Internet retailer Fathead LLC uses Adobe Flash to feature a massive image of an athlete or celebrity in action on its home page. That image is meant to showcase its products, larger-than-life-sized action photographs of athletes and other celebrities.
But until the retailer implemented Coremetrics Continuous Optimization Platform, it couldn’t monitor the performance of various Flash elements on the site. Instead, it could only see that the Flash was viewed, not what was happening inside the Flash element, such as how often a consumer clicked on a promotion inside Flash.
"Instinct told us it was working, but we didn’t have the data to prove it," says Michael Layne, director of Internet marketing for Fathead, No. 280 in the Internet Retailer Top 500 Guide.
To understand whether any elements of the site were underperforming, Fathead worked with Coremetrics to tag various aspects of the site to capture data so that it could compare their performance.
The results showed that text links and the site’s top navigation bar significantly outperformed the site’s Flash elements. After analyzing the data, Fathead found that while promotions were mentioned in Flash frames, links to promotional offers appeared in banners at the side and top of the page, which made them less accessible.
To fix the problem the site’s multimedia Flash designer moved the promotional links into the Flash and added a slider tool that consumers can click to see an overview of the promotion, as well as click to read the promotions’ details.
Those changes produced significant results. After accounting for seasonal factors, Fathead posted a threefold increase in the contribution of Flash to sales.
Fathead continues to use Coremetrics reports to analyze changes to its site, says Layne.
“We can modify Flash elements, test the effectiveness of the changes, and implement the ones that improve our results,” he says. “This process is delivering a permanent increase in conversion—not only for Flash, but for the site overall.”
IBM acquired Coremetrics last year.
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