Get Set…

We worked with one of our favourite Google Analytics clients, Watchfinder, on improving visitor engagement and e-commerce conversion rates on their site. At the start of the project, we worked hard to ensure that their site was reporting to Google Analytics accurately and was set up with the most advanced features, such as goals, funnels and e-commerce reports. Once we had collected this data over several months, what was our next step? Dive in there and analyse!

For Experts, by Experts

By creating segments for ‘true’ new visitors and ‘true’ returning visitors (we reason that any email traffic is almost certainly a returning visitor, for example) we analysed site usage, goal and e-commerce statistics to find a focus for improvement. We noticed that whilst new visitors performed similarly to returning visitors in terms of watch servicing and watch selling, the e-commerce conversion rate was much higher for returning visitors. Although this may be expected, we looked at why this was the case; we identified that whilst visitors who were familiar with watches could quickly and easily find the watch they wanted, those that were not sure which watch was for them would find it more difficult, without going through each brand category separately.

Our theory: Watchfinder was setup by watch experts, for watch experts. The less initiated among us would find it difficult to get started.
 

Giftfinder

Instead of brand or model, we decided that novices may shop using different attributes. For example gender, price, colour, strap material, and face style amongst others. Users selecting one or more of these attributes would be presented with the best selection of watches for them. Watchfinder liked this idea and ran with it. Thus, the ‘Giftfinder’ was born.

Previously the homepage looked as below:

After our recommendations, the homepage looked like this:

Up, Up and Away

We waited over a month in order to get a large enough body of data and then, like excitable young children unwrapping a gift, we set about analysing the data.

Firstly we looked at relative performance for visits that did interact with the Gift Finder against visits which did not interact with Gift Finder, using advanced segmentation. We found:

• Pages/visit increased by 136%
• Time on site increased by 168%

In terms of goals; there are several within the Watchfinder Google Analytics account which are linked to purchases, e.g. ‘Make an Offer’, ‘Source a Watch’, ‘Price on Application Quote’ and ‘Contact Us’. We found that conversion rates for all four of these goals were higher in visits which interacted with Gift Finder:

• 'Make an offer’ conversion rate increased by 800%
• ‘Source a Watch ‘ conversion rate increased 500%
• ‘POA Quote’ conversion rate increased by 46%
• 'Contact Us’ conversion rate increased by 350%
• Overall goal conversion rates increased by 55%

The e-commerce stats also saw positive increases for visits which interacted with Gift Finder:

• E-commerce conversion rate for visits increased 350%
• Per visit value for this group saw a 96% increase

We then further analysed this to look only at new visitors that interacted with Gift Finder vs. new visitors that did not interact with Gift Finder. Again, we saw large increases in time on site, pages/visit and overall goal completion rate, whilst the e-commerce stats were even more striking:

• E-commerce conversion rate increased 1,900%
• Per visit value increased by more than 960%.

The future’s bright

Although these initial findings are hugely positive, we at Periscopix are not ones to rest on our laurels and we already have plenty of ideas for further improvement to the Gift Finder function. We’re also working with Watchfinder on other areas to explore, based on our analysis of their Google Analytics data, in order to make their site even more awesome – come back soon for the results!

Share this article

• Tweet

• Underused Google Analytics Features - Part Eight

  09th September 2009

  

• Underused Google Analytics Features - Part Five

  24th August 2009

  

• Underused Google Analytics Features - Part Four

  06th August 2009

  

• Underused Google Analytics Features - Part One

  16th July 2009

  

• Underused Google Analytics Features - Part Seven

  04th September 2009

  

• Underused Google Analytics Features - Part Six

  30th August 2009

  

• Underused Google Analytics Features - Part Three

  03rd August 2009

  

• Underused Google Analytics Features - Part Two

  31st July 2009