among its clients, ahead of 46% for mobile web.

The conclusion to draw here is that, while mobile web will always win for volume of traffic, apps can compete on sales and transactions.

Or, to put it another way, mobile app users buy more.

Why might app users buy more?

There are a few possible reasons, mainly around the ability to store customer data and tailor the experience for users.

1. Loyal, repeat customers are more likely to download apps

Apps allow retailers to provide a better, more personalised experience for their most loyal customers.

These loyal customers are also the most valuable in terms of revenue for many retailers. It can pay to provide an app that enhances the shopping experience for them.

For example, I use the Majestic Wines app regularly as it records my purchase history and preferences. So I know which wines I’ve enjoyed when I need more.

I’ve never actually shopped direct from this app, as I tend to head to the local store, but it still adds value for me as a loyal customer.

Apps target these loyal customers and enable retailers to target this segment more effectively.

2. Data and personalisation

Apps can be great from a data perspective, as Olly Cooper, Co-Founder of Bijou Commerce explains:

“Apps can provide a wealth of data, and this can be extremely valuable in terms of product popularity, and also for understanding individual customers and providing a personalised shopping experience.

The level of data acquired through an app allows retailers to adapt and improve their service in real time. We know that personalisation drives sales, and an app is uniquely able to fulfil this.”

3. Ease of purchase

A well-designed mobile-friendly site should make purchase, and checkout, as smooth as possible.

However, saved payment and address details on apps can make the checkout process that much easier as customers will simply need to enter a username and password in many cases.

4. In-app notifications

Apps also have the functionality to send push notifications to users, informing them of special offers, new products, and generally prodding them to make a purchase.

It works too. A study by Netmera (2015) showed that push notifications increased the number of orders by a massive 180%.

According to Olly Cooper:

“The ability to send personalised offers that will be almost immediately seen by customers, with a track record of success, is a feature that singlehandedly proves the value of apps.”

5. Customer experience

Helen Colclough, Ecommerce Development Manager, River Island:

“Customers perceive native apps to be a cleaner shopping experience, more trustworthy when they consider signal speed or security and an easy way of quickly accessing their favourite retailer’s digital channels in comparison to the mobile web.

Apps are the new browser bookmarks, email newsletter, credit card AND shopping list. Habitual usage of your app both in store and online is the Holy Grail of the engaged returning customer and absolutely worth pursuing.”

So, do retailers need apps as well as mobile-friendly sites?

The answer to this question will depend on the retailer in question. Many will consider that just having a responsive or some other mobile-friendly site will be enough.

It may be for some, but retailers should at least consider the potential benefits of apps, as Olly Cooper explains:

This decision needs to be regularly reassessed, based on the changes surrounding the mobile and retail industries, competitors, and of course the individual situation of each business.

It may be more of a challenge to achieve app downloads, but ultimately, once you’ve managed to claim that real estate, the investment starts to pay off.”

One example of this is the Missguided app. The retailer recently decided to release an app, and so far it’s working.

Nitin Passi, founder and CEO, said:

The revenue run-rate of the Missguided shopping app went from zero to £30m within just four months of the app launch… the app now makes up 13% of our online revenue.”

There are potential downsides to apps. Retailers need to account for development costs, while it can be a challenge to get your app on customers’ smartphones, and to get them to use them regularly.

For this reason, apps may not be for everyone but it would equally be unwise to dismiss them altogether.

Apps can be great tools for improving customer retention, and they allow retailers to be more device-specific than the mobile web allows. Essentially, this allows retailers to tailor the customer experience more effectively and provide some of their most valuable customers with a better all-round experience.

Over on ClickZ Intelligence, we have some detailed best practice reports on m-commerce. These are:

• DNA of a Great M-Commerce Site Part 1: Planning
• DNA of a Great M-Commerce Site Part 2: The 12 Pillars of Mobile Design

It featured speakers from Accenture, Forbes, Intel,  M&C Saatchi Mobile and keynotes from Aston Martin,  Pandora, Walmart and Nitin Mangtani.

Here’s a collection of tweets from the event, with some great stats and insights…

Watching @astonmartin CMO give an awesome talk @ #CZLSF. Learned if you buy one they invite you to the factory to watch it get built. Crazy.

— Adam Singer (@AdamSinger) August 30, 2016

46 times a day. That’s how many times the average American checks their mobile phones each day. How often do you check? #CZLSF

— Stacey Jaffe (@staceyjaffe) August 30, 2016

A much anticipated talk from Heidi Browning from #Pandora giving invaluable #insights at #czlsf #marketing #mobil… pic.twitter.com/pi2Ejg0HPb

— Kevin Steineman (@KSteineman) August 30, 2016

In 2014 mobile surpassed desktop users and now more time spent on media than sleeping #CliczIntelligence #CZLSF pic.twitter.com/S2P7LzgXnm

— AdSpots (@AdSpotsInc) August 31, 2016

“The customer journey is no longer linear” says @LinusGreg #CZLSF pic.twitter.com/IXjNYFFKWF

— Gabriella Khorasanee (@MissGDK) August 31, 2016

Why #consumers delete #mobile #apps. Important #uxdesign considerations to improve #customerretention. #CZLSF pic.twitter.com/bM1YCqyyJP

— HERO (@MarketingByHERO) August 31, 2016

Using schema markup on your reviews? Make sure your reviews were generated on YOUR site, not syndicated from others! #seo #CZLSF

— Thom Craver (@thomcraver) August 30, 2016

Yay for marketers, sad for tired people: “More time spent on media than sleeping” says @LinusGreg #CZLSF

— Gabriella Khorasanee (@MissGDK) August 31, 2016

Need to know what the customer wants, and be able to deliver to them through technology –@KevinKrone @SouthwestAir #WednesdayWisdom #CZLSF

— Carly Ferry (@CRLYFRRY) August 31, 2016

1/5 minutes spent on #mobile is on #facebook or #instagram #clickzlive #czlsf #czsf pic.twitter.com/PgUFZyS8Ss

— Kevin Steineman (@KSteineman) August 30, 2016

challenges @astonmartin when trying to integrate w/ diff functions. ->It happens to all companies. #CZLSF pic.twitter.com/HBKUiyfVCb

— Pam Didner (@PamDidner) August 30, 2016