Ensuring More Customers Convert
Establishing Conversion Rate Optimisation (CRO) statistics for e-commerce websites is straightforward, the top line is the percentage of website visitors who make a purchase; however, it goes much deeper than just a percentage of customers who purchase. To do justice to Conversion Rate Optimisation, we can start looking at average spend per item, the total number of items purchased in one transaction, the profitability of the items sold and the frequency of customers to re-purchase. All these elements make a difference to the profitability of an e-commerce business but many of these factors fall outside the traditional CRO matrix of measurement.
For B2B clients and those businesses looking to acquire customers rather than selling online, Conversion Rate Optimisation must go a few steps further than just recording the percentage of sales enquiries received, against the total number of visitors to the site. Yes, the number of enquires need to be logged, but then we need to establish the conversion rate of enquiry to sales, the costs associated with converting the enquiry (is there a lot of work involved in providing a quote or creating a pitch), the average order value and then a measure of the customer loyalty. What is the lifetime value of a new customer? What level of customer loyalty is the website generating? All these factors will influence the true B2B Conversion Rate figures.