Posts by: Justina Bakutyte

Cross-Selling Defined With 5 Smart Strategies & Examples To Boost Ecommerce Revenue

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Cross selling strategies | Yieldify

Five effective ways to both delight customers and increase average order value using smart cross-selling strategies.

In this article, we’ll cover the following on cross-selling:
1. How cross-selling works
2. Examples of cross-selling
3. Cross-selling vs Upselling: What’s the difference?
4. Why cross-selling is important
5. Cross-selling case study
6. Cross-selling strategies
6.1. Behavioral segmentation
6.2. Map the customer journey
6.3. Show supplemental products
6.4. Use social
6.5. Use order thresholds
7. Our closing thoughts

When it comes to increasing eCommerce sales, there are many levers you can pull. Some, like promotions and discounting, are effective in the short-run. Whereas others may take more time to implement but are known to bring long-term value and a sizable uplift in revenue.

Flooding your funnel with new customers is one way to go. We’ve explored it in more detail in The New Rules of Customer Acquisition ebook. However, as the old fable goes, it is five times more expensive to acquire new customers than to retain existing ones (yes, it’s still true in 2020!).

Reactivating cart abandoners is another good tactic to increase revenue. According to data from 41 different studies containing statistics on eCommerce shopping cart abandonment, the average documented online shopping cart abandonment rate is 69.57%.

That’s 7 out of 10 potential purchases going to waste. 

However, this time we decided to explore cross-selling, a tried and true strategy to increase average order value (AOV), boost revenue, and even improve customer experience. 

But first, let’s take a look at the terminology.

What does cross selling mean?

Cross-selling is a marketing strategy that persuades prospective customers to purchase ancillary products.

What are ancillary products?

An ancillary product is a complementary add-on product that is acquired when purchasing the original product. Ancillary products are very popular with health care and insurance providers, but they have been largely adopted by online retailers as well.

Now that’s out of the way, let’s get dig into cross selling and how it all works….

How does cross-selling work?

We’re sure that you have seen many cross-selling examples on the web, even if you didn’t recognize them as such. Marketplaces like Amazon utilize cross-selling very effectively by recommending related products based on your search.

To better understand how cross-selling and ancillary products work, let’s take a look at a couple of examples of cross-selling strategies from different industries.

Examples Of Cross-selling Strategies

Examples Of Cross-Selling Strategies

Cross selling happens every day, and you may not even realize you have been enticed by it.

Examples of cross selling include:

  • Fast food restaurants asking: “Do you want fries with that?”
  • eCommerce websites showing “customers also bought”
  • A mobile phone retailer suggesting a customer buys a new case for their new phone
  • An electronics retailer suggesting gadget insurance with a new laptop purchase

Cross selling is everywhere in the world of retail and eCommerce. Let’s look at some examples in more detail.

Going back to mobile phones, an online telecom shop that cell phones and devices can try and cross-sell phone cases, wireless headphones, etc to those looking to buy a new iPhone.

AT&T uses cross-selling on product pages

For an online fashion retailer, this could mean selling compatible products that help complete the look. A premium bags and accessories brand Coccinelle offers to buy metal charms if you’re buying a bag, whereas Adidas shows you the complete outfit.

Cross-selling example from luxury fashion brand Coccinelle
Adidas uses cross-selling to help customers complete the look

Selling beauty products? Cross-selling applies here too. When browsing for lipstick on beauty retailer’s MAKE website, we see recommendations to buy lip primer as well. Buying a razor on Aesop will prompt you to consider a shaving brush and a shaving serum.

MAKE uses cross-selling to offer ancillary makeup products
Cross-selling example from beauty brand Aesop

Cross-selling is irreplaceable for brands that sell high-value but low purchase frequency products. A classic example comes from the mattress company Casper. A business that started purely with high-quality mattresses ranging from $395 to $2,995 has expanded to sell bed frames, pillows, and bedding.

Cross-selling functions within financial services as well. For example, in banking, to cross sell means that when you open up a checking account, they will offer you to open a savings account as well.

Cross-selling vs Upselling: What’s the difference?

Before we jump into exploring the best cross-selling strategies, let’s clarify one thing that often comes up as confusing. How is cross-selling different from upselling?

What is upselling? Upselling is a marketing strategy that persuades prospective customers to purchase higher value products or upgrade a product or a service. In other words, whereas cross-selling is often associated with the McDonalds-popularized quote “Do you want fries with that?” upselling means taking your initial order and flipping it for a combo meal.

Take all the aforementioned cross-selling examples. If we were to upsell, we would:

  • Offer iPhone 11 Pro instead of an iPhone 11.
  • Offer a medium-sized bag instead of its smaller version.
  • Offer to purchase in a bundle instead of individual products.
  • Offer the premium mattress vs the original.
Upselling example from beauty brand Glossier

Why is cross-selling important?

Imagine you run a business whose best selling product costs $10 and brings in $10,000 per month. You’ve been tasked with increasing overall revenue so you focus on an expensive optimization campaign aimed at new customer acquisition.

After a lengthy campaign, you managed to secure a lift of 10% in overall sales, or an extra $1000 per month. Not too shabby.

However, a company with the exact same sales record decides instead to focus on a cross-selling campaign. For every $10 item that was added to a cart, they recommended an ancillary product worth $5. The campaign costs next to nothing to implement and is up and running in a fraction of the time of your optimization campaign.

The effectiveness of cross-selling varies, but if we assume this campaign hits a 35% success rate (the same as Amazon) then monthly revenue goes up by $1,750. That’s an extra $750 every month for a fraction of the work and cost and in a far shorter time span.

Cross-selling really is one of the most effective ways to increase overall revenue. However, don’t assume it’s as easy as simply offering more products to your prospects.

Cross-selling Case Study

If you’re looking for more reasons to embark on a clever cross-selling strategy take a look at this case study from one of our clients. Skyn ICELAND.

After analyzing their customer journey we found opportunities to drive more conversions through cross-selling. We targeted visitors purchasing Hydro Cool Firming Eye Gels, utilized Yieldify’s flexible targeting feature to recommended a complementary product.

This resulted in a +23.1% uplift in conversion rate and boosted order value by 14.94%.

You can read the full cross-selling case study here

How to create an effective cross-selling strategy?

Your primary concern with a cross-selling campaign should be ensuring that your offer is relevant. You’re aiming to offer more value to the customer, not to cause hesitation and unnecessary friction.

If a prospect adds an exercise DVD to their cart, you’d have little luck offering them smoking paraphernalia or a double chocolate gateau. Those items may well reduce overall conversions.

Finding cross selling opportunities isn’t exactly easy. Thankfully, there are five effective cross-selling strategies that should also help you zero in on the perfect products to offer.

1. Use behavioral segmentation

In a nutshell, behavioral segmentation lets you create customer cohorts and serve personalized offers based on the behavior they exhibit on your website.

What this means for cross-selling is that you can group your website visitors or existing customers based on the pages they browse and the products they view (their behavior), thus better understanding their goals and challenges. You can then serve your product recommendations in real-time making them relevant right there and then.

2. Map out your customer journeys

Even the most relevant offer can flop if served at the wrong time. Creating a customer journey map helps you identify the best touchpoints for repeat interaction and cross-sell.

Let’s say you’re Nike and you have a customer who’s already bought a pair of cross-training sneakers from you. They’ve also downloaded your Nike Training Club app. A week has passed and they’ve returned to your online shop several times to look at more cross-training products. They’re actively interested, so it’s probably a good time to follow up.

Example of cross-selling from Nike (via Really Good Emails)

Knowing their past purchases and their activity online tells you what ancillary products to offer and when. This greatly increases the chances of your cross selling efforts working and increasing revenue.

3. Offer supplemental – but not essential – products

In certain industries, the usefulness of products can be greatly enhanced with a few small extras. Take the tech sector as an example. The variety of add-ons and enhancements available make it the ideal industry for cross-selling supplementary products.

For instance, a customer purchasing a TV would likely be happy with nothing but the television itself. However, their enjoyment of the product may be enhanced with a wall mount, HDMI cables or a brand new sound system.

Offering add-ons rather than must-haves is also beneficial to the customer experience. Cross-selling will not work effectively if the client is irritated that they won’t be able to fully use the original product without actually purchasing ancillaries.

4. Take the social approach

The social approach differs a little from every other method of cross-selling. It’s used most notably by Amazon with their “frequently bought together” section on every product page. It’s interesting in that it doesn’t rely on predetermined algorithms, product sets, or “expert” recommendations. It uses the browsing and purchasing behavior of the wider customer base to offer dynamic product couplings.

It’s an incredibly effective method as the product combination suggestions are often not connections you’d traditionally make or recommended by industry pros, yet still work incredibly well together.

5. Order thresholds

This is one of the most popular cross-selling techniques and can be seen at every level of product sales. It’s technically not cross-selling as you’re not actively recommending a supplementary product to your prospects. You are, however, incentivizing them to spend more by notifying them of an order discount threshold such as the below.

Whilst not technically a traditional method of cross-selling, it’s incredibly effective in increasing AOV and overall revenue. It formed the lynchpin of a campaign we ran for M&S France which brought a 13:1 ROI and over 3,000 new leads.

By offering this deal you’re creating a win/win scenario for everyone involved. You as the company are increasing your AOV whilst the customer, despite spending a little more money, is getting incredible bang for their buck. Coupling this with the traditional cross-selling technique of suggesting supplementary products can have a profound effect on your overall AOV and revenue.

What does cross selling result in?

If done right a cross selling initiatives can have a lot of positive results. Remember cross selling isn’t just for new or prospective customers, it can work even better on an existing customer.

  1. Increased customer lifetime value – If you’re using your customer purchase data effectively you should be able to suggest genuinely useful complementary products. This leads to an increase in customer satisfaction and ultimately lifetime value.
  2. Increase in customer loyalty – If customers purchase additional products they are becoming more and more invested in your brand, if these products continue to satisfy or exceed their expectations you’ll see an increase in customer loyalty.
  3. Push specific product lines – If there are specific product lines that are not performing as well as you would like, if you can find a suitable match a cross selling promotion could help increase sales.
  4. Increase in revenue – All of the above points will ultimately result in an increase in revenue for companies that effectively use cross selling promotions.

Closing thoughts

Whether you decide to take the traditional approach and recommend specific products for your cross-selling campaign or in fact rely on a bundle or offer to sell more products and increase AOV, you need to remember the golden rule of cross-selling:

It’s all about increasing value for the customer by promoting related products.

Stop thinking about what’s going to bring the biggest lift for you as a business and instead look at what provides the most value. You may end up recommending products that bring a smaller AOV increase, but you’ll create a far better campaign that will stand the test of time and continue to bring a good return for months or years to come.

Cross Selling FAQs

What are some examples of cross-selling?

Examples of cross-selling include: Showing “you might also like” or “complete the look” product recommendations. At very easy example is the cashier at a fast-food restaurant asking “would you like fries with that?”

What is cross selling and up selling?

Cross-selling simply shows customers related or complementary items that they may find useful. Upselling actively encourages customers to purchase or “upgrade” to a higher-end product than the one they are currently viewing.

Why is cross selling important?

Cross-selling is a very important marketing tactic as it can drive considerably incremental revenue by capitalising on customers current purchase intent by showing additional products that the customer will also find useful.

Content Personalization: 5 Examples to Jumpstart Your Strategy

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Content personalization for eCommerce

80% of consumers say they are more likely to shop with brands that provide a personalized experience. So how do you get started with content personalization and what are some good examples for eCommerce? Read our blog to find out…

There has been explosive growth in eCommerce in recent years, with total eCommerce sales projected to reach 19.2% by 2024, a near 10% jump from 2018. However, this rosy picture is not without its thorns.

Mobile connectivity, while a godsend for consumers, can be a real challenge for retailers trying to meet – and exceed – customer expectations.

Take a look at the picture below… Not so long ago, the dissatisfaction from receiving an order like this would’ve ended with a couple of disgruntled remarks to the restaurant employee. Today it’s a whole different story: A Tweet sent out to hundreds of followers, a negative Yelp or Google review, a scathing article in some pop media outlet, or even a petition (yes, those happen!) can appear within seconds and tarnish the brand reputation for years to come.

In fact, according to Salesforce research, 67% of respondents said their standards for good experiences are higher than ever. Modern consumers expect consistency, immediate and responsive service, but above all – personalization.

In the same survey, 84% of customers said being treated like a person, not a number, is very important to winning their business. A successful online store today must not only curate high-demand products or services but also provide tailored shopping experiences and personalized content.

Let’s dive deeper into content personalization and learn from practical eCommerce examples that are leading the way in personalization.

What is content personalization?

In a nutshell, content personalization is the process of tailoring content that is visible to the customer based on their profile or preferences.

To illustrate with a basic practical example, imagine landing on an international website and having the content displayed in your native language. Ultimately, a well-crafted content personalization strategy means two friends could be looking at the same website and see different information.

There are a variety of ways to implement content personalization on your website, but they usually come down to customizing based on the following types of data:

  • Demographic data – demographic data includes factors such as age, gender, race, education, employment and income information, marriage status, etc. Knowing this eCommerce businesses can show different promotional offers to single parents vs retiring couples.
  • Contextual data – Gartner defines contextual data as “any relevant facts from the environment.” When talking about content personalization, this can mean things like device or browser that is used, geographic location and weather conditions, social media interactions, etc. 
  • Behavioral data – behavioral data refers to the information gathered from the activity on the website and is usually related to purchasing and usage behavior, occasion and timing, benefits-sought, loyalty, etc.

Customization vs personalization

Slightly different but often mixed into the same pot with personalization is customization. Customization is different from personalization in that customization is actively done by the user (think of actions like filtering or sorting on a results page), whereas personalization happens to the user based on rules predetermined by the business.

Think of it this way: You adjusting your screen brightness at night is customization. Your smartphone automatically recognizing the time of day and setting your screen to night mode is personalization.

The two are interconnected, however. A customer who’s always choosing to filter items by Low-High price might be categorized as price-sensitive and thus shown different personalized content than someone who filters the other way around.

Here’s an example from Bombinate, an online store for highly curated menswear clothing, furniture, and interior decor sourced from European craftsmen.

The brand is aware that it attracts various audiences and not all offers will be equally relevant. While on their website people can navigate to chosen categories themselves, it could pose a challenge to personalize communications via other channels, such as email. Bombinate found a solution.

When you sign up, you get to choose your email preferences to tell Bombinate whether you’re interested in home and furniture, men’s fashion, or both. You can also set the frequency of emails so you get content that you want and when you want it.

You’ve explicitly customized the marketing communications that you receive from the company, but the company also gets to personalize their messaging based on this explicit data.

Why is content personalization important?

We’ve already established that consumers expect personalization as part of their shopping experience. But it’s important to understand that this need is not self-inflicted.

On the contrary, online consumers are targeted by a neverending stream of promotional messages, which makes the process of shopping rather overwhelming. Studies have shown that having too much choice can be a turn off to shoppers. The term “overchoice” or choice overload, coined by Alvin Toffler in his 1970 book Future Shock, describes how people can experience cognitive impairment when presented with too many options. 

According to the Kellogg School of Management, one way to combat choice overload is to help customers narrow their options based on their preferences. People like the idea of hundreds of options but only want to be presented with the best and most relevant to their needs when it comes to decision-making. Personalizing the content on your site is the only real way to accomplish that consistently.

“Choice overload can leave you dissatisfied with the choice you made, what is often described as ‘buyer’s remorse.’ Or it can even lead to behavioral paralysis, which Bockenholt explains as a situation ‘where people are faced with so many choices that they can’t decide among them and make no choice at all.'”

Ulf Bockenholt, professor of marketing at Kellogg

Here’s a good example for financial services. A study performed by Columbia University Business School professor Sheena Iyengar featured 800,000 employees across 647 companies who were offered retirement packages that had either two options, or 59 options. When offered two options, there was 75% participation, with 59 options participation dropped to 60%.

This goes on to show that personalization matters on both the experience and conversion level. According to Yieldify’s “research into personalization trends post-COVID-19, these are the main motivators to pursue a website personalization strategy:

I’m a small eCommerce business – should I pursue personalization?

The short answer is yes. The long answer is… YESSS! Kidding.

First, let’s reiterate the fact that eCommerce has experienced 10 years’ worth of growth in only three months following the COVID-19 outburst. What this means, in plain terms, is that there’s more choice and more competition than ever before.

So if before you might’ve been the only online retailer selling freshly roasted coffee beans to coffeeholic in your area, chances are you aren’t anymore.

What’s more, you mustn’t delude yourself that you’re only competing with other coffee roasters in your area. Globalization means that shoppers can have their coffee shipped from almost anywhere else in the world in a matter of days. And don’t forget about replacement competitors, such as energy drinks, caffeine tablets, concentrates, et al.

7 inspiring content personalization examples for eCommerce

1. Aveda 

Aveda is a popular beauty brand with a significant online presence. One of the key things in providing a good user experience for Aveda is to match their products to specific concerns that a customer might have.

However, problems arise when even the customers themselves don’t really know what those concerns are. Is my skin dry or dehydrated? Do I have scalp irritation or is normal to have itchiness here and there? In the store, this would be as easy as having a consultant take a look and decide what’s what. But online it’s a whole different story…

To prevent customers from buying the wrong product or abandoning the site altogether after not being able to find a suitable solution, Aveda has been creating a series of interactive quizzes, such as their Hair & Scalp Check.

The quiz asks 10 questions about things such as hair texture, problem areas, and desired results. Then, the algorithm cross-references your answer with 4 million possible combinations and spits out personalized product recommendations, salon treatments, as well as personalized how-to content.

Aveda proceeds to invite users to save their results by creating an account on their page and promising to “make your dream” towards having dream hair that you’ve fantasized in the quiz a reality.

2. Petal & Pup

Petal & Pup is an online fashion brand that despite its small team and limited resources were able to deploy multiple personalization solutions on their eCommerce website.

By simply landing on their homepage, you can immediately notice some personalization tactics in place. For example, Petal & Pup offer website visitors to search their website by using voice control. This is particularly helpful if a lot of their visitors are using mobile devices, or if the brand has intel that their shoppers prefer to do it this way.

Another easy-win personalization tactic is currency. Petal & Pup have offices in Los Angeles and Brisbane, however, they sell globally and their website is able to recognize a visitor coming from the United Kingdom. Displaying product prices in the visitor’s currency removes the unnecessary burden of having to calculate conversion and see whether they can afford the product or not.

But Petal & Pup don’t stop there. Working with Yieldify they’ve deployed specific messaging for their loyal customers. To facilitate new conversions, the brand highlighted new arrivals based on their previous purchases. This tactic resulted in a 17% conversion rate uplift from returning customers.

Read the Petal & Pup case study to learn more!

3. Alo Moves

Alo Moves offers online yoga, fitness, and meditation classes, and is part of Alo Yoga, an online retailer of workout wear. The reason why Alo Moves deserves a spot on this list is because they’re exceptionally dedicated to content personalization.

First, every new Alo Moves’ user journey begins with an onboarding survey. This is where you can set your preferences, such as classes you’re interested in, your experience level, your goals, and even your favorite teaching style so that you’re matched up with the best possible instructor.

Once you’ve established your preferences, Alo Moves will go on to tailor their website content to match your choices. For example, this is what their homepage looks like to a logged-in user who’s expressed interest in yoga at the beginner-intermediate level:

  • Alo Moves recommends daily classes at beginner to medium difficulty.
  • Alo Moves reminds the user of classes they’ve started watching but haven’t finished.
  • Alo Moves understands that someone’s interest in yoga could mean they’re curious about meditation and mindfulness too.
  • They also recommend niche takes on yoga, like Hygge Yoga or Yoga for Golfers.

4. Adidas

Back in 2017, adidas made headlines by announcing the launch of their mobile app built around Salesforce technology to deliver personalized shopping experiences to their increasingly young customer database. The app was introduced as a means of achieving adidas’ 5-year goal to generate €4 billion from digital commerce by 2020.

The app is a replica of adidas’ online store but also has custom features like a news feed of personalized video content and articles, customized product recommendations, services chatbot, wishlist, curated gift guides, and more. The app is also supposed to get smarter and learn more about the user as they go:

“The app gets to know the consumer’s sport and style preferences and learns from his or her behavior and interaction with adidas across all our digital touchpoints.”

Joseph Godsey, Head of Digital Brand Commerce, adidas

5. Rocksbox

Rocksbox is a a jewelry subscription service that offers highly curated pieces to its membership base. According to Chanel Li, VP of Business Operations at Rocksbox, “Every single item we recommend to our customer, every single physical piece we put into a customer’s hand, we’ve specifically picked out for that customer.”

Rocksbox operates based on shoppers building their style profiles. This is done via an online survey and browsing through the company’s extensive wish list to mark your favorite pieces. Then, Rocksbox stylists sift through all the data points and curate a personalized jewelry box.

Another nifty feature Rocksbox offers to stand out from the competition is wishlisting on social media apps. Once you connect your Instagram profile to your Rocksbox account, you can wishlist items directly on Instagram and the company’s algorithm will sync them to your profile.

This creates a seamless experience for the user. And the results speak for themselves – the #wishlist idea quadrupled the brand’s following on Instagram and the overall approach to personalization has led to an $8.7 million investment. 

Common personalization myths you need to ignore

So far we’ve established what content personalization is, why it matters to modern eCommerce businesses, and how some of the industry innovators are using content to personalize their shopping experiences.

Last step in our guide is to debunk some of the most common myths surrounding the personalization practice.

Myth: Personalization is not very effective

Truth: According to Epsilon, 80% of consumers are more likely to shop with brands that provide a personalized experience. Personalization has been proven to positively affect online user experience, which in return yields higher conversion rates, higher AOV, better retention, and CLV. You can see proof of that on our case studies page. 

Myth: Personalization is too invasive

Truth: Personalization can be too invasive, but it doesn’t have to be when done right. In fact, 83% of consumers in an Accenture study said they don’t mind giving away their personal information in order to receive a tailored experience. What’s important here is that businesses understand the value of that information, collect and store it complying with government regulations, and ultimately act upon it in a way that’s relevant to consumers.

Myth: Personalization ROI is impossible to measure

Truth: Personalization as a concept might be elusive, but its performance is highly trackable and measurable. To prove personalization success at Yieldify, we use incremental revenue reports that basically show how much more money you’ve generated thanks to deploying personalization strategies on your site.

Myth: Personalization requires a big budget

Truth: The good thing about personalization is that it’s not a cookie-cutter marketing tactic. What works for one brand might not work for another. Same way, where some brands can invest millions to develop complex machine learning personalization solutions, others can achieve just as good an impact by deploying simple content personalization tactics like email sign up forms, exit-intent overlays, dynamic coupons, etc.

Myth: Personalization requires technical expertise

Truth: The level of technical expertise needed to execute a personalization strategy will really depend on how sophisticated you want to get, and also the personalization technology that you choose. For instance, if you go with self-service solutions, chances are you’ll need to summon some help from your website developers. However, with a fully-managed service like Yieldify, all your personalization tactics are done for you by their team of account managers, designers, technical engineers, and data analysts.

Holiday eCommerce: 7 CRO Tactics Your Website Needs This Peak Season

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We analyzed our data and handpicked 7 conversion optimization tactics known to boost holiday eCommerce sales. Check out these campaign ideas designed to make an impact before, during, and after the 2020 peak season.

If you’re selling anything anywhere in the world, then there’s slim chance you haven’t heard of the Cyber 5: A five-day period from Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday that marks the beginning of the holiday shopping season.

For consumers, this month-long affair leading all the way up to Christmas is best defined by an onslaught of marketing campaigns, deals, and discount offers enticing to shop until they drop. 

For retailers, on the other hand, it’s the most profitable time of the year. In fact, holiday eCommerce sales account for about 30% of the total eCommerce revenue each year!

Holiday eCommerce stats - Sales from 2015 to 2019

Statista’s data shows that in 2019, holiday season revenue for online stores reached $135 billion dollars, which means it was increasing by an average of $14.75 billion ever since 2015. But what does it mean for the 2020 peak season and beyond?

Holiday eCommerce: Market insights 

This year, online shopping has experienced a boom. Ushered by the COVID-19 pandemic, social distancing, and stay-at-home rules, consumers flocked to the internet to buy everything from groceries to clothing, office supplies, exercise equipment, and even stuff like bidets.

In three months, eCommerce experienced three years’ growth. The leap, christened by McKinsey as ‘The Quickening‘, has thrown many marketers’ projections out of whack and gave a valid reason for staggering claims that eCommerce is set to top $1.1 trillion dollars for the first time ever.

So, answering the question of what to expect from holiday eCommerce this year is as difficult as ever and is best approached with a data-driven mindset. Let’s look at some 2019 holiday eCommerce statistics to get a better idea of what’s coming.

2019 holiday sales statistics

  • Total 2019 U.S. holiday sales reached $722.6 billion (+4.1% lift from $694.32 billion).
  • U.S. holiday eCommerce sales reached $135.35 billion (+12% lift from $119.54 billion in 2018).
  • Cyber Monday 2019 was the biggest online shopping day in U.S. history with $7.9 billion in online sales.
  • Holiday eCommerce conversion rate reached 4.3% on desktop and 1.8% on mobile.
  • Holiday eCommerce average order value (AOV) reached $152.95 USD.
  • 34.5% of 2019 holiday eCommerce spending happened via smartphone.

2019 holiday consumer behavior

  • 60% of U.S. consumers said they start holiday gift shopping before December.
  • Home improvement was the leading holiday season eCommerce category by YoY growth.
  • Amazon was the preferred online store for Christmas gift shopping among U.S. adults.
  • Buy online, pick up in-store (BOPIS) option was implemented by 60% of U.S. retailers.

2020 holiday eCommerce predictions

Based on the insights from Yieldify’s Peak Season survey of 400 UK & US eCommerce marketers and 2,000 consumers, there’s an increasing divide between the two camps. 

On one side, 33% of marketers are choosing to opt out of 2020’s peak season campaigns compared to only 6% last year. Their positivity around improving the previous year’s results has also dwindled to only 45% saying they’re confident in their abilities to increase revenue. They cited concerns about a reduction in consumer demand, followed by increased competition with other eCommerce websites.

2020 peak season revenue trends

However, this is not at all reflected in the consumer report. In fact, according to Yieldify, 34% of consumers plan to increase their peak season spending. What’s more, the majority plan to mainly shop online with 48% of consumers heading to familiar websites and nearly one-third (29%) planning to shop on mostly new websites.

Holiday eCommerce stats | Yieldify

This huge disconnect between what marketers think consumers want vs what they actually want is where the opportunity lies for smart and agile eCommerce leaders. With less competition for an increased and more engaged customer base, marketers have a great opportunity to increase market share this peak season (and beyond).

7 CRO tactics to win this holiday shopping season

In order to help your store come out on top this holiday shopping season, we’ve delved into our proprietary data and client campaigns from last year and developed a list of holiday eCommerce specific strategies known to turn browsers into buyers (and create an on-point customer journey map). 

Cross-referenced with our research into website personalization trends after COVID-19, these tactics will help you differentiate your brand from the competition, improve your eCommerce customer experience, target promotional offers to customer segments, and make this sales period your most profitable yet.

Jump to a section:
1. Holiday lead capture
2. Holiday wishlisting
3. Social proof
4. Countdown timers
5. Holiday gift guides
6. Cart reminders
7. Return redirects

1. Holiday lead capture

The peak season, as well as the months leading up to it, are a great opportunity to grow your email list. And knowing that email marketing is consistently rated as the highest ROI marketing channel, it’s undeniably important to utilize in your holiday marketing campaigns.

As Campaign Monitor research shows, 116 million emails were sent on Black Friday seeing the highest number of opens and clicks. Another 106 million emails were sent on Cyber Monday. Overall, 20% of 2019’s holiday website traffic was coming from email.

That’s why our number one tactic is holiday lead capture. Here’s how to do it right:

  • Start your holiday lead capture campaigns early to get the maximum number of signups.
  • Offer holiday-specific incentives, such as access to pre-sale, exclusive discounts, and offers.
  • Update your creative to reflect the holiday theme.
  • Add your lead capture forms to high-traffic landing pages.
  • Experiment with timing, i.e. show the form immediately after load vs some time on the page.

Pro tip: Go one step further and develop a fully-fledged EDM marketing campaign. Not sure what EDM marketing is? Check out our blog post.

2. Holiday wishlisting

With some retailers opting out of 2020 peak season campaigns altogether and others starting their promotional offers super early (looking at you, Amazon), even your most loyal customers might be confused as to what they can expect from your store this holiday shopping season.

To prevent customer attrition, offer your visitors a wishlist functionality. Inviting them to create an account and save items to their wishlist not only grows your database but it also creates brand attachment for peak season and beyond.

  • Start your wishlist campaigns before holiday promotions to people have time to create their lists.
  • Send wishlist reminder emails to get those customers back to your store.
  • Use the customers’ wishlist data to further personalize your marketing efforts.

Pro tip: Incorporate the data you get from the wishlisting customers into your social proof campaigns. For example, display a “Most Wished For” banner on popular items. Not sure how? Get in touch!

3. Social proof

The fear of missing out (FOMO) is a powerful motivator, and with holiday eCommerce shoppers looking online more than ever, social proof will be an effective way to build urgency and drive conversions. 

For the duration of the holiday shopping period, consider running social proof campaigns on both product listing pages (PLPs) and product detail pages (PDPs) alike. Use copy that suggests scarcity and creates an urgency to purchase, such as: 

  • In high demand
  • Selling out fast
  • Sell out risk
  • Almost gone

Pro tip: Use real-time social proof to display customer activity here and how. For example, “X items sold in the last 24 hours” or “Only X items left.” For more social proof examples, head over here.

Holiday eCommerce CRO tactics - Social proof

4. Countdown timers

Continuing down the path of marketing psychology, we have another tactic that is known to toy with consumer minds and create urgency to purchase: Countdown timers. 

Timers are a great way to encourage shoppers to convert in-session because it makes them anticipate the feeling of regret if they miss the opportunity. eCommerce stores can use countdown timers in a number of ways: From flash sales and limited edition products to holiday campaigns, such as Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales.

Don’t forget you can also have your timer count up towards a specific date, for example, 10 days left until Thanksgiving sale!

Pro tip: Optimize your countdown timers for different devices. Whereas a pop-up overlay might work on desktop, mobile requires a different approach and is best served by a floating banner. See how M.J. Bale used countdown timers to boost conversions. Download the full case study here.

5. Holiday gift guides & recommendations

Don’t forget that the holiday peak season is not just about people shopping for their own needs. Gift shopping comes in strong with 9 in 10 Americans (89%) planning to buy gifts for friends and loved ones, and 54% of consumers taking recommendations from retailers, according to NRF.

Holiday gift guides are a great way to improve your eCommerce store’s experience by making site navigation easier, gift-searching more straightforward, and your brand more top of mind for the consumer. It is also a powerful tool for eCommerce websites to use cross-selling and upselling campaigns, and boost ancillary revenue.

  • Create a variety of gift guides based on relatable traits, such as price (gifts under $50), gender (for him, for her), relationship (for dad, for co-worker), hobbies (cooking, reading), etc. 
  • Include gift bundles to increase your average order value.
  • Tap into influencers to curate and promote a gift guide to their followers.

Pro tip: Create a toaster campaign that shows up once the visitor has added an item to their shopping cart. Show highly-targeted and relevant offers based on that user’s in-session behavior. Not sure how? Get in touch!

Holiday eCommerce CRO tactics - Gift guide

6. Shopping cart reminders

While cart abandonment is a constant challenge faced by eCommerce marketers, it seems like COVID-19 might have introduced even more things to worry about come peak season. Looking at Statista’s data, the average cart abandonment rate across industries in March 2020 reached 88.05% (before it was usually cited to be around 75.6%).

Cart abandonment rate statistics 2020

While the rate might be different, reasons for cart abandonment remain the same. Usually, shoppers abandon their carts due to high shipping costs, unexpected taxes, and discount codes not working. Also to blame is the habit of comparison shopping.

Knowing how important holiday eCommerce sales are to the overall revenue of the business, deploying smart cart recovery tactics is crucial for any holiday marketing campaign. Here are our top tips:

Pro tip: Remind visitors of past shopping sessions and streamline their progress to checkout with shopping cart reminders. These can be effectively combined with urgency tactics like inventory warnings and discount deadlines to drive speedy conversions. Not sure how? Get in touch!

Holiday eCommerce CRO tactics - Shopping cart reminders

7. Return redirect overlay

Congrats! You did everything there is to optimize your eCommerce store for holiday season conversions. You got the traffic, made the sales. Not to rain on your parade, but inevitably, you’re going to be faced with returns. And a lot of them.

The reality is that many customers buy products with an explicit plan to immediately return some or all of their items. When it comes to holiday frenzy with discounts and gift shopping, this becomes even more true.

Holiday eCommerce return rates

Don’t fret. Here’s a clever strategy to make those returners convert again. Using behavioral segmentation, you can target customers who have returned a product and serve them a personalized overlay with a copy that acknowledges their return and offers to find a better suitable item.

Pro tip: It’s important to know the reasons behind a customer’s return, otherwise this tactic might not be effective or even cause more dissatisfaction. Try to gather as much data as you can on the reasons behind a return and create targeting segments accordingly.

Holiday eCommerce CRO tactics - Return redirect

Not enough holiday CRO tactics? Get in touch and we’ll share 10 more!

Peak season is just around the corner and it’s important to start sowing the seeds – or in your case, holiday marketing campaigns. We can help you reach maximum exposure on your holiday promotions, turn browsers into buyers, abandoners into loyalists, and more.

All you have to do is get in touch with our team and we’ll share 10 other CRO tactics that our team has carefully curated for this holiday season.

CRO for eCommerce stores - Get a Yieldify demo

BOPIS Strategy In Retail and eCommerce With Examples

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The Importance of BOPIS in Retail and Ecommerce

Retailers across the globe are adopting the BOPIS model to meet customer expectations and needs. But what exactly is BOPIS and what impact can retailers expect from it? Discover that and more in the article below.

You’ll struggle to find a successful eCommerce company that doesn’t offer BOPIS (buy online, pickup in-store) option to their customers, and there’s a good reason for it.

This method is a good stepping-stone between traditional brick-and-mortar companies and online retailers who are looking for ways to keep customers happy. It’s also a great compromise between those who love in-store shopping and those who swear by shopping online. 

Below, we’ll take a look at the impact that the BOPIS strategy has had on eCommerce and the retail industry as a whole, as well as how you can use it to drive performance and sales. 

Here’s everything that we’ll cover today:

1. What is BOPIS
2. How BOPIS works
3. BOPIS impact on retail and eCommerce
4. Benefits of BOPIS
5. Challenges of BOPIS
6. BOPIS in action
7. Conclusion

What is BOPIS in retail?

BOPIS simply means buy online, pick up in-store.

It’s become a popular retail strategy that allows customers to have the best of both worlds: online shopping and in-person pickup. That way, customers don’t have to pay for shipping, wait a long time for their items to be delivered, and deal with delivery errors that often arise with order fulfillment. They can shop from the comfort of their own homes, purchase the item online and go to the store when it is time to see the item is ready for pickup.

BOPIS is a great strategy for eCommerce that allows you to create a great blend of online shopping and physical stores, making the shopping process more convenient for everyone.

Brick and mortar businesses with eCommerce functionality have been making the most of this online and in store experience. Many retailers now offer bopis as part of their checkout process.

How the (BOPIS) buy online pickup in store strategy works

The BOPIS strategy is fairly straightforward to implement. If you have both an eCommerce website and a physical retail store, all you have to do is simply add an extra delivery method and ensure your stores can process these orders efficiently and provide a good bopis experience.

You’ll also need to ensure that there is a designated area that allows customers to quickly pick up their items. This could be a specific section within your store location or even curbside pickup to effectively deal with bopis orders.

Here’s a more detailed look at the BOPIS shopping experience:

  • Customers will browse the online inventory to see what’s available, and when they find an item they want, they will be given an option to select “pick-up” or “delivery.”
  • Once the order has been placed, the local storefront will fulfill and hold onto the order. 
  • The customer will go to that local storefront to pick up their order; there is typically a designated pickup area or help desk that can assist with online orders.

BOPIS is most effective when highlighted across the entire customer journey: from first seeing the option in the product list, to being reminded of it on the product detail page and all the way to the checkout.

Best Buy is a great example of adopting buy online pickup in store. On their website, shipping details and pick up options are clearly and consistently displayed throughout the buyer’s journey.

BOPIS statistics & its impact on retail and eCommerce

BOPIS has been increasing in its adoption rate by retailers consistently over the past few years. It’s reported that by 2021, 90% of retailers will offer the Buy Online Pick Up In-Store (BOPIS) option.

The below chart by Microsoft shows that BOPIS searches surged across retail categories: “Categories that contained necessities saw the largest growth in BOPIS as a result of the pandemic, with grocery and mass retailers leading the way. Pet supplies, home and garden, and beauty also saw significant increases in BOPIS shopping.”

So why are more and more eCommerce websites adopting a BOPIS model? Why is offering in-store pickup becoming more popular? 

The short answer is – BOPIS leads to more sales.

BOPIS leads to increased online activity and sales

Major eCommerce companies that adopted BOPIS in recent years have seen an uptick in sales as customers are more eager to buy online and pick-up in store. This behavior was amplified by recent conditions around the globe as retailers battled with the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

KIBO Commerce data shows retailers are seeing customers select the BOPIS option four times more than they were before the pandemic began. What’s more, compared to 2018, BOPIS orders have increased dramatically and now make up around 40% of total retail orders.

Companies such as Petco and Dollar General have seen an increase in their overall sales figures thanks to the introduction of a BOPIS option. According to AdWeek, Home Depot saw 48% of its online sales in 2018 use the BOPIS method.

The biggest reason for increasing sales is that customers are more likely to purchase additional items when picking up their orders in-store.

According to the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC), over 50% of adult shoppers use BOPIS, and 67% of those people add additional items to their carts when they know they can pick them up immediately.

This behavior was also seen by Lululemon – the brand reported  20% of shoppers who chose to pick up their orders in-store made an additional purchase when they came to collect it.

BOPIS growth & why it’s growing

Possibly the biggest driving factor behind the growth of BOPIS is convenience. Recent research from The National Retail Federation found that 83% of consumers find convenience while shopping to be more important to them than it was five years ago.

Added to this the report also found that 97% of respondents backed out of a purchase because it was inconvenient. On the opposite end of the scale, 70% of respondents said BOPIS improved their shopping experience. So it’s clear there is a continued interest in buying online, pick up in-store.

The benefits of BOPIS for retail

As seen above, BOPIS can potentially help eCommerce stores increase sales numbers by providing a delivery option that customers will use and appreciate. There are also some other advantages.

Lower or no delivery costs. According to Offers.com study, 35% of respondents said they favor the BOPIS method because it allows them to avoid shipping costs. And in the odd times that you do have to pay to pick up in-store, the fees are usually much lower than home delivery.

Ultra-fast service. It can be stressful tracking a package that’s coming from somewhere else in the globe, hoping that when it arrives (if it does), it’s the correct item and it is undamaged. Picking an item up in-store means that customers can place an order and then go to their local store to pick it up if it’s in stock. Of course, you may still need to wait a few days if the item is not in stock.

Peace of mind. Some shoppers don’t like the uncertainty of waiting for a package to arrive without even being able to look at the physical item first. BOPIS offers a kind of in-stock insurance that online stores can’t always provide. Customers can open, view, and determine whether the product is right for them and meets their needs. If not, they may be able to return it straight away.

Extra purchases and increased foot traffic. Customers are more inclined to make purchases when they know they can pick it up in the store, so they are much more likely to add extra items to their purchase. Moreso, BOPIS will actually get people into your store. This presents you with an extra chance to make that point of sale display, or in-store only offer work even harder.

The Challenges of BOPIS strategy in retail

BOPIS can be a great strategy that yields very positive results, but it’s not without its own set of challenges. There may be some times where the BOPIS model causes an overwhelming or unsatisfactory experience for customers, and you may not feel completely satisfied with it on your end, either.

Research from NAPCO found that the biggest challenges stemmed from the physical store itself.

So here are some things to look out for if your planning on using a BOPIS strategy which left unchecked can lead to poor results and annoyed customers:  

Potential pick up queues. If too many customers are taking advantage of your BOPIS strategy at once, and they are all rushing to their local store for a pickup, that local store may have long lines. Make sure you have a designated area and even designated staff to deal with these customers quickly.

Lack of inventory. There are times where larger eCommerce companies cannot keep up with certain inventory demands. It’s important to keep an eye on what’s selling so you can keep them stocked up. Your POS or stock system needs to be in constant communication with all other systems involved to ensure that inventory levels are where they need to be.

Lack of participation by the storefront. The in-store pickup location needs to be fully on board with your BOPIS model. Unfortunately, some stores do not do a good job telling customers where to go, what line to stand in, or who to talk to in order to pick up their online order. Ensure that the BOPIS model is ingrained in your stores and new starter packs. 

5 examples of successful BOPIS strategy implementation

So what companies have been using the BOPIS model the right way? Here are some examples of those benefiting from this strategy.

Dollar General

Dollar General is a chain of variety stores in the US. In late 2019, they introduced DG Pickup, their own name for BOPIS, under the slogan “Get in, out and done even faster.”

“Our digital efforts are focused on making things easier for our customers by providing an even more convenient, frictionless, and personalized shopping experience,” the CEO Todd Vasos said of the initiative.

This ended up helping Dollar General increase sales by 27.6% to $8.4 billion in the first quarter of 2020. It is also one of the biggest reasons why the store was able to stay open during mandated COVID-19 restrictions.

Lowe’s

Lowe’s is an American retailer specializing in home improvement with 2,000 stores nationwide, so, of course, BOPIS is ideal for them. Lowe’s identified the need to improve their systems and rolled out over 88,000 mobile devices capable of processing BOPIS orders. 

The aim was to help customers get in and out of the store faster, to streamline their experiences, to better manage inventory, and, of course, to increase sales. Which it did.

In the first quarter of 2019, Lowe’s saw a whopping 60% of its online purchases being picked up at local stores, as stated by Lowes EVP Joseph McFarland. 

Petco

Another American retailer that’s making the most of BOPIS is Petco. Petco is an American pet retailer in the United States with over 1,500 stores nationwide. Another perfect candidate for BOPIS.

So it may come as no surprise to know that within the first month of offering BOPIS transactions, Petco drove 100,000 BOPIS orders and a 5% increase in net new customers and eCommerce revenue. 

Nordstrom

In the third quarter of 2019, Nordstrom reported one half of its department store digital sales growth coming from order pickup. Added to this in Los Angeles, two-thirds of digital sales growth came from in-store pickup.

Co-president Erik Nordstrom has even said that order pickup is the company’s most profitable transaction: “Leveraging existing store assets and digital capabilities enabled us to implement their shared inventory approach without making additional material investments … This represents a meaningful opportunity to increase convenience for customers during the holidays and at a lower cost for us.”

Home Depot

In 2018, Home Depot began a three-year plan to invest over $11 billion dollars into improving its retail experience. A big part of this strategy was to better blend its physical and digital selling experiences.

According to CEO Craig Menear, the strategy is paying off as he described 2019 as a record year for the company. Sales for the fiscal year 2019 were $110.2 billion, up 3.5% from 2018’s $108.2 billion. He also went on to add that its online customers choose to pick up their orders in stores more than half the time.

The BOPIS bottom line & best practices

So if you’re a brick and mortar retailer with an online presence who isn’t offering BOPIS you may want to start looking into that. You’ll be providing your customers with a convenient delivery method that has been proven to increase sales across multiple retailers. 

Just make sure you have, or can get the following requirements in place to ensure a successful BOPIS offering:

  1. A website or app for ordering.
  2. At least one brick and mortar location.
  3. Real-time inventory capabilities.
  4. A location that allows for easy pick up in store or even curbside pickup

Online shoppers are always on the lookout for convenience, this is the main driving force behind retailers adopting the buy online, pick up in-store model (BOPIS). This presents you with an extra chance to make that point of sale display or in-store only offer work even harder.

The key here is to work with the best fulfillment companies, which ultimately places orders in the hands of your customers much faster.

BOPIS FAQ’s

What is BOPIS in retail?

In retail & eCommerce BOPIS simply means buy online, pick up in-store. Customers can purchase items online, but choose to collect their purchase in-store rather than getting it delivered.

How does in store pick up work?

If a website offers in store pick up you can select this option when checking out. Your purchase will then be stored at a designated pick up area ready for your collection.

eCommerce Product Detail Page Examples & Best Practices

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Product detail page | Yieldify

A product detail page is the lifeblood of eCommerce. Read our blog post to learn the best ways to create high-converting PDPs and get a free 25-step design template.

Any online consumer will tell you that it’s important to know everything there is to know about a product before purchasing it. And when you are running an eCommerce website, you want everything to be as easy as possible for your customers. Creating high converting eCommerce product pages is an essential part of a successful online store.

But, what exactly is a product detail page, and what makes it effective? All of these questions and more will be answered below.

But, what exactly is an eCommerce product detail page, and what makes it effective?

All of these questions and more will be answered below.

We’re going to cover:
1. PDP Basics
2. Why Product Detail Pages Are Important
3. PDP Best Practices
3.1. General Components
3.2. Conversion Components
3.3. Administrative Components
4. Product Detail Page Examples
5. Yieldify PDP Template

Check the tips and tricks offered in this guide as you start planning your own web-based market strategy to capture leads, interact with customers, and generate profits.

PDP: The basics

What is a product detail page (PDP)? A product detail page, also known as a PDP, is a web page on an eCommerce website that provides information on a specific product. This information includes size, color, price, shipping information, reviews, and other relevant information customers want to know before purchasing.

To put it in more poetic terms, PDPs are the lifeblood of any eCommerce website. To understand them even better, consider Amazon: Notice that when you initially search for a product on Amazon, you’re given a list of products to choose from. When you see one that you like, you click it to find out more information about it.

When you click on a product on Amazon, it will open a new page. This page tells you about that specific item in detail, including a description of it, as well as its measurements, materials, ingredients, or installation instructions.

It tells the consumer everything there is to know about the item so they have a better idea of what they’re purchasing. This is the product detail page.

This page usually comes with a series of photos of the item, as well as a list of available sizes or colors it comes in. Last, but definitely not least, there will be an add to cart button somewhere near this product description.

Why is a product detail page so important?

A well-designed product detail page is essential to your marketing strategy since it is the page that leads directly to a sale. It is vital that you give consumers more information about the product they are interested in; otherwise, how are they going to know what size it is or what functions it has?

The lack of an ecommerce product detail page will make consumers more skeptical about your items, and it may turn them off from adding anything to their online shopping carts.

According to Shiprocket, 98% of shoppers discontinue a purchase if the information about the product is incomplete or incorrect. Not to mention that accurate and detailed product descriptions minimize the risk of customer complaints and returns.

Giving customers and potential buyers all the information they need to make an informed decision is the end goal. We’re talking about specific product data, product benefits, key features, social proof, and more which we will detail further below.

Your product detail pages are a key page to start the buying process and generate sales so you need to get the core components right.

eCommerce product page best practices

Now that the importance of having a product page on your website for each and every product you’re selling has been established, it is also important to understand what specifics must go into its design.

You need to design your page in a way that will ensure that your customers will stay on the page long enough to read the product description and make a buying decision. Here are some of the best practices to follow:

General components

There are certain elements that you can’t design a product detail page without. Each and every one of these elements must be present on your page, and the order and placement of these elements on your page can make a huge difference.

These elements will make the overall page design but there are also some specific things that can improve your conversion rate.

1. Menu. The menu is an essential navigation tool for customers to be able to find their way through your site. The menu will offer quick links to different areas of the site, including the homepage, the various product categories, and the customer’s shopping cart.

2. Breadcrumb. A breadcrumb, in web terms, is used to describe the path a person took to arrive at the product page. It will show all of the different web pages that a customer visited before landing on a specific product.

For example, when visiting Amazon.com to look at an air conditioning unit, you may notice at the top of the page that there is a path leading to that product. It may look something like this: “Home > Shopping > Home & Kitchen > Air and Heating > Portable Units.”

3. Product title. This should be the biggest and most easy-to-find text on the page. A product title names the product, showing your customers exactly what they’re looking at. Try to be as specific as possible without being too complicated.

4. Product descriptions. While it doesn’t need to be too long, product descriptions should accurately describe the product and define its features and benefits, its functions and limits. This is where good copywriting comes in handy; knowing what your customers want, and the right language to use to talk to them, can really entice them towards more items in your online store. If you can sprinkle in any relevant keywords from an SEO point of view as well even better.

Product descriptions should also address any big objections or concerns that anyone might have with the product. For example, if you are selling air conditioners, you might want to address a popular concern that customers have with energy consumption by talking about your product’s Energy star rating.

5. Product images. You need good, high-quality images of your product so customers can get a good look at the product. You want them to feel like they are looking at the item in person, so be sure to show images of the product at all angles.

According to eMarketer, digital shoppers expect to see anywhere between 5 and 8 images on each product description site. Don’t forget to add proper credit or copyright to the creator of the image if you are collaborating with others to share product descriptions. Finally, make sure you use high quality images.

Urban Decay shows multiple views of their product, including on skin

6. Price. Probably the most important factor on this page to your prospective customers. The price of your product or service needs to be prominent and clearly displayed. You also have the opportunity to display any discounts or reductions in price here to help drive conversions, i.e use price anchoring that looks like this: $29.99 $39.99.

The price should also be positioned near the “Buy” or “add to cart” button. This is to help with the natural flow of the page and encourage users to go from viewing the price to adding the product to their basket.

7. Call-To-Action. This is the most exciting part of the page. This is where you get to tell your customers to “add to cart”! A call-to-action is a short and quick demand that gets customers to do just that – perform an action. Typically, this action entails adding an item to their shopping cart.

8. Product availability. Potential customers want to know they can get the item quickly, showcasing that the product is in stock, or is limited in stock can help entice them into a buying action and move on to your checkout page. You’ll see most eCommerce sites will show this, so if you can have it on your product detail page definitely include it.

Conversion components

9. Social proof. Social proof can be a game-changer for your conversion rates and is a staple of top tools for CRO. Nothing will convince a prospective customer to buy a product more than hearing the positive feedback from other purchases. Social proof can come in many forms from average star ratings, to industry awards and trust badges. Have a think about what types you can use and leverage social proof if you can.

10. Scarcity and urgency signals. Showing that a product is in low stock, or has multiple people viewing it at the same time is a quick and easy way to show a customer may miss out, and they need to act quickly if they want to get the product.

11. Cross-selling. If a user is on a product detail page clearly they are seriously considering purchasing your product. You need to make the most of this intent with clever cross-selling, or upselling strategies.

12. Trust badges and trust seals. Trust badges are another quick and easy way to diminish any reluctance to purchase from your website. By highlighting that your website is secure users will feel a lot more comfortable in purchasing from you.

In a survey conducted by Econsultancy, 48% of respondents said that trust badges reassure them that the site is secure and trustworthy.

Administrative components

13. Policies. You may also wish to add certain disclaimers and policies to each product page. This clearly highlights the extent of your company’s liability with the use of your products, and what return policies may or may not exist. A return policy allows customers to feel more comfortable buying from you, just in case they ever need to return it in the future.

Privacy policy and terms of use disclaimer may be helpful as well. This prevents you from getting into any legal trouble in case a product is shipped wrong or has a faulty function. Also, list all warranties and guarantees!

14. Shipping information. You can’t have as much control over shipping as you can over the general price of your products. The same goes for state sales tax. Shipping details will need to be calculated individually with the customer depending on where they live and what kind of postal service they want to use.

The cost of delivery has a major influence over purchasing decisions. Of those who abandon their basket due to delivery, more than 50% do so because of unexpected shipping costs. So it’s best to address this as soon as users land on the page and to be straightforward about any additional fees that may occur.

3 examples of eCommerce product pages (PDPs) in action

Getting a first-hand look at some winning product detail page designs can help you plan for your own product pages. You’ll see you can get quite creative with your product page layout

NIKE

Nike is one of the most recognizable brands in the world so you can expect its products page to be on point. And Nike doesn’t disappoint.

The highlighted box is actually a video that automatically plays showing the product in action. All features and benefits can be seen on the right-hand side with special attention shown to the sustainability of the product, even giving details on how the product was made. Reviews can also be seen and delivery information is clearly shown removing any potential barriers to purchase.

FitBit

Fitbit has quickly become a household name in the fitness industry, and its product pages showcase best practices perfectly. From awesome product imagery and eCommerce videos to a bright and bold CTA, this is a leading example of what a product page should look like. Free shipping is also highlighted, with this section scrolling through warranties and money-back guarantees.

Fitbit also does everything it can to remove any buyer hesitancy by clearly displaying features and benefits. Each section on the menu above is clickable and will display all the information a prospective buyer could ever ask for.

Kardiel

Kardiel is another example of a product page done right. All information is clearly displayed and easy to find. You’ve got multiple high-quality product images, and two product videos, and if that wasn’t enough Kardial also allows users to order “swatches” of the possible colors you can choose from. As this is quite an expensive product to buy online, especially without seeing the product this is a great way to overcome any buyer resistance.

Love Hair

Love Hair’s products are designed to make your hair healthy and beautiful, with a matching clean design for their product detail pages. They use white backgrounds that allow the colors of each individual product to stand out. They have a very easy-to-follow product page layout so you can find all the product details you need.

Love Hair has a specific section (highlighted in red above) that provides all the product information potential customers would need. You’ll notice a specific ingredients section, this is something that is likely very important to their target audience so a section that lays out the natural ingredients will work well for them.

Their product details page ticks all the boxes and is a good example. A high quality product image that’s used to draw attention. Reviews from other customers, product attributes clearly displayed. The page is also well optimized for search engines with relevant keywords throughout the content.

Yieldify’s perfect product detail page design template

The below template can be used as an inspiration to create the perfect eCommerce product page. It contains everything the user will need to know to reduce any barriers to purchase. From social proof to highlighting shipping options all the information is present.

View the interactive product detail page design template here or download a free high-resolution PNG version.

Product Page FAQs

What is a product detail page (PDP)?

A product detail page, also known as a PDP, is a web page on an eCommerce website that provides information on a specific product.

What is PLP vs PDP?

A Product Detail Page (PDP) contains information for a specific & single product. A Product Listing Page (PLP) simply lists all products within a certain category or products that have been filtered.

What makes a great product page?

A great product page will contain all the information a user is looking for, displayed in an engaging and easy to understand way. Check out our template below for more ideas.

6 Types Of Marketing Testing Methods To Try

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Marketing testing methods | Yieldify

There are many marketing testing methods out there, but which ones should you try? Here we look at 6 most popular ways to test various touchpoints across the entire user journey.

Marketing testing is probably one of the most misunderstood and thus, overlooked, areas in B2C marketing. Even when they are performed, marketing tests rarely influence any significant changes due to the fact that we either a) implemented the test wrong; or b) don’t know how to interpret the results that we’ve got.

We’ve all run an odd email subject line test at some point, or pushed our design team to A/B test different colors of a call-to-action button. But what really hides behind marketing tests and what mistakes should you avoid to enjoy data-driven insights? Join us as we dig deeper into the benefits of marketing and user journey testing.

What we’ll be covering:
1. What is testing in marketing?
2. Six popular marketing testing methods
2.1 A/B testing
2.2 Multivariate testing
2.3 User testing
2.4 Usability testing
2.5 Content testing
2.6 Incrementality testing
3. Why it pays to test the entire user journey

What is meant by testing in marketing?

​​Test marketing, also known as market testing, is a marketing technique that businesses use to evaluate the viability of their new products, services, or marketing campaigns before releasing them on a large scale. Businesses all around the world test multiple marketing scenarios to determine consumer needs and to find out whether the product, service or campaign meets and fulfils consumer requirements.

The test campaigns can be carried out in chosen test markets, such as in brick and mortar stores, online stores, or social media platforms. The experiment is generally done without customers’ knowledge to acquire non-biased feedback on the product or service.

After collecting test market feedback, the data is analyzed and data-backed insights are utilized to improve the product, service, or marketing strategy. To collect, aggregate and analyze the data, reporting tools are often used as these are able to automate data processes and showcase results in easy to understand visual reports.

A/B and Multivariate testing

Let’s kick off with the tests that most of us are already familiar with: A/B tests and multivariate tests. These are user experience research methodologies used to compare variables and determine which set of variables is most effective. Also referred to as split testing, they are somewhat similar to one another but offer rather different outcomes.

What is A/B testing?

A/B testing compares two variations of the same element to determine which one produces better results. It is called A/B testing because it measures a user’s response to Variant A vs Variant B.

A/B testing = Same salad, different dressing

A/B tests have risen to stardom in the early 2000s (interesting tidbit – first cases of A/B testing date back to the 18th century and were used to treat scurvy). They were quickly adopted by designers, marketers, and developers alike to test UI elements, copywriting, discount offers, you name it!

The nice thing about A/B tests is that they’re fairly easy to implement and they can be used at a variety of touchpoints in the customer journey to test placement, color, copy, size, and other variables. But easy doesn’t mean they are always done right. Here are the main pitfalls of A/B testing:

  1. Testing more than two variants. The most common mistake is when you actually perform a multivariate test but judge the results as if it were an A/B test. To avoid this, remember this simple rule:

    [x] vs [x] = A/B test
    [y] vs [y] = A/B test
    [x] vs [y] – not an A/B test
    [x] vs [x+y] – not an A/B test
  1. Insufficient sample size. For an A/B test to return significant results, you must think of your sample size before running the test. This is not a one-size-fits-all situation – you really need to think of the level of confidence you want to achieve as well as the uplift rate you’re looking to get. There are dozens of sample size calculators online so find one that works best for you!
  2. Testing too short or too long. Again, it’s not easy to say what is a good test length for your A/B test but the general rule is that you should test for at least 7 days to reach statistical significance. If you haven’t, you can extend the test for another 7 days. However, if you run a test too long, there is a likelihood its results will compound with other tests and activities happening in the background.
See how megabus.com reached +7.5% CR uplift by A/B testing campaigns

What is multivariate testing?

Multivariate testing (MVT) compares multiple variations of several elements to determine which combination produces better results. The upside of multivariate tests is that you initially have more freedom and can make subtle changes rather than committing to versions A or B.

Multivariate testing = Different salads, different dressings

So what could be a multivariate testing example? Let’s say I want to increase conversions of my product page. Some of the elements I can use for a multivariate test are:

  • Test different imagery: product shots vs lifestyle shots.
  • Test button copy: ‘Buy now’ vs ‘Add to cart’.
  • Test different trust signals: customer reviews vs dynamic social proof.

Or if you’re running an email marketing campaign to promote the release of a new product. You could test:

  • Test sender names: brand vs individual.
  • Test opening lines: with recipient name vs generic.
  • Test visual formats: image vs video.

Note that MVT is a more advanced marketing testing method and is, therefore, most suitable for high traffic sites. Compared to A/B tests where traffic is usually split in two, in multivariate testing, it can be split in 3, 4, 5, and more groups.

User testing and usability testing

If you were ever involved in a product release, app launch, or even a website redesign project, you’ve probably heard of usability testing and user testing. Both of these terms refer to testing methods that involve real-life users and are often used interchangeably. However, they both offer different value and insights, and thus should be used separately.

What is user testing?

User testing, or user research, is an umbrella term that involves a variety of user testing methods: interviews, surveys, field studies, focus groups, and others. Its purpose is to determine the potential demand for an idea or a product by investigating user needs and behaviors. A typical outcome of a user test is a user persona or a target audience segment.

Under this definition, user testing would include usability testing.

User testing = Would you buy this brand new, cutting-edge salad?

What is usability testing?

Usability testing is a technique used to evaluate how easy or difficult it is to use a product or service by testing it on real users. Usability testing lets you understand how real users interact with the product or service, measure the user experience, and improve design based on your findings. In a typical usability test, participants are asked to complete a set of tasks while being observed by a research team.

Usability testing = How fast can you eat the salad with a fork vs. a knife?

“User Testing is about ‘Will this user use my product?’ Usability testing is to figure out ‘Can this user use this product?’ – the UX Blog.

There are multiple benefits of usability testing:

  • Usability testing is easy to implement. All you have to do is gather some participants, find a room and ideally record the process.
  • Usability testing saves money. It removes guesswork and enables you to focus on trouble areas instead of wasting away budget.
  • Usability testing clarifies your USP. It enables you to observe honest and true reactions to your product or service, determine the ‘wow factor’ and capitalize on it.
  • Usability testing uncovers missed opportunities. It showcases real-life scenarios and may uncover use cases that you haven’t thought of before.
  • Usability testing can be used throughout the product life cycle. It is not just for launching new products – usability testing helps you iterate current versions and remove existing pain points.
  • Usability testing makes everything better. Ultimately, it is here to improve user experience, which is essential for any project to succeed.

So what does this translate to for eCommerce marketers? Well, your websites and apps are your real estate, so focus on testing those! See how easy it is for users to find a product/offer they want, how they interact with ancillary products/offers on your store, how they navigate to the checkout, how they fill out the shipping form, etc. Usability testing can also work wonders for testing loyalty programs. 

Also – remember it doesn’t just have to be your product or service. You may as well test a competitor’s website to see where they might struggle or outshine you, gaining you a competitive advantage. 

There are several usability testing methods at play. Most commonly usability tests are split into: moderated vs. unmoderated; remote vs in-person; and explorative vs. assessment vs. comparative. The combinations go from there as you can have a moderated in-person assessment test, an unmoderated remote comparative test, and so on.

(via Hotjar)

Content testing

Arguably the most self-explanatory of all the marketing testing methods listed here, content testing can be considered part of usability testing. Its primary purpose is to determine whether a set of real-life users can understand and comprehend the content that you’ve provided.

Content testing = Which menu is easier to read?

Again, the objective is to measure user experience: content testing is not to determine whether users like your content, it is to determine if they can read and understand it. A good example would be the user manual for assembling a piece of furniture: you can test if the text is legible, written accurately and whether it provides the information necessary to use the product. 

When thinking of eCommerce websites, content testing comes in handy when you need to determine the names of your product categories, phrase a discount offer and its terms and conditions or feature your headline or slogan on the page – does it catch attention and explain what the page is about?

Incrementality testing

One of the marketing testing methods that we like to talk about a lot at Yieldify is incrementality testing. 

Incrementality testing is a technique that measures the impact of a single variable on an individual user’s behavior. In other words, it helps to identify how effective a particular interaction is in influencing conversions. Incrementality tests are always performed with a control group to determine the uplift an interaction brings vs. a ‘no-change’ scenario.

Incrementality test process explained

Incrementality testing falls under the A/B testing umbrella. However, whereas A/B testing is used mostly on creative elements and measured by click-through rate (CTR), incrementality testing focused on sales uplift and is measured by conversion rate (CVR).

Widely used in digital advertising, incrementality testing found its way into conversion rate and customer journey optimization processes as well. At Yieldify, we run incrementality tests to help our clients understand the value of the campaigns that we run on their websites. Here’s an example of what an incrementality test report could look like:

Incrementality test report example

Why it pays to test the entire user journey

The marketing testing methods we’ve discussed above are incredible ways to finetune your product, software or service. By employing some of them together you’re bound to collect invaluable data about your users and make necessary changes to, depending on your industry, sell more products, increase ticket sales or secure more customer sign-ups.

Nevertheless, conversion rate optimization (CRO) is just one side of the coin. If you really want to see significant outcomes of user testing, you have to employ these practices across multiple user touchpoints. In other words, you must test the entire user journey, from initial marketing channels, all the way through to how potential customers navigate your website.

The main difference between CRO and customer journey optimization (or CXO – customer experience optimization) is that CRO tests individual element sets removed from the rest of the customer journey. Whereas CJO (or CXO) runs across multiple touchpoints providing a ‘big-picture’ look at the different levers you can pull to improve your customer journey as a whole.

For that purpose, marketers exercise customer journey mapping. This allows them to not only develop empathy for the customer, but also understand consumer behavior patterns that influence conversions, loyalty, and a number of other business metrics that are directly connected to revenue.

In conclusion

Regardless of the type of market test you are carrying out, the most important thing is that you are conducting tests, collecting copious market research, and thus, gaining access to all of the valuable insights and data that can better inform your strategy. 

For the best results, it is clear that the holistic, 360 degree, all-encompassing, customer journey map reigns king. With high-impact benefits such as higher conversions, loyalty and revenue income, the marketers that can include this potent weapon in their arsenal will ultimately reap the best rewards and edge ever further in front of the competition by better understanding their target market.

Marketing Testing FAQs

What is a marketing testing method?

Marketing testing methods include A/B testing, Multivariate testing, user, and usability testing. Each testing method is designed to improve performance and user experience.

What is meant by testing in marketing?

Testing in marketing can mean a lot of different things depending on the type of tests you are running. It could be a limited release of a product to a test market, or an A/B test showing two different product pages to a select group of users.

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Coronavirus and Online Retail: 5 Best Practices Marketers Can Use Right Now

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Coronavirus and online retail | Yieldify

What does coronavirus mean for online retail and its marketing? Here’s our advice on how to act now.

Coronavirus has prompted a global domino effect, affecting all industry verticals in one way or another. The measures taken to contain the virus spread have already had a crushing impact on the travel industry in particular, which in return has plummeted the demand for oil and gas, thus crippling the energy sector… You get the idea.

Retail is no exception.

Based on a continuously updated list by CNBC, more than 60 major retailers have already closed all their stores nationwide (that’s approx. 49,200 locations). This is not even taking into account the small and medium-sized retailers, or even businesses outside the US. In the UK, all “non-essential” shops (read: clothing, books, electronics, etc.) have been forced to shut as of March 23rd.

Not being able to operate their brick and mortar locations, suffering from decreased foot traffic, disrupted supply chains and trying to cover for lost wages mean only one thing: a hard hit to the companies’ bottom line. A survey by DigitalCommerce360 found that at least 47% of retailers expect some downside revenue implications.

Coronavirus and online retail - stats | Yieldify

A knight in shining armor, or is it?

While traditional retail is coming to grips with the impact of coronavirus, the spotlight has been naturally cast on e-commerce. The expectations aren’t totally unreasonable. As more consumers stay home due to forced lockdowns, it only makes sense they will shift more and more purchases online.

However, interestingly, several consumer behavior research studies show that spending more time at home does not immediately translate to shopping online. Not yet, at least.

A global survey of 10,000 adults conducted on March 12-14 found no impact on online food and grocery sales. Statista’s data shows that as of March 15, 2020, over 40% of respondents in the United States stated that their frequency of e-commerce shopping had not changed at all.” Finally, a GlobalWebIndex study confirms that only 20% of people in all age groups said they bought more items online due to coronavirus.

Coronavirus and online retail - stats | Yieldify
% of people who say they are doing the following activities more often than before while at home

Another thing to note before singing Hail Marys to e-commerce is that online retail has its own inexhaustible list of coronavirus-induced challenges, such as:

  • Issues with stock and supply chain;
  • Transport route disruptions and delivery delays;
  • Contamination concerns;
  • Amazon capitalizing on market share;
  • Difficulty forecasting sales volumes;
  • Digital and mobile readiness as a whole.

The most recent example comes from US-based e-commerce retailers. According to Glossy, “several fashion companies have halted operations entirely” due to distribution and fulfillment center closures.

Examples of retail chains that have shut their online retail stores are Reformation, The Frankie Shop, Marysia, TJ Maxx, Marshalls, HomeGoods. Others, like Victoria’s Secret, Pink, Tucker, have otherwise been affected by international restrictions.

What’s a brand to do? 5 tips for online retail marketers

The caveat with this – and every other article on coronavirus for that matter – is that the situation changes every second of every minute of every day. Research done last week can have zero validity tomorrow because of new regulations, market shifts, crazy acts of God or who knows what. 

Nonetheless, for now, it seems that online retail certainly has the upper hand when it comes to coronavirus. Forbes’ Shelley E. Kohan suggests that consumers who turn to online shopping based on specific circumstances or events – holiday shopping, for example – are more likely to continue to use this behavior going forward. Thus creating a long-lasting impact that will extend past the current crisis.

This means that strengthening your online retail operations right now can only have a positive impact in the future.

Let’s look at some of the ways you can achieve that.

1. Adjust your messaging

Depending on your category, you may see a larger or a smaller increase in sales. According to S. Kohan, “categories more prone to increase during times of physical retraction of a population are health and beauty, grocery, and consumer product goods.” In other words, consumers will stock up on the essentials, pushing “nice to have” luxury products aside.

Dan Barker has run some interesting Google Trends reports to find that furniture, home and garden stores have seen an increase in traffic, whereas fashion sites – especially the ones known for “going out” attire – have predictably suffered a decline.

As a fashion brand, knowing that the majority of your customers have worn the same sweatpants and t-shirt combo for the past seven days, you might want to adjust your messaging to make your brand relevant.

Examples of brands using their products to capitalize on the work-from-home trend.

2. Show that you’re in the know

DigitalCommerce360 data shows that 75% of retailers in the Top 100 have a coronavirus-related message on their website. These come in various formats – starting from lowkey in-page banners at the top or the bottom of the page to full-page statements (see Restoration Hardware).

Coronavirus and Online Retail - Best Practices | Yieldify
Yieldify banner informing Catbird customers of their COVID-19 policies

This type of messaging is non-intrusive (which has been flagged as a problem with commercial emails) and gives you the chance to share your policies, recommendations, and any other relevant information around COVID-19.

3. Adapt delivery and return processes

One of the most important lines of communication for an e-commerce retailer in a time of crisis is around delivery and returns. Failure to inform and meet customer expectations can have catastrophic effects, and can result in a long-term loss of brand loyalty.

Through the Coronavirus crisis, several trends have emerged, one of them being “contactless” deliveries in which delivery workers leave packages at the door. Curbside pickup has also been adopted by many food and grocery retailers, as well as retailers like Dick’s Sporting Goods, Michael’s and many others.

Coronavirus and Online Retail - Best Practices | Yieldify
Michael’s offering curbside pickup

As many as 19% of the Top 100 retailers have also extended returns and exchanges period with an uptick in free delivery options, all in a bid to appeal to consumers and keep the cash flowing.

Coronavirus and Online Retail - Best Practices | Yieldify
Fashion retailer Miista adjusting its return policy in light of COVID-19

4. Help customers get a feel for your product

If there was ever a time to make sure your product looks irresistibly good online, that time is now. Without the ability to see, touch, feel or even measure your product in real life, consumers will expect to discern that information from your product photos.

Product dimensions and size charts will be absolutely crucial to online furniture, interior decor and fashion stores. When it comes to the FMCG sector, The University of Cambridge has developed Mobile Ready Hero Image Guidelines to help online retailers accurately represent physical products in online shopping environments, especially on mobile devices.

Mobile Ready Hero Image (MRHI) guidelines

But don’t forget to include lifestyle images as well. Here’s a good example from LARQ, a self-cleaning water bottle brand. Their website is a comprehensive mix of product specs, visualizations, product photos and inspiring lifestyle shots.

Coronavirus and Online Retail - Best Practices | Yieldify
LARQ showcasing a perfect mix of product visuals

5. Offer face-to-face interactions online

Praised as the introvert’s sweet dream, coronavirus-induced quarantine and physical distancing aren’t playing out that well for many of us. Mental health professionals are widely discussing the rise in stress levels, anxiety and loneliness with recommendations to stay socially active as much as conditions allow.

Consider this opportunity as a chance to not only increase conversions, but also humanize your brand and maybe help someone in need of human contact. Take a page from Burrow’s playbook.

With its physical showrooms closed, this D-to-C furniture brand decided to offer 15-30 minute virtual appointments with its store specialists to go over any design or product questions customers might have.

Coronavirus and Online Retail - Best Practices | Yieldify
Burrow offers virtual design consultations while its physical showrooms are shut

Closing thoughts

Staying static ultimately won’t help you win in the retail fight against coronavirus, and it’s those that can be reactive to the changing business environment, adapting quickly, that will yield the best results/rewards.

While deemed a crisis, it’s clear that there are indeed opportunities for e-commerce retailers to minimize the risk of losses seen by those in traditional retail, some even making gains. If you make the right business moves now, with your customers at the heart of your strategy, you might just reap long-lasting benefits when the storm comes to close.

Online Retail FAQs

? How is coronavirus impacting the online retail industry?

The impact of coronavirus is different across industries. Some have seen tremendous and instant growth due to lockdown restrictions, others have seen sales fall to very low levels. For example, Amazon has seen a huge 40% year-on-year growth in net sales. Whereas Travel related websites would be affected in a much more negative way,

?️ How can online retailers adapt to coronavirus?

We detail 5 ways that online retailers can adapt, these include:
1) Adjust your messaging
2) Address the issue
3) Adapt delivery and return processes
4) Help customers get a feel for your product
5) Offer face-to-face interactions online