Measuring Site ROI
Measuring Site ROI In The Multi-Channel Environment
In the last newsletter Scott Gunter described a way of measuring ROI from e-marketing campaigns. We got such a strong positive response to his article that we will try and focus more on site ROI techniques in this and future newsletters. One of the things that is very difficult for multi-channel retailers to do is measure the impact that their web site is having on driving people to the store. We know, for example, that on average, 69% of the visitors to a multi-channel retailer are there to gather product information or price comparisons. Only 11% of the visitors are there with the expressed intent to purchase. So what happens to the 69%? Do they go to the store and buy after using the site to do their shopping leg work? Do they buy from a competitor? Is the site contributing to the overall sales effort?
Here is the technique that we use to answer these questions:
- In a WebIQ site entrance question we determine if the visitor is a potential customer.
- In a site exit question - if they have not purchased on the site - we request their email address so that we can follow up in a few days to see how their shopping concluded. (We get about 45% of respondents’ email addresses.)
- We then send a very short survey via email in a few days that asks (1) if they completed the purchase (2) where they completed the purchase and (3) why they did what they did. (We get about 35% completion rates on these follow up surveys.)
Here are some examples of the kinds of data we have provided to our customers using this technique:
- A specialty retailer experienced a purchase conversion rate of .7% on the site but was driving 26% of site traffic to the store. These visitors then reported purchasing in the store 37% of the time. This proved to executive management that the web site was a vital component of the sales process.
- A hardware retailer learned that 64% of visitors to the building materials area of their site were very unsuccessful and 75% of them were being driven to competition as they reported in their email survey. The reason - some specific features that these shoppers needed were available on their competitors’ sites but not theirs.
- An auto insurance company learned that the site was driving 43% of the visitors that completed a “quick quote” to call an agent to buy insurance. They immediately focused on featuring the quick quote process more prominently and making sure that it was as easy to use as possible.
The message here is that you don’t have to guess at the sites impact on ROI. We have developed some creative techniques for measuring it.
Jeff Schueler
President