Metrics Offer Peek into Catalog Site Behavior
Online catalogs are playing an increasingly important role in the multichannel revenue mix. In 2002, they made up 14% of overall sales. Last year, this more than doubled to 30%.
What fueled this growth was the discovery that simpler is better, a hypothesis borne out by Web site metrics. According to RichFX, an online catalog design consultancy, visitors spent an average of 23 seconds in 2004 learning how to click to the information they want. By 2005, this had dropped to 20 seconds. Simplifying the navigation process allowed prospects to focus less on hunting for information and more on viewing a merchant's offerings.
What other improvements did the numbers show prospects responded well to? Sharper graphics and faster connections, to name two. And marketers spent accordingly: In 2005, 79% of RichFX's clients had invested in high-resolution graphics, up from 60% a year earlier. And 86% served up their wares via broadband connections, up from 77% in 2004.
These investments are paying off. Consumers are spending more time on marketers' sites: In 2005, they spent 7.11 minutes on them, up from 6.18 minutes a year earlier. And by making it easier for site visitors to click from one page to another, marketers have quietly been able to influence what prospects see: 84% use the "next" button on pages to move linearly from spread to spread, much in the way they would thumb through a paper catalog, rather than jumping randomly through the site.
As a result, they are viewing more 38.4 pages every time they log on, nearly five more per visit than they had been in 2004.
Leafing through a catalog is one thing, but for marketers the money is in stopping and viewing a product in detail – and, ultimately, making a purchase. RichFX's metrics package tracks the number of products a visitor closely examines per visit (3.25, across its client base); the number of visits that result in orders (2.9%, on average); and total order value and revenue per visit, among other measurements.
It even offers insight into the need to close a deal early, such as through incentives or hard sales pitches. The company can measure the percentage of orders are made during a prospect's first visit (69%, across its client base), the average number of visits it takes before an order is placed (1.9), and when site visitors are likely to toss additional items into their shopping carts (65% within the first visit).
