In this report we’ve covered a gamut of activity under the term ‘conversion rate optimisation’ – not just online but across all channels in your business.
We have learnt the importance of senior commercial support to success, and that the programme of activity be driven from the top. But we have also discovered the complexities that surround it as a business process and the fact that no matter what the scale of testing is the job is never done. Conversion rate optimisation is most definitely an ongoing process and just because you have got it right for one set of customers it doesn’t mean the problem is solved. Jenny Parker, marketing director and co-founder of Country Attire, put this most succinctly in the research: “It’s an ongoing project. It’s never perfect and every portfolio of customers for every website is different so you have to develop the right usability testing and optimisation for your customers. Our customers have to be treated very differently depending on where they are,” she says.
The study has shown the move to embed CRO as an ingrained culture within the business – with much still to be done. However the research has also illustrated that retailers that do exactly that soon realise the value of a CRO approach that focuses on testing and learning and continuous improvement. “Previously we would have done wholescale changes without understanding the benefit. Now we will measure every single change we are making within the customer experience,” says Sam Barton, head of user experience at ShopDirect.
The case studies provided the greatest demonstration of the complex, connected and committed activities of retailers with regards to CRO, illustrating the variety and inventiveness of approaches to sell more effectively to customer.
Liz Morrell
Conversion rate optimisation report researcher and editor
