Taking The Customer Through The Purchase Funnel To Drive Conversions

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February 2, 2011
Guest Post By Kit Sim, Founder and President at KSL eConsulting, Inc.

In the brick-and-mortar store, conversion is all about turning shoppers into buyers. In online retailing, it’s exactly the same — help shoppers find whatever they’re looking for and turn them into buyers. It is the conversion rate that ultimately translates into sales, the only real measure of success for any retailer.

But conversion remains a top challenge in online retailing. For the majority of retailers, conversion rates remain mediocre, in the low single digits.

In order to improve conversions, merchants must first understand the multiple kinds of online customers and their various shopping behaviors.

First, there is the shopper who knows exactly what he or she is looking for. This customer is more likely to use the search box or to go directly to a category or a product page to conclude their purchase.

A second kind of shopper is the one who is more likely to take time to browse through your site. This second customer is more open to “seduction” through the merchandising features, offers and promotions.

In serving both groups, merchants must effectively take customers through the purchase funnel from the moment they land on a merchant’s website all the way through to checkout until an order is submitted or, alternately, completed through a visit to a brick-and-mortar store. Here are the key areas where merchants can effectively drive conversions:

On-site search. Some shoppers come to your site already have in mind what they’re shopping for. For this group of customers, it is important to make sure your on-site search function is optimized:

• Make sure the search box is prominently displayed and is easy to find, usually on the top left-hand corner of your website.
• Provide a spell-checker to automatically present customers with the corrected spelling.
• Build in error-tolerant logic to address any search term typos in order to avoid no results.
• Build a synonyms map to present customers with relevant results.
• Allow customers to narrow their search results by any relevant criteria such as color, size, brand and others.
• Merchandise search results with offers, custom landing page and sequence the order of the results displayed based on critical variables such as sales performance, inventory position, seasonality and others.

Shopping navigation. Shopping navigation is often the most clicked-on section of any page and is a key conversion-driver. Here are a few critical tactics to optimize shopping navigation:

• Place like categories under the same heading, so customers know what to expect when clicking on each navigation point.
• Avoid using industry terminology or your internal jargon, as these may be little understood by average shoppers.
• Offer different merchandising entry points, such as shop-by-category, shop-by- collections and shop-by-size.
• Make sure that your shopping navigation is persistent.
• List what is more important on the top and what is less important on the bottom.

Home and landing pages. Home and landing pages are frequently compared to a store window. This is where your customers get their first impression of your brand. An effective homepage creates awareness and seduces the shopper with exciting merchandising offerings.

• Clearly state the value proposition of your brand, particularly if your brand is less well-known.
• Call out offers and promotions such as free shipping, gift with purchase (GWP), purchase with purchase (PWP), and others prominently.
• Take the authoritative and proactive steps to tell customers about your most exciting merchandising offer – whether it is a sale, the hottest trend or a must-have item.
• Broaden the merchandising features to serve key customer segments.
• Create an immediate call-to-action through copy and get users to click on the features.

Category page. When the shopper navigates directly to a category page, typically he or she is already considering a purchase within a particular category. Therefore, an effective category page must call out the most important offering within a category as well as communicate the merchant’s point-of-view. Equipped with merchandising intelligence from enterprise-wide merchandising, planning and inventory systems, merchants today are better positioned to deliver merchandising callouts that are both more effective and more customer-oriented. Some especially effective merchandising callouts include the following:

• New
• Online exclusive
• Our pick
• Saved X%
• % off
• Customer’s favorite
• Only X left
• Sale
• New to sale
• Clearance
• Last one

Product page. The purpose of the product page is to persuade the shopper to add an item to their shopping cart. In selling online, retailers rely on product photography, product attributes and copy description to present a product to its best advantage. Experience has shown that product attributes combined with effective description/selling copy will differentiate your product, earn customer consideration and promote conversion. Below are the best practices:

• Display the key attributes for each product.
• Layer in strong and branded description copy that creates a strong call-to-action.
• Leverage customer ratings and reviews to sell the product.
• Maximize the product image size. And let the image to do the selling.
• Allow customers to click on each color swatch and view each color.
• Provide a group shot image for items that come in multiple colorways.
• Show the scale of a product by using graphic illustration, mannequins or a live model.
• Show all the points of interest with multiple images.
• Allow the customer to zoom and visually inspect every aspect of a product.
• Emphasize prominently the add-to-cart button.

Check-out. You have taken customers all the way from the landing page to the check-out. This is the crucial stage for closing a transaction. It would be a shame to lose a customer at this point.

• Ensure that check-out is fast and secure. Clearly display security seals such as VeriSign and the specific privacy and security policies.
• Allow customers to check-out as a registered customer OR as a guest.
• Clearly displays the key data points in the shopping cart, including product name, photo, description, price, the selected size and color.
• Allow the customer to make any changes directly from the shopping cart.
• Be up-front with shipping fees, taxes, and other charges in order to avoid last minute surprises.
• Offer the commonly accepted payment methods for each marketplace.
• Assure customer confidence with the prominent exchange and return policies.
• Provide alternative ordering methods such as your 1-800 number and nearest store location should the customer choose not to transact online.

Today, similar or even identical products are widely available online. Another Web site is always just a click away. Online merchants must provide a shopping experience that is fast, easy and safe. A fast, easy and safe site is also the secret recipe to drive repeat business and higher conversion rates. According to the University of Michigan’s American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI), a highly satisfied online shopper is more likely to purchase online, more likely to purchase offline and more likely to recommend than a dissatisfied online shopper.
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About the Author

Kit Sim is a retail and e-commerce expert with over 10 years of leadership success in brick-and-mortar, catalog and online channels. Kit has worked and partnered with some of the most successful fashion retailers in the world, including Victoria’s Secret, Lands’ End, and Aldo. In 2008, Kit founded KSL eConsulting, Inc. to share the hard-won industry know-how in selling fashion apparel, footwear and accessories online. Kit’s number one passion is fashion.