Learn From The Top Converting Retail Websites

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Nikko

Nikko

Quality Arching Since1983
Jan 7, 2009
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Doing this will save you literally thousands of dollars in testing and tweaking your LPs.

Learn from the corporate pages that really convert - check out every element (they've spent millions tweaking for max profitability), and use their example to improve your own landing pages and help you pre-sell.

Look for how they use every major marketing persuasion element - trust factors, calls to action, USP, graphics, scent tracking, etc. How does each retailer manage the user experience and expectation? How do they lead the user through to conversion?

Then look at your own end offer merchant page - what are they missing (or doing right!) in these areas? Your job is to bridge the gap, and lead your visitor painlessly into the conversion on the merchant's page.

Your money-making skill as an affiliate marketer is filling the gap between visitor and merchant. Don't try to re-invent the wheel, instead use the gazillions of corporate marketing dollars already spent refining the sales/conversion process to your benefit by simply studying the winners and filling the gap.


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Top 10 Online Retailers by Conversion Rate: February 2009

Here are the top 10 converting websites for February 2009*. These are based on Nielson Panel data and are calculated by toolbar user to final conversion. Conversion-rate data is based on visitor conversion rates, not session conversion rates: i.e., No. of unique customers/No. of unique visitors.


1. Schwan’s 42.10

2. ProFlowers 36.50

3. Quixtar 33.20

4. Vitacost.com 28.90

5. Woman Within 24.20

6. LL Bean.com 20.40

7. Office Depot 20.30

8. Tickets.com 20.20

9. 1800Flowers 17.30

10. QVC 17.10


*Source: Nielsen Online / Marketing Charts
 
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I believe a lot of people start at Amazon to do research (i.e., read reviews).

For the most part, the listed websites above have already "pre-sold" the consumers through TV, radio, or print ads. The consumers (if willing) then go the website because they're ready to purchase. This would explain those online CRs.

Their offline CRs are going to be much, much lower.
 
The amazon thing surprised me too.

@uguxseo, I agree that folks for these retailers are widely pre-sold through various other media. The retailer is largely closing on their landing page. But that's really the point here - study what successful closing sites are doing, see how your end merchant measures up, and bridge the gap (pre-sell) between the two. Affiliate marketing = presell, right?
 
Nikko said:
The amazon thing surprised me too.

@uguxseo, I agree that folks for these retailers are widely pre-sold through various other media. The retailer is largely closing on their landing page. But that's really the point here - study what successful closing sites are doing, see how your end merchant measures up, and bridge the gap (pre-sell) between the two. Affiliate marketing = presell, right?
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I see no type of presell at schwans they just have one thing going for them and that is covering a niche that works well in a down economy everybody is busy eating some fatty shit that is cheap. I think the stats will be better for this month since we dont have to worry about valentines. We might just see a boom in shamrock websites!

still a nice find thanks.
 
Keep in mind the nature of the sites being quoted as the best converting. A lot of it could have less to do w/ the conversion optimization efforts they've put in, and more to do with the nature of their user base.

For example, ProFlowers & 1800Flowers - People coming to the site are coming for a clear purpose that requires immediacy (Valentine's day, anniversary etc). Converting those people akin to shooting fish in a barrel. Same thing w/ Office Depot - a receptionist hopping online to buy ink, toner a stapler and a few reams of paper under a pre-stablished corporate account, and not spending their own money. Easy close. QVC? Think about the massive amount of pre-sell involved on TV before they ever hit the site.

I'm not saying that you can't get some good ideas from the things these guys are doing, but you need to consider exterior influences as well.
 
uguxseo said:
For the most part, the listed websites above have already "pre-sold" the consumers through TV, radio, or print ads. The consumers (if willing) then go the website because they're ready to purchase. This would explain those online CRs.
Click to expand...

Sorry, saw this after I posted.
 
Thanks for the post.

Most of these websites are all about images. More than text description people want to see a picture of what they are going to purchase. High quality images sell.
 
finspin said:
Thanks for the post.

Most of these websites are all about images. More than text description people want to see a picture of what they are going to purchase. High quality images sell.
Click to expand...

Good point, that's also the impression I got when looking through the pages. Very nice, clean images work extremely well.
 
nvanprooyen said:
Keep in mind the nature of the sites being quoted as the best converting. A lot of it could have less to do w/ the conversion optimization efforts they've put in, and more to do with the nature of their user base.

For example, ProFlowers & 1800Flowers - People coming to the site are coming for a clear purpose that requires immediacy (Valentine's day, anniversary etc). Converting those people akin to shooting fish in a barrel. Same thing w/ Office Depot - a receptionist hopping online to buy ink, toner a stapler and a few reams of paper under a pre-stablished corporate account, and not spending their own money. Easy close. QVC? Think about the massive amount of pre-sell involved on TV before they ever hit the site.

I'm not saying that you can't get some good ideas from the things these guys are doing, but you need to consider exterior influences as well.
Click to expand...

exactlyy
 
nvanprooyen said:
Keep in mind the nature of the sites being quoted as the best converting. A lot of it could have less to do w/ the conversion optimization efforts they've put in, and more to do with the nature of their user base.

For example, ProFlowers & 1800Flowers - People coming to the site are coming for a clear purpose that requires immediacy (Valentine's day, anniversary etc). Converting those people akin to shooting fish in a barrel. Same thing w/ Office Depot - a receptionist hopping online to buy ink, toner a stapler and a few reams of paper under a pre-stablished corporate account, and not spending their own money. Easy close. QVC? Think about the massive amount of pre-sell involved on TV before they ever hit the site.

I'm not saying that you can't get some good ideas from the things these guys are doing, but you need to consider exterior influences as well.
Click to expand...


Exactly.

Quixtar, as another example, is largely staples and consumables like nutrition, beauty, energy drinks, and household products. Combined with the fact that customers are incentivized enormously by the company bonus structure and MLM system, you get great conversion rates. No doubt their landing pages and online storefronts are probably optimized, but when visitors are incentivized to such a degree, it's hard for me to believe that their conversions are largely a result of their on-site marketing optimizations.
 
The list I posted is just the top sites for Feb 09. Lots of other date ranges available at that marketing charts site, poke around.

I use this data to compare what a top-converting retailer is doing on their site with what my merchant in the same industry or niche is doing. For example, if my guy is flogging shoes, and the top apparel conversion site is doing things radically differently than my guy, I would adjust my presell flow to bridge the gap.

Say my guy is really low on trust factors on his site, or doesn't articulate his USP well - I make up for that on my presell page and try to pass on a visitor who has that buying need properly addressed. I try to bridge the gap and "pre-close" as best I can to increase my conversion rates.

Looking at what works for others and then applying that to your own campaigns is really useful. Especially for new-to-intermediate marketers, if you add this intelligence to your other datasets & tools, it can turbocharge your campaigns and really save you a lot of time and money in terms of testing costs.

Test test test, that is the key, but testing does take $$, so whatever trims that down is a good tool in my book :)
 
I'm sure even the most experienced affiliate marketer could learn a thing or two from these sites, if he or she takes time to consider each element that composes them. I took note of the things I liked after going through each one, thanks for posting :)
 
CouldItBe said:
I see no type of presell at schwans they just have one thing going for them and that is covering a niche that works well in a down economy everybody is busy eating some fatty shit that is cheap. I think the stats will be better for this month since we dont have to worry about valentines. We might just see a boom in shamrock websites!

still a nice find thanks.
Click to expand...

Shwans does plenty of preselling.

For instance, I drove up to my kid's school, and a PTA lady handed me a flyer about a PTO fundraiser - if you order off of Shwans with a special code, the school gets a percentage.

Things like that will be bound to convert much better than most traffic we can send them.
 
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