I hope you were able to join us for yesterday's Web Clinic on optimizing eCommerce websites. It was a lively, actionable session and we were sifting through attendee comments all morning.

(NOTE: Subscribe to our free MarketingExperiments Journal and you'll be notified by email when our Web Clinic content is posted online.)

Our optimization experts -- Flint McGlaughlin, Jimmy Ellis and Aaron Rosenthal -- plowed through a series of research-tested concepts, best practices and pitfalls to avoid with eCommerce sites and landing pages. They also performed a rapid-fire review and critique of five eCommerce websites submitted by our Journal subscribers.

We'll break out some of those sites and the specific recommendations in future blog posts. And if those sites apply the ideas, perhaps we'll get some new success stories.

Meanwhile, one key takeaway was the idea that eCommerce site visitors fall into two main categories: Hunters and Browsers.

Hunters already know what they want, and are looking for a quick, safe transaction, while Browsers need more convincing and a different approach to prompt them to make a purchase.

To be most effective, an eCommerce site must address the motivations and thought processes of both audiences, and take them both into account when developing pages, site paths and conversion funnels. That's the foundation that should be in place before the real fun starts with page elements and design using weighted objectives.

Keeping those two audiences in mind, here are five questions that will help to frame optimization efforts for eCommerce site pages:

1. Which type of visitor -- Hunter or Browser -- is this page trying to serve? (Consider the channels and traffic sources.)
   
2. What are the weighted objectives of this page?
   
3. How does this page stop the visitor and connect with them?
   
4. Does this page instantly communicate my Business Value Proposition to visitors?
   
5. How does this page attract my visitor deeper into my product mix as it relates to the weighted objectives?

When a site or page has these fundamentals locked in, it's much easier to determine a baseline for success, test changes to increase conversions -- and measure the results. Try these questions with your own eCommerce page and let us know what you think.

Want to have your website or landing pages optimized by our experts? Just sign up for the MarketingExperiments Journal. You'll stay apprised of all our upcoming Web Clinics and have the chance to submit your site for a live optimization.

(See optimized version, right, and earlier version, below.)

"Giving your suggestions a chance to show results, I waited sixty days since rebuilding the site following your webinar participants' helpful comments," Eric said. "Conversion rate rose from 3.9% to 6.6% (30-day results)."

"I should also point out that we took the opportunity to target our paid-click advertising on those keywords which were more relevant -- and cut out those which were not productive. That reduced our ad spend by 60% yet increased conversion 200%.

"In conclusion, design and delivery of the message is foremost and many websites would benefit from your work -- I highly recommend you for that."

You can click here to read our brief containing the recommendations Eric received. It also includes the extensive guidance five other sites received at the same clinic.

You're also welcome to join our next free Web Clinic on May 7. Our optimization experts will be reviewing eCommerce websites, making specific recommendations, and answering audience questions. If you haven't participated in one of our live optimization clinics yet, what are you waiting for?

You don't want to pass up the chance for a double-digit increase in conversions, do you?

But while copywriters are focusing on snappy offer language, and designers are worrying about typefaces and buttons, information graphics (like a comparison matrix) can get lost in the shuffle. So does the ROI that these page elements can help produce.

Our sister company, MarketingSherpa, recently reaffirmed this with a test.

By adding a comparison matrix (see image) to underscore the benefits of membership, Sherpa increased free trial subscriptions by 76%.

Testimonials to the right of the new chart and below the call-to-action also reinforced the facts, demonstrated the value of a membership, and helped relieve anxiety.

Why did a simple matrix table get such a dramatic response - especially when its length increased the amount of friction on the page? Because the eyes and mind process the comparison much faster than if the information was written out in copy.

Scan the matrix and the thought process goes something like: "OK, non-members get this. Members get all that. Wow, that's a lot more good stuff for members. Seems worth it to me. And this is a free trial? Let me get my credit card. . . ."

When potential customers are in a hurry, weighing their options and facing a decision, the best thing your transaction pages can do is make their choice easy, comfortable, and fast.

Tony Vacarcel, Marketing Optimization Manager for MECLABS, contributed to this blog post.

We just received confirmation of a 133% increase in conversion for a recently completed test.
It's one of hundreds of positive results we’ve seen by testing “calls to action” but only the second time we’ve seen it happen “on accident” while we were running a basket recovery test.

Here’s the setting. . . . We have a subscription based site with a free trial that we have been testing for months. There have been quite a few significant bumps up in conversion and we had yet to run a basket recovery test which has been a never-fail winner in terms of increasing conversion through recovering lost subscribers. The setup for the test was simple: just add an email capture field to the current call to action, give the customers a reason to enter their email address, and follow up with a friendly customer service email if they do not complete the sign-up process.

Typically, adding the email capture field has a negative impact on direct conversion (people signing up on their initial visit) but you make up for it plus some with the basket recovery emails that follow up if they leave the site before completing.

Here is a very typical set of results:
Conversion before basket recovery: 1.21%
Conversion after basket recovery (but before recovery emails sent): 1.09%
Conversion after basket recovery (after emails sent): 1.45%

Most companies would gladly take a 10% hit in direct conversion for a 20% increase in overall conversion. In this test, the results were drastically different and counter intuitive.
Instead of direct conversion decreasing a little, it more than doubled. It’s a rare case where adding friction and anxiety with the email capture field actually increases conversion.

Here are the results:
Uniques to offer page without email capture: 32,782
Free trial sign-ups without email capture: 222
Conversion: .68%
Uniques to offer page with email capture: 30,479
Free trial signups with email capture: 480
Conversion: 1.57%
Increase 133%

If you are scratching your head saying, “Add an email capture field next to my call to action and my conversion will go up,” it’s not quite that easy. We’ve had precisely this same result at least one time before, so let me spell out the similarities so you can determine if you should test this with your own site. An ideal site for this test (one that would most likely get a positive result):

• Is monthly subscription based
• Offers a free trial (or a solid money back guarantee)
• Uses longer copy-style pages where the call to action is typically at the end of the content
• Has a relatively low monthly cost (both are under $30 monthly)
• Is currently using a button or text for their call to action (not a form).

We did not think we would get this result from the actual changes in the call to action. It was totally unexpected. When you are running call-to-action tests with your own site, it’s essential that you test variations that are counter intuitive and just keep testing. We stumbled upon this one, but some of our greatest improvements have been because of precisely the same thing: We were testing for one thing and instead got a result from another that was unexpected.

P.S. If you run this test or have run a similar test in the past with little or no results, let me know and I may be able to take a look and make a few suggestions. Just make a comment.

We’re all familiar with friction as the force that tends to slow down moving objects. The amount of friction an object experiences is a factor of the medium through which it is moving. Well, we can think of the movement of visitors through the purchase process of our websites in much the same way.

As a visitor moves through the buy process of a commercial website, the experience can be characterized by anything from a smooth and seemingly effortless progression from offer to “Thank you,” to that of a frustrating, confusing and exhausting death march ending in order abandonment. The difference lies in Sales Process “Friction.”

Friction, in this sense, does not exist on the webpage, but rather in the mind of the consumer, and is defined as Psychological resistance to a given element in the sales process. Of course the greater the Friction experienced by the visitors, the lower the probability of conversion.

The good news is that, among the factors that determine conversion probability, Friction is among the easiest and cheapest to fix. And efforts to reduce Friction often pay off with a disproportionately high return in conversion rate increase.

There are two primary types or components of Friction and for each there are some simple and inexpensive methods you can use to make them as small as possible for your product and your sales process.

In the recent MarketinExperiments research brief “Landing Page Optimization Tested: Big Conversion Gains from a Little Scissors & Grease”, we explored the nature and principles of Sales Process Friction in detail, using case studies with four different companies across different industries, and revealed specific ways that you can apply those principles to increase conversion for your own web pages.

Then, to see how Friction fits into the big picture of website conversion, you can visit the MarketingExperiments Journal website and explore the full Site Conversion collection of research briefs (categories in the left navigation bar), or consider taking either of the Landing Page Optimization professional certification courses for the most structured, in-depth and comprehensive coverage available.

By Gaby Diaz
Strategy Analyst,
Marketing Experiments

The home page is probably one of the most complicated pages of any website. It is the face of your company, the starting point of sales, a way to connect visitors to customer support or your corporate site.

Many companies struggle with their home page design. Usually, home pages are managed by more than one department. This results in internal battles of what goes on the home page and what department owns what space. But, what do customers want? Is the design friendly and effective enough to capture sales?

When designing or re-designing your home page, here are a couple of thumb-rules you should consider:

• The header and footer. These two sections are usually devoted to company information. In the header, Internet users expect to see company logo, search tool, and links to login, shopping cart, and customer support. In the footer: links to corporate site (“About Us”, “Careers”, etc), contact information, policies, advertising options, a site map, and help.
• Navigation bar. The location of the navigation bar is probably not as important as its structure. Usually, bars are located either at the top or left side of the page. It is important that you do customer research and find out how your customers will organize your products. That will give you a better idea about organizing the bar in a friendly way.
• The 20-80 rule. Give priority to the 20% of your products/services that drive 80% of your revenues. You want to make sure visitors have quick access to your most popular products.
• Value proposition. Compare your home page against your top competitors and ask yourself: Why should someone buy from my website? Do you tell visitors what you sell? What does your company do? What do you offer that others don’t? This sounds obvious, but you need to remind visitors (especially new ones) what is special about your site.
• Motivation. Do you have any special customer service policies like free shipping, money back guarantee, loyalty program, etc? Make sure you have them on a highly visible area like the top of the page.
• Credibility indicators. If your website has commercial transactions, make sure you place secure certificates and 3rd party certifications in a visible area.
• Search Engine Optimization. Try to use text links as much as possible. Pictures are pretty but very inefficient when it comes to good rankings with search engines.

By Bob Kemper
Director of Operations,
Marketing Experiments

Usability video testing involves video recording a user going through a specific process for a website (e.g. an order). The aim is to observe how people behave in an actual site encounter situation, so that developers can recognize design and/or usability problems with the website. Techniques popularly used to gather data during a usability video test include eye tracking and capturing user narrative as they “think aloud”.

An effective interative usability study using recorded video can reveal a wide variety of problems, such as confusing or contradictory signals, off-page links or other elements that interrupt the primary objective flow, invalid assumptions about prior familiarity with technical or product-related terms, or page elements that increase customer anxiety or friction.

There are many excellent information sources on usability testing methods and tools. One we have found especially thorough and useful is the “Testing Methods and Tools” page hosted by the University of Maryland.

You can learn more about website optimization for conversion, using usability testing and a host of other testing methods, at the MarketingExperiments Journal through the Site Conversion collection of Journal Research Briefs (categories in the left navigation bar).