When it comes to direct-to-consumer online brands, people aren’t afraid to pull the trigger.
Contentsquare, a startup that raised a $60-million Series C round in January to help brands and retailers unify customer data, scrutinized billion of website visits in 2018 to find out how digital experiences are meeting consumer needs today.
There’s something about pure-play brands that successfully turns browsers into buyers at higher rates than so-called click-and-mortar peers. They’re “winning the conversion game hands down,” according to Contentsquare’s findings. These brands are also keeping consumers coming back to the site, where they’re more likely to be logged in already, indicating that they know how to keep customers loyal.
“With a deeply-ingrained data culture, these brands are able to understand visitors from the moment they enter their site or app, and to offer a highly relevant experience and keep acquisition costs down,” Contentsquare noted.
Where clicks-and-bricks sellers win is in engaging the people who end up on their website. Not only do these shoppers check out more webpages during each visit but they’re also less likely to navigate from the website relative to pure plays, according to Contentsquare.
While retail struggles to simplify the online checkout experience, Contentsquare’s findings show streamlining the steps at this critical point in the path to purchase has significant implications for their bottom line.
“When we analyzed the conversion and exit rate at every step of the checkout, we found that the second step of the checkout led to a particularly high exit rate on desktop and especially on mobile,” the company noted.
Indeed, mobile’s role in shopping is growing by leaps and bounds, and nowhere is that more evident than during commerce-driven holidays like Amazon Prime Day and deal-heavy Black Friday. While shoppers enjoy browsing via mobile but typically shift back to larger screens to convert, this behavior changes notably during these holiday peaks, Contentsquare said. The company documented considerable leaps on China’s Singles Day (57.7 percent), Black Friday (56.1 percent) and Black Friday (19 percent).
“With these publicized spending sprees driving a greater share of mobile traffic than usual, it is vital to make sure customer paths are optimized for the small screen,” Contentsquare added.