26 replies to this topic

[RyanBlank]

Testing is a huge part, but as an online retailer......this time of year is an awful time to perform a test as I am sure you know!

testing the free shipping *special* (advertise on site as free shipping for 5 days only or something similar??) shouldn't be the sort of test that hinders site performance this time of year.. in fact, i would think now would be the time if you've got some activity going and some good traffic.

[Laser Etch USA]

Ryan,

Point taken. The issue is if it will skew the numbers and not give you a true indicator. Guess I need ot find a good, cheap file analyzer of somesort to go with the test.

[torka]

We are considering leaving the current price structure intact and absorbing the additonal shipping cost in an effort to increase volume.

Just keep in mind the probably apocryphal story told about Woolworth's in their final days in the USA -- they were losing $0.25 on every sale, but were hoping to make it up in volume.

MHO, you only want to "eat" the shipping if your pricing structure can support it and you're confident this isn't going to spark a price war with the competition. (Nobody wins in price wars.) Otherwise, I'd say to find a way to compensate for it in your price structure (at least partially) or go for the flat rate option.

My

--Torka

[Laser Etch USA]

Torka,

Woolworth's story does come to mind. A price war is indeed a bad thing for most cases. I am confident our structure will allow the additonal cost, but why decrease profit margins without a need to? All that said, you may be correct that we need to compensate for it, but the lure of "free shipping" can be a strong customer generater. It appears this may be the root of the initial problem, but not sure.

[RyanBlank]

but the lure of "free shipping" can be a strong customer generater. It appears this may be the root of the initial problem, but not sure.

Read up on shopping cart abandonment as mentioned earlier.. Free shipping is a defnite draw, but you may be suprised to find out the many other reasons people decide not to purchase. From what i've seen, just as much of the cause boils down to uncertainty as it does with price. The right price is only half the battle in many cases.

In one instance here, the simple addition of an 800# listed in each step of the checkout process made a big difference. The site owner was amazed at how many shoppers felt better about calling their order in than finishing the checkout process online. Phone orders increased by apox 30% after this was implemented.

[Laser Etch USA]

Ryan,

If I may ask, where are you finding all this good information on shopping cart abandonment? I do a search and jsut get a ton of meaningless results just like any search on the net.

[RyanBlank]

To be honest, i just run that search through the major search engines and sift through. Much of the information you find will be repeated often, but something may stand out from others experiences that relates to you and your website..

Also, as Randy stated earlier.. not every visit to your shopping cart is from a human/shopper. It could be spiders, competitors and so many other things.. Take the numbers you have with a grain of salt, and try and add as much information as you can to help the customer run through the checkout process with as many concerns answered off the bat as possible.

Then try and focus on your site and its overall usability.. How long do visitors stay on your site? How many pages do they view? Things like this can be good indicators that there might be other factors causing your visitors not to buy.

[Raphael]

Anyone know what the average conversion rate for a yahoo store is? Would that be useful information to know?

[vinnie2227]

I wish I could lay my hands on it right now, but alas I can't. In any case, I do seem to recall a study that showed that people were influenced enough by an offer of "free shipping" that they would even willingly pay a higher base item price to get it.

If you happen to lay your hands on this study, please PM me. We've been trying to convince the President of the company to pursue this option during our slower months to encourage people to buy throughout the year and not just during the holidays.

[torka]

Vinnie, I'll keep looking. I'm such a packrat, though, my hard drive is just stuffed with PDFs, many of which I'm not even sure what they're about anymore. Although I'm certain the information was crucial when I first encountered it.

One of these days, I swear I'm going to get organized. Really.

In the meantime, one resource I can recommend that's good for loads of research-based information -- real live testing with real live sites -- (and which includes several studies of conversion rates and shopping cart abandonment) is Marketing Experiments. Lots of good info, web clinics every so often for subscribers, and best of all the subscription is free. (Can't beat that for a price point, eh? )

<edited to add>While it isn't the report I was thinking of, they do have a study there on Shipping Charges (go to the article archive page and scroll down). You'll have to sign up for a Lab ID in order to read it (did I mention it's free? ), but I found it very useful. Evaluates three different approaches to shipping charges and gives you a calculation methodology to use to insure you aren't losing money on a free shipping offer.</edit>

--Torka

Edited by torka, 16 August 2005 - 12:54 PM.

[Randy]

If memory serves I believe that Marketing Experiments has a couple of studies specifically about Yahoo Stores too, which was part of the original question. I'd forgotten that until Torka mentioned them.

Of special note, there was one article that pointed out the danger signs to watch out for from how Yahoo! used to do things via revenue sharing to how they do things now with CPC charges instead.

Hope I'm remembering the right place now. If not, I'll apologize in advance.

[torka]

Yep, Randy, they do have several reports on Yahoo Stores. I don't run one, so I haven't read them in detail to know for sure what the content is, but I know the reports are there.

Lots of other good stuff, too.

--Torka