February 8, 2011
Housekeeping
Dial-in Information:
1 (312) 878-0218
Access Code: 292-093-510
Audio PIN: Shown after joining the Webinar
Webinar ID: 272-346-304
• All slides will be available after the webinar
• All registrants will receive a copy of the full report the
week of January 21st.
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Today’s Presenters
Lauren Freedman
President
the e-tailing group
www.e-tailing.com
Rita Brogley
CEO
Amadesa
www.amadesa.com
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About Amadesa
The Voice of Cross-Channel
Merchandising
Straight talk from “in-the-trenches” online
merchandising experts
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16 years e-commerce consulting
Author, It’s Just Shopping
50+ years traditional retail and catalog
experience
Fortune 500 client projects ranging
from strategic planning,
merchandising, marketing, to
technology development and
messaging
Cross-category projects spanning
specialty retail to departments
Proprietary research studies on
mystery shopping, merchandising,
mobile and consumer behavior
Today’s Agenda
• 2010 Holiday Trends and Takeaways
• Highlights from The Amadesa/e-tailing group
Merchant Testing Survey
• 5 of the 7 Secrets of Successful Testing
• Testing-Ready Checklist
I. 2010 Holiday Trends and Takeaways
• US Internet sales rose 15.4% to $36.4 billion where sales over the
Internet now account for about 10% of all retail sales 1
• Retail sales rebound rising 5.5% up from 3% predictions earlier in the
year 2
• Category increases were seen in Apparel (11.2%), Jewelry (8.4%) and
Luxury Goods (6.7%) 1
• Cyber Monday was the first billion-dollar spending day in history (1 of
6), and the first time we’ve witnessed Cyber Monday rank as the
heaviest online spending day of the year. 3
• Ecommerce holiday spending climbed 10% per transaction in 2010
versus 2009 1
• Retailers targeted many of their promotions even earlier than usual
and reaped the benefits
1) MasterCard 2) NRF 3) comScore
2010 EG100 Merchants
1-800 Flowers
ABT
Altrec
Amazon.com
American Girl
Apple
Armani Exchange
Artful Home
Aveda
Barnes & Noble
Bath & Body Works
Best Buy
Blue Nile
Bluefly
Boden USA
Borders
Brooks Brothers
Brookstone
Buy.com
Cabela’s
Clinique
Coach
Cooking.com
Crate & Barrel
Crutchfield
Dell
Dick’s Sporting Goods
Discovery Channel
Disney.com
Drs. Foster & Smith
DSW Shoes
eBags.com
EBGames
Eileen Fisher
eToys
Famous Footwear
Foot Locker
Forever 21
Frontgate
Gap
Gardener’s Supply
Garnet Hill
Giggle
GNC
Godiva
Golfsmith
Green Mountain
Harry & David
HP Home and Home Office
HSN
Improvements Catalog
iRobot
J. Crew
JCPenney
King Arthur Flour
Kohls
L.L. Bean
Lamps Plus
Lands’ End
Lego
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Lowe's
Macy's
National Geographic
Nike
Nordstrom
Office Depot
Orvis
Overstock
PetSmart
Polo
Pottery Barn
QVC
RadioShack
Redenvelope
REI
Road Runner Sports
Saks Fifth Avenue
Sears
Sephora
Shop Bop
Shop NBC
Staples
Sundance
Sunglass Hut
Target
The Avenue
The Container Store
The Home Depot
Things Remembered
Title 9
Toys ‘R Us
Ulta
Urban Outfitters
Victoria’s Secret
Walgreen’s
Wal-Mart
Williams-Sonoma
Wine.com
Zales
Zappos
The Customer Experience is Ratcheted Up
EG100 80+ INDEX WINNERS
Orvis
Sears
Golfsmith
HSN
L.L.Bean
Abt
Crutchfield
Target
REI
Best Buy
Seasonal Promos
Limited-time only deals
Branding and Manufacturer
videos
Top sellers
HSN Anywhere
Mobile App
Elevated Search Tools Drive Shopping
Efficiency
70 EG100 merchants smartly leverage
navigational drop downs with 48
merchandised for greater
effectiveness
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Promotional Creativity Bolstered By
Everybody’s Favorite: Free Shipping
Free shipping was used in more than half of all e-commerce transactions this
season, up significantly from last year
-comScore
Limited hour specials (lunch time, 4 hour)
Offer Free Shipping on all Products
Offer Conditional Free shipping on All Products
Offer Conditional Free shipping on Certain Products
Free Shipping For Frequent Buyers
Conditional Free shipping to a store
4Q10
50%
7%
52%*
43% *
25% *
28% *
4Q09
40%
4%
40% *
47% *
N/A
26% *
Product Information Is Category and
Consumer-centric
4Q10
4Q09
87%
2.27 *
86%
80%
61%*
39%
26%
18%
18%
4%
74%
2.27 *
89%
76%
64% *
30%
24%
N/A
21%
N/A
Product Page/Product Enhancement
Ratings/ Reviews
Depth of Reviews (1-3 3=extensive)
Zoom
Alternate views
Color Change
Guides/How To’s on Product Page
Tips/Glossaries on Product Page
Ask and Answer/ Q & A
3D
Shop with a Friend
Screen Share
Gallery
Features
Video
Ratings and Reviews
Video Role Expanded and Sees Strong
Customer Engagement
Videos/Audio
Location: Home Page
Category Page
Brand Boutique
Product Page
Other
Type: Branding Content
Manufacturer Content
Category Content
Product Content
Guides/ How To's
4Q10
88%
16%*
36%*
41% *
73% *
75% *
69% *
47% *
53% *
76%*
33% *
4Q09
64%
N/A
N/A
N/A
55%
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
Retail site visitors who view video
stay two minutes longer on average
and are 64% more likely to purchase
than other site visitors.
-comScore
Mobile and Social on the Fast Track
EQ100
EG100
4Q10
4Q09
%
Change
83%
60%
38%
Facebook
Twitter
96%*
87%*
85%*
73%*
13%
19%
You Tube
43%*
35%*
23%
"Like" Button
36%
N/A
N/A
Share
75%
67%
12%
Blog
50%
36%
Mobile Commerce
44%
13%
39%
238%
Mobile Alerts
29%
21%
38%
Community Boards
28%
29%
-3%
Community
Social Networking Links
Mobile and social make strong
inroads Black Friday 2010 as
consumers using mobile
devices accounted for 5.6% of
visits to retail websites - a 50fold increase over 2009 when
it was just 1%
-Coremetrics
The Amazon Effect Continues
63.7% of consumers who
shopped among 20 leading
e-commerce sites in
December say they
shopped at Amazon.com,
up from 55.1% a year ago.
-Kantar Retail
ShopperScape survey
Customer Service Means Better Meeting
The Needs of Today’s Consumers
2010 EG100 Customer
Service Winners
1-800-Flowers
Abt
Coach
Drs Foster and Smith
Foot Locker
King Arthur Flour
Lands’ End
Orvis
Saks Fifth Avenue
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The Stakes are Higher
Merchants Must Ratchet up the Shopping Experience as
Customer Expectations Continue to Ascend
Testing’s Time is Now
II. Highlights from the
Amadesa/e-tailing group
Testing Survey
The Future of Testing is Now
• Having a great website is no longer optional
• If you’re not testing today, you should be—website
optimization is mission critical
• Testing is easy
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Methodology and Objectives
Goal: Explore retailer sentiment regarding testing online and cross-channel along
with desire to add the capability in the future
Methodology:
160 merchants completed an online survey to explore retailer sentiment regarding
testing online and cross-channel or one’s desire to add the feature in the future
where 79% (127) were testers/ 21% (33) were non-testers
Survey Objective:
To understand the following surrounding testing:
 current state
 tools and tactics employed
 organizational approach
 performance results
 perceptions
Topline Findings
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•
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Testing emanates from a culture that believes in its value
Most merchants believe testing is valuable
When not testing they are simply resource-challenged
Merchants perceive strong ROI results will be
forthcoming from testing where both user experience
and improved site conversion are seen
• A/B testing is the favored methodology while a broad
array of areas are being tested
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Testers tend to be either very active (33%)
or “once in a while” users of the tool (38%)
What is the current state of testing in your organization
as it relates to site optimization?
33%
We are very active testers
38%
We test once in a while
8%
We are going to be testing in 2011
1%
We only test during slow periods / low seasonality
We believe in testing, it just never has been a high enough
priority to be activated
13%
7%
We have never tested
0%
We used to test but no longer do so
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Testing has the most impact on improving the user
experience (61%) and increasing site conversion (57%) but
also has influence on multiple areas of the site
Which aspects of the site have been most impacted by testing? Check all that apply.
Improve user experience
61%
Overall increase in site conversion
57%
Search results/landing pages
32%
Navigation refinement
31%
Increase average order size
Decrease shopping cart abandonment rate
Category/product classification
24%
20%
17%
A/B testing is the standard (82%);
other tools are deployed based on merchant choice
What types of testing or related tools are you employing? Check all that apply.
A/B testing (serve different content/images to test which
elicits the desired action most often)
82%
Segmentation (segment user traffic and deliver content
accordingly)
37%
Multivariate testing (serve multiple elements in different
combinations to test which elicits the desired action most
often)
35%
Content targeting (deliver content based on preestablished rules)
Advanced targeting/automated behavioral targeting
(machine-learning micro segment targeting in real time)
Q7
27%
13%
63% of those who test, do so monthly or more frequently
How frequently do/did you test?
27%
23%
19%
13%
12%
5%
Daily
Weekly
Monthly
Quarterly
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Seasonally
Periodically
III. 7 Secrets to Successful Testing
We’ll go through 5 today!
TESTING SECRET #1
TRY IT!
Always test first, be it style, content, functionality or features. Go out on a limb!
What are the three key actions
to get started?
TESTING SECRET #2:
SEEK SHORT-TERM WINS
creative execution (65%) and copy (50%) are the two areas tested most, followed by promotions
(46%), marketing campaigns (45%), images (43%), key page templates (42%), and more
See the full report for the rest…
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TESTING SECRET #3
SEEK SHORT-TERM WINS
The KIS (Keep it Simple) Factor
• Start small
• Think apples and oranges
Extra Credit Points - Tactical
• Divide up testing creative
• The more specific you can fashion the test the better
• Test items individually and hone in on them
• Give tests enough time to reach statistical confidence levels
Where should merchants begin?
General Mills: Pillsbury
Q: Should we start the form on the homepage?
A: Yes!
113.8% Conversion Rate Lift
Amadesa
Control
Showing the first step of
the form increased
member registrations by
113.8% after one week!
MEC
Q: Can we remove product description, move products above the fold
without impacting revenue?
A: Yes!
12.2% RPV Lift
= $1.6MM added annually
Hiding the product
description moved more
products above the fold
AND increased revenue
per visit by 12.2% after
only 9 days!
TESTING SECRET #4
TARGET WISELY
• Know your user groups
• Identify which groups are most impactful to KPIs
• Test within each segment
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Q: Does message matching enhance user experience and increase revenue?
A: Yes!
New Car
Used Car
Home,
Mortgage
Credit Cards
General Terms
45% RPV Lift
70.7% RPV Lift
Showing a geo targeted value proposition message across the entire site increased
revenue per visit between 8% - 25%!
TESTING SECRET #5
SELECT THE RIGHT PARTNER
The Four Pillars
• Information Technology
• Strategy and Planning
• Creative Development
• Budget
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What should a retailer look for in an
ideal testing partner?
D.TESTING-READY QUESTIONS
Strategic
• Is my organization ready for testing?
• What is the right way to sell in testing’s value to my organization?
• How can I justify the investment?
• What performance expectations should our team have in place?
• How can we best create a testing plan and how in-depth should our strategy be?
• What industry or retailer insights can be shared regarding testing proof-of-concept and potential
ROI?
Resources
• Who are the right members of our team to drive the testing initiative?
• What level of investment is required to do testing right?
• Can we handle it internally or should we seek the support of a designated testing partner?
• How much time should we expect to allocate to our testing efforts in Year 1? Year 2?
Execution
• What should we test first and where do we build from there?
• How can we maintain testing momentum within the designated group to continue improving on
performance results?
• How do we best read the results and subsequently share within our organization?
• What is the optimal process that we should follow to test smart?
Q&A
Lauren Freedman
the e-tailing group
LF@e-tailing.com
773-975-7280
www.e-tailing.com
Rita Brogley
Amadesa
rita@amadesa.com
866-321-8245
www.amadesa.com