Today’s marketing gem is from "Call to Action", and it really bowled me over when I read it.

70% of your customers probably fail to buy, even when they try.

On page 47 of the book, in the chapter on planning, there is a sidebar by Jared Spool, who studies usability, and runs experiments. One experiment his company does is to take a customer who wants to buy something specific, give them the money to buy it, and send them to a site where they can buy it.
(condensed with […] and italics mine):

The average e-commerce website only manages to sell someone a product they really want, under these odd conditions, 30 percent of the time. 70 percent of the time, the customer who knows exactly what they want runs into some show-stopping obstacle that prevents the purchase.

Look at your annual revenue from your site. Assume that only represents the 30 percent who are successsfully purchasing. That means there is another 70% (more than twice your current revenue) who is trying to buy from you, but failing.
[…]
We’re not even considering the people who haven’t decided what they want yet.

At first I wanted to dismiss the statistics out of hand. "No way!" But, not even an hour after I read that gem, I was trying to find the wholesale prices for some clothing I was considering buying for a store I run, and I was completely blocked from doing so.

Try it yourself, go to www.bella.com, click on the "wholesaler" link (which is conveniently a different color background than all the other navigation links, so you don’t notice it at first), and try to figure it out. There are tabs with clothing, if I click on the tabs, are the clothes shown with the wholesaler price? It doesn’t look like it. Your customer is always one click from saying goodbye, and running into such a wall is a sure way to provoke that click.

Technorati Tags: marketing, usability, statistics, user interface

I’m starting a series of articles with gems I find in the marketing books I’m reading. Yes, it is true, you really can find wisdom in dead-tree books!

Today’s gem is from “Call to Action: Secret Formulas to Improve Online Results”. I’m really enjoying this book and learning a lot from it. The gem I’m going to share is one that I felt compelled to walk around at work and read to coworkers.

For Heaven Sakes, Let them Pee

Imagine you are sitting in a car in the middle of a long road trip. You really have to pee. It is all you can think about. Your eyes are peeled for the nearest rest stop. […] Meanwhile, your beloved is sitting next to you, chattering about how lovely the scenery is. Needles to say, you’re not that interested nor are you being even remotely attentive.
[…]
I think that many visitors to online retail stores are on a long road trip and they have to pee. They have a goal and they want to be successful in that goal, they aren’t looking to be distracted until that goal is satisfied. […] And what is their experience at your store? My guess it’s almost exactly like our poor driver’s experience: they’re trying to ignore information that’s distracting, annoying, and as far as they’re concerned, completely irrelevant to their goal. They’re wading through banners and sale stickers. They’re searching through a sea of chattering navigation links.
[…]
Ask yourself: when she arrives at my store, does my customer have to pee and, if she does, am I letting her? […] Respect the fact that many customers have something in mind when they arrive and that they’re not looking to be distracted. When they arrive, let them pee. You’ll be amazed how interested they get in the scenery when they’re done.

I think that is an absolutely brilliant observation and metaphor. Why do I need to register at your frickin’ site? Just let me put things in the cart! Quit upselling so hard (you listening, GoDaddy?).

Technorati Tags: Marketing, bryan eisenberg, jeffrey eisenberg, call to action, conversion