Every Web site that sells things -- and every site that earns a commission from sites that sell things -- is trying to convert
lookers into buyers. No matter how many eyeballs are viewing your site, you can't pay the bills unless a healthy percentage
of those people wind up handing over their credit card number for a purchase.
That's why I perked up my ears when I found that Epinions.com had recently claimed the top spot in converting workplace surfers
to customers. According to Nielsen//NetRatings' home and work figures for the fourth quarter of 2002, Epinions beat out such giants as Yahoo, MSN, and Google. Because Nielsen can't follow a user all the way to a sale, the following figures represent an index of visitors who progressed
to a secure transaction (an https page) and are not sales percentages:
Home - Work - Referring Site
82.4 - 91.7 - Epinions
80.5 - 89.8 - BizRate Shopping
87.0 - 86.8 - PriceGrabber
79.8 - 85.6 - DealTime
81.9 - 85.3 - CNET
70.8 - 84.0 - Yahoo Shopping
72.1 - 79.8 - MSN Shopping
64.7 - 78.9 - Google
61.5 - 76.3 - Overture
These rankings, of course, are not the same as actual profits or ROI. But I thought they were interesting enough to see whether
Epinions executives would share with me the secrets of their high conversion statistics.
It turned out they were eager to talk, particularly since Epinions reached an agreement just two weeks ago to be acquired by DealTime, one of the largest price-comparison sites. (Both sites will continue to exist under their original names.) I spoke with
NiravTolia, CEO of Epinions and who is becoming COO of DealTime, and Sarah Leary, Epinions' vice president of marketing.
The key to high conversion rates, Leary says, is to give visitors access to detailed and credible reviews of products. To
test this approach, Epinions constantly experiments with the material that's shown at its site.
In one test, the company measured the rate at which people who clicked merchant links at Epinions wound up buying something at the merchants' sites. At random, some visitors to Epinions were shown pages that contained no reviews or links to reviews, while others were shown Epinions' normal design, which includes both. The results were dramatic:
1. People who clicked merchant links on pages with no reviews or review links bought something at merchant sites at a rate
we'll call 1.0.
2. People who saw a normal Epinions page with links to reviews bought something at merchant sites 67 percent more often, or a rate of 1.67.
3. Even better, those people who first viewed a review at Epinions before jumping to a merchant site went on to buy items at a rate that was double the no-review pages, or 2.0.
"The more information you offer on a site before the user clicks through to an e-tailer," explains Tolia, "the more qualified the user is and the higher the conversion rate is."
There is a lot of "conventional wisdom" saying that Web surfers are short of time and so the fewer words on a page the better.
But Epinions proves that sometimes, more is more. This kind of statistic goes straight to your bottom line and would be well worth testing
on your own pages.
For more details, see: http://www.epinions.com@a2.tc/4e85
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LIVINGSTON'S TOP 10 NEWS PICKS O' THE WEEK
1. Cyberjournalist.net names the best online
Iraq
coverage: http://www.cyberjournalist.net@5a0.tc/44d
2. War may popularize toughened laptops for everyday use: http://slate.msn.com@1c.to/835
3. E-mail flow reveals the informal leaders of your business: http://www.nature.com@54.vg/c1d
4. Only 37 percent of e-tailers respond to customer queries: http://www.emarketer.com@e.la/1005
5. IETF takes on spam with possible changes to SMTP protocol: http://news.bbc.co.uk@31.dk/13ed
6. Machine that translates human speech is almost ready: http://www.wired.com@836.as/17d5
7. Avoid the top seven usability blunders sites often make: http://www.sitepoint.com@th.gs/1bbd
8. Which development languages will achieve Web dominance? http://www.builder.com@a6r.ms/1fa5
9. Visual Studio. Net claims rapid coding advantage over J2EE: http://www.cw360.com@54.vg/238d
10. On the lighter side: BBC regrets unauthorized Bush video: http://www.thesmokinggun.com@a2.tc/2775
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WACKY WEB WEEK: THE 101 DUMBEST MOMENTS IN BUSINESS
Just when we need some cheering up, along comes Business 2.0 Magazine with its annual "101 Dumbest Moments in Business" -- and it's all posted on the Web for hilarious reading.
The items you've heard of are far outweighed by the zingers you definitely missed. From the "disposable cell phone" that was
found to use standard Nokia parts (Item No. 3) to the thousands of misdirected customer service complaints that resulted when
Gateway Computer printed the wrong 800 number in correspondence (Item No. 76), this story is a laugh a minute. The whole list
starts at: http://www.business2.com@1c.to/c3b5
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A LINK REGARDING NEWS SOURCES OUTSIDE THE UNITED STATES
One of last week's links went down after E-Business Secrets was sent out. Here's a new link that works:
As war begins, American readers turn to foreign news sites: http://www.wired.com@54.vg/2b5d
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Brian Livingston is publisher of http://www.BriansBuzz.com. Research director is Vickie Stevens. Brian has
published 10 books, including:
Windows Me Secrets: http://www.amazon.com@1c.to/0764534939
Windows 2000 Secrets: http://www.amazon.com@1c.to/0764534130
You'll receive a gift certificate good for a book, CD, or DVD of your choice if you're the first to send Brian a Top Story
or Wacky Web Week he prints. Send tips to mailto:Brian@BriansBuzz.com with "tip" in the subject line.
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