applied techniques for conversion rate optimisation - paul rouke from prwd

@paulrouke #NUXUK

@paulrouke #NUXUK

What is Usability and User Experience?

I hope you’re going to enjoy this session as much as an OAP I entertained recently...

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Someone then tweeted me “The mind boggles…”

…thankfully this is my earlier tweet

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Applied Techniques for Conversion Rate Optimisation

by Paul RoukeHead of Usability & Conversion at PRWD

6th February 2012@ NUX Manchester

@paulrouke #NUXUK

I run the UK’s Leading North West Based Usability & Conversion Optimisation Consultancy

About Me

I provide public and in-house training for Econsultancy’s global clients including Tesco, O2 and Santander

I provide services to help brands improve their website conversion rate

•Usability testing (moderated & remote)•Expert evaluations•Usability training•In-house consultancy•Conversion rate optimisation

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PRWD Clients IncludeBrands I work with include...

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A bit of toilet humour

Key conversion principles

Applied conversion techniques

Summary

Session agenda

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We all know how important it is to be considerate of what people want…

especially when buying Christmas presents…

…look what can happen when we’re not

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a short case study...

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Matthew Lawson, Head of conversion at Appliances Online

“I introduced user-centered design, but I had to

get the business bought into it. So I did this by

buying 125 videos from WhatUsersDo, where

you set a task for a customer to go away onto

your site and try and make a purchase”

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“This gave us 250 hours of footage which was too

much content to watch through. So I used crowd

sourcing... we gave five videos to each senior

manager including the CEO and this gave us insight

into what we needed to change from our

proposition, the size of the images to where we put

the buy button and it actually gave our customers a

voice which went directly to the managers”

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Results?

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9.5% increase in sales

37% more visitors viewed product videos

11% increase in customer reviews

33% reduction in calls about delivery

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Summary

Session agenda

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Why end users do what you want them to...

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They trust the website owner

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The website is being transparent

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They aren’t presented with perceived barriers to entry

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They are able to focus on what they are there for

http://www.flickr.com/photos/karen_roe/4417259305/sizes/o/in/photostream/

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They don’t have to take a leap of faith

http://www.flickr.com/photos/carla777/1039697509/in/photostream/

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Other people have already done it and are ‘mostly’ happy

http://www.flickr.com/photos/carla777/1039697509/in/photostream/

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Why end users do what the website wants them to>> They trust the website owner>> The website is being transparent>> They have confidence in the website owner>> They aren’t presented with perceived barriers>> They are able to focus on what they want to do>> They don’t have to take a leap of faith>> They see that other people have done it already

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Summary

Session agenda

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Some Key Conversion Techniques I have Learnt Over The Last 13 Years...

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Providing site wide visibility of your value propositionHow can brands ensure their visitors see their key value proposition & unique selling points?

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Introduce a site-wide promotional bar under your primary navigation – this is becoming a design pattern on major retail sites, and consumers will come to expect this

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The power of ‘free xxx’How consumers respond when they are offered something for free*

*irrespective of whether what you are getting for free is built in to the price

“Standard delivery is free. That is really good. There is usually a

minimum spend limit”

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Transparency of key parts of the proposition prior to commitmentEnsuring the visitor knows the unknowns, rather than taking a leap of faith

“Delivery information is right there. I don’t need to go to another page in order to find out the delivery options and costs when I’m

viewing a product page”

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Provide transparency around your delivery proposition, options and costs – don’t force visitors to take a leap of faith into your checkout

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Allow the user to focus on what they want to doCross selling is good in the right places, but it shouldn’t distract the user from buying

“Now this recommended products, I don't like this being on the basket page, I find it un-necessary. Yes it might make me go and buy something else, but you are taking me

away from the checkout, you're making me look at other stuff. You're making me maybe doubt the other stuff I have in my bag. It makes me more likely to think, oh hang on I've

seen those same jeans at ASOS, £20 less, maybe I should go and do my shopping there. Perhaps this is the wrong page to put such a big recommended products there”

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Don’t force or appear to be forcing un-necessary actionUsers perception of requirements can be highly toxic and seriously harm conversion rates

Just ask ASOS

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ASOS provide one the most simple, barrier free checkout pages for new customers – simply asking them to continue

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Compare this to their previous design which forced new customers to create an account in order to checkout

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What is Usability and User Experience?How did this change in message and call to

action impact the performance of this page

Abandonment Rate Was Reduced by 50%

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ASOS then simply ask new customers to choose a password as part of their checkout process – turning what is a huge ‘perceived’ usability barrier in to simply entering a few characters in to 1 text field

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Speedo mention nothing about creating an account at the start of checkout – leaving new customers to simply get on with entering their details to place their order

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It is only at the end of checkout that Speedo encourage new customers to create an account – almost making it a ‘no-brainer’ – and they get over 75% of new customers choosing to create an account

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What is Usability and User Experience?How does this approach impact new customer

account creation rates for Speedo?

77% of new customers* choose to create an account

* Not forgetting the crucial 0% abandonment rate at the start of checkout

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Lakeland also provide new customers with 1 option – continue – whilst at the same time providing confirmation to new customers that they can create an account at the end

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Lakeland then provide clear customer focussed reasons as to why the new customer will want to create an account – once again making it almost a no-brainer

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Provide the right level of detail to allow users to make informed decisionsThink beyond the most obvious things and provide the necessary content

“The images look nice on a white background, but there is something missing if I don’t see them on a model wearing them. I also expect to see videos of products now as you can get a real sense of how the product

looks when worn”

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Provide complete transparency of your delivery and returns proposition – which means don’t hide them from consumers

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Provide the right level of product detail, both written and visual, to allow visitors to make informed purchase decisions

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Answer visitor questions when you are expecting them to engage with youThink beyond the most obvious things and provide the necessary content

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Test version A

Does answering questions improve conversion?

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Test version B


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Test version A v Test version B - RESULTS

+ 66%


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What questions do our offline customers often ask us?What questions can we answer to help visitors make a decision?Are any of our key pages currently confusing for new visitors?

What’s the number 1 question our customers currently ask us?

Questions for website owners…

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Utilise persuasive design techniques to encourage conversionCombining different techniques can turbo charge your optimisation efforts

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View a detailed analysis here - http://bit.ly/bookingBP

Booking.com feature a wide variety of persuasion techniques, particularly on their search results pages

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ScarcityRecency

Social Proof

How they create urgency...

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Booking.com provide live updates to demonstrate the recency of when other people are booking specific hotels – as well as providing extensive & detailed rating and reviews

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Social ProofDemonstrating that there are other people who have chosen to make the same buying decision you are considering

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Groupon make it clear how many other people have chosen to purchase each particular deal, providing evidence in numbers to persuade the visitor to take up the deal too

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For over 3 years The Book Depository has provided a live shopping feed, integrating consumer purchasing with a Google Map to demonstrate continuous buying throughout the world – plus promotion of their free delivery proposition

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Amazon were one of the first retailers to implement both customer ratings and customer buying activity to encourage visitors to make purchase decisions through activity of others

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Kiddicare use customer rating and reviews as an integral part of how they promote and sell their products – they recognise the wisdom of crowds is more powerful than what they say about their products (and they frame the reviewers so that users can associate with them more)

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Naked Wines deliver a unique and highly persuasive e-commerce experience for new and returning visitors – they are delivering a truly user-centric online experience & business strategy

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Irrespective of brand credibility, demonstrating trust/security is paramountFrom logos to button wording, confidence and trust can be instilled in the user

“I can purchase securely which is good to see. I can see the Global security symbol prominently so I can assume that this is a

safe and secure site”

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Provide visibility and clarity of both your security measures and your accepted payment methods

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Provide visibility and clarity of both your security measures and your accepted payment methods

View a detailed analysis of the ASOS shopping here - http://bit.ly/ASOSbbp

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Introduce the word ‘secure’ or ‘securely’ on your call to action button – this is a simple but potentially highly effective test you can do to optimise your conversion rate

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Introduce the word ‘secure’ or ‘securely’ on your call to action button – this is a simple but potentially highly effective test you can do to optimise your basket conversion rate

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3% uplift

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Utilise user testing to uncover brand perception questions and much moreUser or usability testing doesn’t just have to be about the web experience (plus you may get some surprising insights!)

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67 business questions usability testing can answer

http://bit.ly/67questions

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Summary

Session agenda

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Summary

These are my 6 applied techniques for conversion rate optimisation

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Connect with me

http://uk.linkedin.com/in/paulrouke

Office:+44 (0)161 228 0585

Mobile:+44 (0)7739 745 126

Email:paulrouke @ prwd.co.uk

Web:http://www.prwd.co.uk

PRWD22 Lever StreetManchesterM1 1EAUnited Kingdom

http://twitter.com/paulrouke

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Thankyou for listening to “Applied Techniques for

Conversion Rate Optimisation”

by Paul Rouke

Slides and usability & conversion best practice available here:

http://bit.ly/CROresources

applied techniques for conversion rate optimisation - paul rouke from prwd

Technology

head of conversion

user experience

website owner

applied techniques

usercentered design

leap of faith http

inhouse training

prwd clients