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Internet Businesses Doing More With Less In An Uncertain Economy Via Testing and Targeting Solutions

Published by Robert Thomson | December 28th 2008 | Views:

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Ever gone online and had a dissatisfying experience? Maybe you weren't satisfied with the way content was displayed or found it difficult to find what you were searching for. That's the unhappy picture that customers deal with when shopping on websites that have not been fine-tuned (or "optimized"). The good news is, businesses realize that not maximizing their websites depresses their revenue and profits and are now doing everything they can to enhance online shopping experiences in a rough economy.

Increasingly, large online retail businesses are turning to testing and targeting technology to maximize visitors' online experiences. Multivariate Testing allows businesses to present many variations of online content and discover which variation you prefer while behavioral targeting enables businesses to understand you better as a customer so that they can present you with relevant information, such as coupons. This method of web optimization can help drive web sales during a time when visitors are reducing their online spending.

One example of a business using testing and targeting technology to maximize the customer experience is well-known destination site VEGAS.com, which features a plethora of Las Vegas travel and hospitality offers -- from hotels to shows to tours to front-of-the-line nightclub passes, and then some. More than 2.5 million visitors visit VEGAS.com websites each month. The company realized that they needed to get a aces within the site to understand the best combination. The best variation produced significant improvements across multiple key performance indicators, including site abandonment, visitor page views per session, and overall conversion rates.

Overstock.com, the well-known web retailer offering name-brand merchandise at everyday low prices, follows a similar approach to VEGAS.com. In no time at all, Overstock.com optimized its conversion rates and average order values by globally testing new product page layouts against current page layouts.

Another site you might have shopped online that takes testing under its wing is CSN Stores, which offers more than one million pieces of merchandise on more than 200 web sites in niche market segments.

CSN Stores has credited testing and targeting business SiteSpect with creating 7 percent of its 2007 sales growth, thanks to the SiteSpect's patent-pending A/B and multivariate testing solutions. SiteSpect allowed CSN Stores to quickly and easily run tests to understand visitor customer responses to variations in site content, search functionality, and features. Based on the test results, CSN Stores enhanced its search capability to help visitors more quickly find the products they needed, improving the user experience and increasing sales. Also, CSN Stores was able to discover and display alternate image sizes that elicited higher response rates.

Eric J. Hansen, president and founder of SiteSpect, says companies have a multitude of choices when it comes to getting started with testing and targeting.

"We're seeing more and more online retailers move from simple A/B testing, where you test one or more variations of a single element to see which one your visitors choose, to multivariate testing, where you try out variations of multiple factors," Hansen commented. "Multivariate testing shows you not only which combination of factors increased conversions, but also shows you which individual factors influenced visitor behavior versus those that did not."

"During a rough economy, it is more crucial than ever for Internet visitors to find what they want and have a good shopping experience," Hansen said. "Web marketers must test and optimize their websites to generate more traffic to a site, keep them engaged, and move them towards actions that generate revenue -- or risk going out of business."

== About SiteSpect ==

SiteSpect enables Internet marketers to optimize website and mobile web success through multivariate testing and behavioral targeting technology. By testing many variations of landing pages, product descriptions, search results, and buy-flows, SiteSpect empowers marketers to maximize every part of their website or mobile web offering. For more information, visit www.SiteSpect.com or call 617-859-1900.


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