Applied Techniques for Conversion Rate Optimisation - Paul Rouke from PRWD

What is Usability and User Experience? I hope you’re going to enjoy this session as much as an OAP I entertained recently...

What is Usability and User Experience? Someone then tweeted me “The mind boggles…” … thankfully this is my earlier tweet

Applied Techniques for Conversion Rate Optimisation by Paul Rouke Head of Usability & Conversion at PRWD 6th February 2012 @ NUX Manchester

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

PRWD Clients Include Brands I work with include...

A bit of toilet humour Key conversion principles Applied conversion techniques Summary Session agenda

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

What is Usability and User Experience? a short case study...

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”

“ 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 ”

What is Usability and User Experience? Results?

9.5% increase in sales 37% more visitors viewed product videos 11% increase in customer reviews 33% reduction in calls about delivery

What is Usability and User Experience? Why end users do what you want them to...

They trust the website owner

The website is being transparent

They aren’t presented with perceived barriers to entry

They are able to focus on what they are there for http://www.flickr.com/photos/karen_roe/4417259305/sizes/o/in/photostream/

They don’t have to take a leap of faith http://www.flickr.com/photos/carla777/1039697509/in/photostream/

Other people have already done it and are ‘mostly’ happy http://www.flickr.com/photos/carla777/1039697509/in/photostream/

What is Usability and User Experience? 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

What is Usability and User Experience? Some Key Conversion Techniques I have Learnt Over The Last 13 Years...

What is Usability and User Experience? Providing site wide visibility of your value proposition How can brands ensure their visitors see their key value proposition & unique selling points?

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

What is Usability and User Experience? 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”

What is Usability and User Experience? Transparency of key parts of the proposition prior to commitment Ensuring 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”

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

What is Usability and User Experience? Allow the user to focus on what they want to do Cross 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”

What is Usability and User Experience? Don’t force or appear to be forcing un-necessary action Users perception of requirements can be highly toxic and seriously harm conversion rates Just ask ASOS

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

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

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%

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

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

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

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

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

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

What is Usability and User Experience? Provide the right level of detail to allow users to make informed decisions Think 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”

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

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

What is Usability and User Experience? Answer visitor questions when you are expecting them to engage with you Think beyond the most obvious things and provide the necessary content

Test version A Does answering questions improve conversion?

Test version B Does answering questions improve conversion?

Test version A v Test version B - RESULTS + 66% Does answering questions improve conversion?

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…

What is Usability and User Experience? Utilise persuasive design techniques to encourage conversion Combining different techniques can turbo charge your optimisation efforts

View a detailed analysis here - http://bit.ly/bookingBP Booking.com feature a wide variety of persuasion techniques, particularly on their search results pages

Scarcity Recency Social Proof How they create urgency...

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

What is Usability and User Experience? Social Proof Demonstrating that there are other people who have chosen to make the same buying decision you are considering

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

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

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

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)

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

What is Usability and User Experience? Irrespective of brand credibility, demonstrating trust/security is paramount From 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”

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

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

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

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

3% uplift

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

What is Usability and User Experience? 67 business questions usability testing can answer http://bit.ly/67questions

Summary These are my 6 applied techniques for conversion rate optimisation

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 PRWD 22 Lever Street Manchester M1 1EA United Kingdom http://twitter.com/paulrouke

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

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Applied Techniques for Conversion Rate Optimisation - Paul Rouke from PRWD

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Applied Techniques for Conversion Rate Optimisation - Paul Rouke from PRWD Presentation Transcript