Web Sites Boost Customer loyalty
(Direct) What’s the Web worth to your company? Many marketers that sell through the Internet can rattle off their online sales. But is revenue alone the true measure of Web success?
Not according to a report issued in early June by market researcher ForeSee Results and FGI Research. ForeSee CEO Larry Freed says marketers need to look beyond purely purchase-related metrics such as sales, conversion rates and average spends to evaluate their Web site from the browser’s viewpoint.
“Revenue tells you what’s happened at your company,” Freed says. “Satisfaction is an indicator of what will happen. Satisfied visitors are an asset to the organization. They will become long-term, loyal customers and they’ll tell other people about their experience.”
ForeSee and FGI polled 11,000 recent visitors to the 40 top-selling online retail sites as ranked by Internet Retailer magazine. Respondents answered questions about their satisfaction not just with merchandise and price but with site content, look and feel, navigation, search, product information and performance. They also estimated their likelihood to return to the site, to recommend it, and to purchase from the retailer either online or through another channel. ForeSee turned those responses into a satisfaction score out of 100 possible points.
Of the top five browser satisfaction scores, three went to pure-play Internet merchants: Netflix, Amazon and computer/ electronics vendor Newegg.com ranked 1, 2 and 4, respectively, for their ability to satisfy visitors’ expectations. And a company like Newegg showed that it isn’t all about price, Freed says.
“[Newegg] attracts visitors with low prices, but our research shows it keeps them by meeting and exceeding expectations.” That’s particularly important in the electronics category, where comparison shopping is common.
QVC.com is another strong indicator of the power of visitor satisfaction, ranking third in ForeSee’s survey. QVC was the only site to score in the top five on all the satisfaction criteria, including likelihood to purchase, recommend and return. That’s an online achievement for a marketer with its roots in another channel.
L.L. Bean, which ranks sixth in satisfaction, also managed that feat. Bean’s satisfaction rates were as high on the Web as for its catalog operations, and 72% of its online customers said they prefer to shop the Web store, indicating that the company managed to find the right marketing mix for each of its channels, Freed says.
