The recently concluded E-Commerce Week, organised by BASIS, was a
clear indication that the digital revolution in Bangladesh is underway
and rapidly gaining momentum. The series of events held during the week
covered topics ranging from payments and logistics to how businesses can
set up e-commerce ventures. There was much needed evangelisation and
education around the opportunity for building Bangladesh's digital
economy.
G&R Ad Network, one of the participants at the
E-Commerce Week shared THE knowledge and best practices on one of the
most fundamental aspects of commerce in this new, digital age �"
conversions.
What is a Conversion?
For any website owner, the
most important task is to clearly determine what the objective of the
site is. When a website visitor completes that objective, it is known as
a conversion. Similar to creating a business plan for an offline
business where you set goals and forecasts, your online business is no
different and measurable targets should be put in place. Typically, an
online conversion will fall into one of the 4 areas listed below.
1)
Sales: How much revenue did I make? 2) Leads: How many leads did I
generate? 3) Information: Did users find what they were looking for?
How long did it take? 4) Ad Revenue: How many pages did the users
visit? Did they interact with the content and advertising?
The “Conversion Funnel”
Their
presentation at E-Commerce Week focused on the online conversion
“funnel” and the need for website owners to optimise performance to this
model.
Step 1: Drive Awareness
In order to acquire customers,
the first step is to make them aware of who you are. For an internet
business, online marketing channels �" both paid and unpaid �" can be an
excellent way to publicize your brand, communicate to your prospective
customers, and ultimately drive traffic to your website.
Recommendation:
Launch online ad campaigns and measure everything. Focus on attribution
i.e. understanding which sources drive the most return on investment.
Step 2: Generate Interest
Interest
can definitely be influenced by your advertising campaigns - this is
done by having a compelling offer or value proposition within your ad.
Beyond the ad, however, it is your website that engages the user and
offers them further information on your business. Similar to an in-store
experience, the design and usability of your site determine how long
the user wants hang out. As they stay on your site longer, they move
further down the conversion funnel from being aware of your offering to
being actually interested in learning more and potentially purchasing.
Recommendation:
Communicate your brand's message or product/service information clearly
and keep it consistent between marketing campaigns and the website. For
instance, if you are promoting a discount in an online ad campaign,
make sure it is available on the site
Step 3: Activate Desire
At
this stage the user has already gone through most of the consideration
stages and is actively interested in what you have to offer. Here, your
website's features and functionality must ensure you give the user what
they want so that interest converts into a desire for the product or
service you are looking to sell.
Recommendation: Make your
homepage useful and allow for easy navigation and discovery of
information. Provide FAQs and other useful content that would address
any user concerns not only about the product they're looking at, but
also your business in general.
Step 4: Take Action
The final
step in the conversion process refers to closing the deal.
Interestingly, this step is one where many potential online customers
tend to drop out and not complete the sale. Once the user wants your
product or service, the steps to make a purchase or complete the
intended action must be simple and straightforward.
Recommendation:
Minimize steps - count the number of clicks it takes for user to
complete purchase and the number of form fields they have to fill out.
Reduce these as much as possible. Do not ask for additional information
unless you really need it.
Measuring Conversions
Importantly,
you should use web analytics software (e.g. Google Analytics) to measure
the effectiveness of your online presence and how users convert, moving
down each stage of the funnel. We have seen many local examples where
simple design errors such as an unwieldy contact form, or lack of
visibility of the “submit” button have led to conversions falling out.
Analysing how users behave on your on site will help establish where
gaps and/or issues may be occurring and also help in identifying
opportunities for growth. For instance, it may be that a certain online
ad campaign is driving traffic that will convert to sales at a higher
rate than other activity. Maybe users from Bangladeshi newspaper sites
convert better than users coming from Facebook. Such insight is useful
and can support making key decisions such as how to allocate marketing
budget.
For a website owner, one of the key benefits of e-commerce
is that it is very measurable. Data is generated for every kind of
activity and this ensures that marketing campaigns, website performance,
billing systems and so are accountable. It is this kind of
data-generated insight that should be the primary influencer for
decision making in the digital age.
