Site design steps into the limelight
Online retailers are ready for something new, according to Part 2 of the State of Retailing Online report released last month by Shop.org and Forrester Research. 88% of the 150 retailers responding to the survey have prioritized improving product detail pages, with 80% adding online images and 76% conducting A/B tests of offers and promotions.
The report focused on marketing, web site features and multi-channel strategies. Other findings include:
l E-mailing to a retailer’s own list was the top marketing tactic, used by 91% of retailers. Pay-per-click advertising was next most common at 88%, followed by affiliate marketing at 67%, comparison shopping engines at 56% and search engine optimization at 51%.
l Search engines remained the top source of online customers, producing 30% of new customers. Affiliate programs, comparison shopping engines, e-mail campaigns and portals all showed small gains.
l The average retailer in the survey purchases 32,970 search terms for advertising purposes and pays 92 cents per click on those ads.
don@verticalwebmedia.com
