New merchandising methods help push eBags.com sales up 90%
Sales continue to surge at eBags.com, climbing 90% year-to-year in June and 86% so far in July. Along with a broader selection of high-end brands -- it starts offering Nike products tomorrow, adding to names like Kate Spade purses and Victorinox Travel Gear by Swiss Army -- eBags attributes recent growth to new methods of presenting products, co-founder and vice president of business development Peter Cobb tells InternetRetailer.com.
A new site navigation system, for example, is designed to let shoppers find a particular product from the 8,000 carried on eBags in three clicks instead of six. During a recent test of that system -- in which half of shoppers had access to the new system and half did not -- the group with access to the system showed a 20% lift in sales, Cobb says.
The new navigation system, provided by Endeca Technologies Inc., is designed to be intuitive to a shopper`s particular interests, Cobb says. If a shopper conducts a search for backpacks, she will be prompted to choose by brand, price, color or size, after which the site will display extensive details on products within the chosen category.
On Monday, eBags launched a back-to-school center, displaying Top 10 lists of products in particular categories, such as school backpacks for young children and for college students. The Top 10 lists, which are based on recent sales recording on eBags, present each product with customer ratings as well as detailed descriptions.
Cobb says the back-to-school center is too new to report its impact on sales, but notes that sales this week are running at an unusually strong clip. "Wednesday we had one of the highest sales conversion rates we`ve seen in months, 30% higher than an average monthly conversion rate," he says. "I attribute much of that to our merchandising improvements."
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