Uncomplicated Online Marketing

Are You Featuring the Right Offer to Optimize Conversion Rates?

Posted on 13. Mar, 2010 by admin in 6. Results, Conversion Rates

Many FutureNow eTail clients offer free shipping to keep up with the competition.  I’ve also seen some clients offer free shipping to differentiate themselves from the competition (in instances where the competition doesn’t offer it).  In many cases, especially with this economy, I’ve seen free shipping offers increase clients’ conversion rates.  A previous grok post opened the discussion for whether or not customers had come to expect free shipping.  In this post, we’ll reveal what we observed when we asked the questions, “If visitors are coming to expect free shipping, is it having the same effect that it once had?” and, “Should this be replaced with a different offer?”

With these questions in mind, one of my current clients began to test two different offers on their site: “free shipping” versus a “30 day money back guarantee.”  My educated guess was that “free shipping” would win.

Interestingly, since launching the test 14 days ago, the results are trending toward the “30 day money back guarantee” as the winner.  We don’t have enough data to say conclusively that the guarantee bests the shipping, and will let this test run for some time before we take any action.  Still, it is worth noting, and not just because we are starting to see signs of a winner.

Whenever a test is running you should ask yourself questions about why results are trending in a particular way, and whether or not this trending calls for further tests. For instance, in the case of my client, should we be testing a version where we combine both offers (free shipping and the 30 day money back guarantee)?

Stay tuned to find out the winner of this test, and until then, think about the offers you present on your web site today.  Are you just offering free shipping because you think that is what your visitor expects?  Is there another offer that may be more appealing to your visitor?  Perhaps where visitors have some hesitation about a product (a lack of brand awareness or a higher price tag), a money back guarantee helps counter the sense of risk involved in the purchase.  What other situations might call for an offer other than free shipping?  What other offers could you be testing?

Author

By Melissa Burdon – http://www.grokdotcom.com/author/melissa-burdon/