Web Optimisation Definition for Retail

Definition of Optimisation for Retail

Retail has:

• The Product
o Price & promotions
o Range
• Service
o Fulfilment
o Support

The Web Optimisation Team manages:
• Interactivity
o Customer journey
o Flow and data entry
• Ease of Use
o Usability
o Accessibility and standards

Web optimisation is about having a plan to take practical steps to change things so that they work better. This could include your registration process, email layouts, checkout and customer service follow up. It’s about a holistic approach to optimising your site and campaigns.

Some examples of optimisation are:

• Search engine optimisation (SEO) – mainly a marketing function, but Retail can influence this based upon sales stats and analytics
• Search engine marketing (SEM) – once again mainly a marketing function but Retail can have input via analytics to say which sites work best and which landing pages give a higher sales conversion percentage
• Behavioural targeting – tailoring the marketing message, up or cross sell opportunity based on the customers profile or what we know about that segment. An example would be an Accidental Damage offer if the customer had Home Insurance already. For this to work you need a segmentation model and if possible data about each individual customer and their preferences.
• Creative and messaging pre-testing optimisations – pre-testing optimisations on a small target group or for a few clicks to see the reaction. If successful then rollout to more customers, if not then cease and try something else!
• Site optimisation – checking the site regularly to ensure that all the links work and that there is nothing that is stopping a smooth flow for your customers. This is where you need to identify where shoppers leave your site & try to understand why
• Campaign performance optimisation – review the entire marketing campaign from search through to fulfilment to ensure that it works and get the highest conversion rates possible

Returning to our Analytics model optimisation is the final phase:

Phase 1 – The raw data

Phase 2 – KPIs (conversion rate)

Phase 3 – Measures
1. Conversion by new release/older version
2. Number of customers who also bought another product
3. Conversion by promotional offer such as free shipping

Phase 4 – Analytics
1. Effect on the landing page to conversion
2. Impact of product placement (merchandising) on the page
3. Impact of customer demographic and segmentation on the rate

Phase 5 – Optimisation
1. Optimise marketing offer to segments or individuals
2. Optimise site layout to maximise conversion rates
3. Track and optimise where customers exit the site

The way to track these results is using a scorecard system to ensure that the results are returning a positive ROI.

Tags: Analytics, DigiMarketing, Digital Marketing, ecommerce, Optimisation, retail, sales, Usability, Web