Testing and tuning your website to turn clicks into sales

Schuh is at the leading edge of the UK fashion footwear industry and is widely recognised as one of the most innovative independent footwear retailers, not only on the high street but also online. Schuhstore.co.uk has a unique audience of over 400k users per month*. Schuh’s approach to its online store is to constantly test and tune so that any changes to its site are based on customer preference, rather than the hunches of its web designers.

Schuh Web Developer, Patrick Timmons, uses Google Analytics to identify areas of the site to test, "Working through our Analytics numbers allows us to pick out under-performing areas of the site. We can then design and build tests to optimise these pages".

Schuh's ecommerce team noticed their site had a high exit rate on the 'Mens Shoes' category page and decided to run a A/B test, running various new layouts of the page and testing these against the original.

Timmons was pleased with the insights offered by Google Analytics, “The great thing about testing is it allows me to make the right decisions in making site changes. I wasn't sure whether our customers would prefer viewing our products on the current 3X3 grid, a 4X3 grid, or even a 3X2 grid. Also, what image size do customers like?”

Another element of the page the company was keen to test was the use of models on category pages. Model shoots require significant investment and it is therefore important to understand their impact on conversion. Timmons used Google's free testing platform Website Optimiser to run a test and prove with hard data whether models were needed or not.

Schuh began to see results in a week, and it became clear one of the variations in particular was having a significant impact on conversion. The winning variation was variation 3, which displayed fewer but larger images on the page and did not carry the image of the model. The impact of the new layout was a 10% increase in the number of customers adding a product to their shopping basket, and a 6% increase in the number of customers that converted into a sale.

Schuh's team were very pleased with the results of the test, which underlined how integral testing and tuning is to their whole online strategy. “We are planning a complete redesign of our site and will base it on the results of the tests,” explained Timmons. Building a site based on the results of scientific tests essentially puts the design in the hands of your customer. The site can be completely optimised to the way your customers want it to look and feel.

If your site is based on design and aesthetics and not your customers, you could be missing out on valuable sales. Ensure you have an analytics package installed correctly to give you insight to the activity on your site. Use the data to identify areas of the site that need improving. Build bold tests that push boundaries and then run the tests through a testing platform. Implement the winning results from tests and ensure you continue to test as online customer behaviour will continue to change and evolve.

* Source: Nielsen Netratings Decemeber 2008

Posted by Daniel Shellard, Sales Operations Team

A trend that's set to stay in fashion...

While high street sales have borne the brunt of the economic downturn, fashion retailers have continued to see growth in their online web sales during 2008 and 2009.

Last year online fashion retailer ASOS reported a 104% increase in year on year sales. While during the intensely competitive Christmas trading period, Debenhams and M&S recorded 38% and 29% increases in online sales respectively.

In March this year the IMRG Capgemini e-Retail Sales Index reported a stunning rise of 26% in sales of footwear, clothing and accessories. By May, however, sales growth had slowed to 8.2% regarded as a result of both recessionary effects and sunshine.

While online may not be completely impervious from the credit crunch the underlying trend in online fashion retail is still one of growth. The pressures on advertisers now are to ensure that their offerings remain competitive and their digital strategy is effective.

The combination of falling store sales, the Internet’s strength as a sales channel and the high level of research consumers conduct online means providing a compelling eCommerce presence is still very much a necessity.

Google Insights for Search shows strong year on year growth in search interest for leading fashion brands New Look, River Island, ASOS and Littlewoods. Meanwhile the popularity online of value retailers like Matalan, Primark and Peacocks is also shown to be on the up.

More growth online during 2009 still seems likely for fashion and apparel retailers despite the slowdown. With many high street fashion brands like Whistles, River Island and New Look recently having launched transactional websites plus Matalan and other value retailers - who previously shied away from the web - also getting to grips with the channel, the rise of online shopping appears to be a trend that is set to stay in fashion.

Posted by Brendan Patterson, UK Retail Team

Is Multichannel the Future of Retail?

Multi-channel retail has created a proliferation of consumer choice that has fundamentally changed the way shoppers make purchases and interact with businesses. Consumers now conduct a high level of research before buying goods and services - whether it's looking for and reserving an item online before buying in store, or browsing a catalogue and purchasing online. This change in behaviour means it's integral for companies to develop a seamless focus on the customer that cuts across all channels.

Multi-channel shoppers are the most profitable customers for retailers today, spending almost twice as much as their single-channel counterparts. The ways in which customers utilise these channels to make purchases are rapidly expanding. At Argos, for example, multi-channel options such as "click and reserve" - where customers order online and pick-up in-store - has shown a growth of 50 per cent over the past year, and this trend is consistent with other retailers.

Indeed, multi-channel options can increase loyalty and customer satisfaction as well as sales, as Adri Kraa, head of Ikea Shop Online, is keen to point out, "We saw the biggest benefit of multi-channel as the loyalty effect, which we believed was more important than increasing sales."

Mothercare is another good example of a multi-channel retailer that uses numerous selling platforms and offers compelling cross-channel services. In High Street stores shoppers can access Mothercare's full selection of products via a store interface and buy any product for home delivery. Offering the right tools and opportunities to consumers who increasingly expect a seamless experience is essential for maximising returns.

Meeting the new shopping habits of modern customers presents retailers with significant logistical challenges. The potential returns for addressing these, however, are considerable. For example, Best Buy found its multi-channel customers shop twice as often, spend 95 per cent more than single channel shoppers and are 80 per cent more profitable.

There is a key opportunity for retailers to maximise sales by understanding the balance between their online and offline strategy. While online purchases currently represent a smaller percentage of overall sales, e-tailers continue to report double digit growth. In addition, Verdict predicts that by 2012, 44 per cent of all offline sales will be influenced by online.

Moving customers into coherent multiple sales channels is perhaps both the greatest opportunity and test for retailers today. In the current climate getting it right and delivering retail innovation means acute and all important advantages: extra value for consumers that boosts loyalty and satisfaction.

So the question any multi-channel retailer should ask is can your customers find all your products quickly and in a consistent manner regardless of channel? Going forwards it is imperative for multi-channel retailers to leverage their store and brand assets, to protect today but also invest in the future and to continue to try and understand, predict and respond to customer's ever changing needs.

Posted by Brendan Patterson, Retail Team

Announcing the Google Retail UK Blog!

We are excited to announce the launch of our new blog: the Google Retail UK Blog. This blog is designed to provide you with the latest insights, research and information from the world of Retail plus the lowdown on the best Google Tools and tips to get the most out of your digital strategy. We will also feature guest posts and other interesting content.

Enter your email address on the blog to subscribe or use the blog feed in your preferred RSS reader.

We hope you find our regular posts enjoyable and informative. Please email us with any feedback and let us know your thoughts.

Best Regards,
The Google Retail Team
Google UK

Posted by Brendan Patterson, UK Retail Team