Ecommerce

Ecommerce and conversion optimization naturally fit together well. This is due to the combination of a digital focus from the organization, often large numbers of visitors, and usually a B2C target group. This good connection ensures that a significant percentage of customers fall into the 'ecommerce' category.

Examples of projects

• Haarshop: During a long-term collaboration with this customer, I conducted dozens of A/B tests for them. From CRO I also supervised the migration from Magento 1 to Magento 2. An important part of this was validating proposed changes to the new ecommerce webshop using remote user testing sessions.
• Nike: Website analyzes have been carried out for various ecommerce web shops of this client. Data analysis in Google Analytics was an important part for them. After developing a CRO strategy, an A/B testing program was also set up and several A/B tests were devised, built and analyzed for various websites.
• Solano Wonen: This customer found me via Google, the client was looking for a freelance CRO specialist. An overarching expert review was carried out for a collection of various websites, containing 70+ strategic and tactical recommendations. These improvement points were presented to the internal web developer who immediately started working on them.
• VanTilburg Online: The focus of the conversion optimization work for this ecommerce party was on carrying out A/B tests, dozens of which were performed. To arrive at good test ideas, an expert review and data analysis based on Google Analytics statistics were carried out.
• GreenEgg Totaal: To start the collaboration with this company, an expert review was carried out, in which recommendations were given for all parts of the WooCommerce webshop. Some time later, a visitor behavior analysis based on session recordings in Hotjar was also completed for this ecommerce customer.

Challenges

Work is usually done in silos

It often happens that employees within departments of an ecommerce webshop have little contact with each other. However, conversion optimization has the most effect when the philosophy of continuous learning and improvement is embraced by as many teams as possible. Bringing the silos into better contact with each other is therefore an important part of the work for ecommerce customers.

Shortage of development capacity

I encounter a shortage of developers at almost every webshop I work with. Even though I can build A/B tests myself in JavaScript and CSS, developers are still sometimes necessary. For example, to implement winners in the production code of the webshop or to provide support for experiments that require data from the backend.

Focus on short-term thinking

Successful conversion optimization processes are well structured. For example, with the help of recurring user research and data analysis, well-substantiated test ideas are sought, which are then tested on the website based on a testing roadmap. A short-term focus makes it difficult to use this method successfully.

CRO is still relatively unknown

I still regularly encounter web shops that are hardly familiar with what exactly CRO can do for them. Every month, significant amounts are pumped into SEA and SEO to attract new visitors, without sufficient attention being paid to how exactly those visitors should be converted into paying customers.

Frequently asked questions

Is our webshop software suitable for CRO?

In principle, a webshop can be optimized for more conversion on any platform. For example, I have now set up successful optimization processes for web shops built on Magento, WooCommerce, Shopify, Lightspeed, and in-house developed software. Each of these platforms offers its own advantages and disadvantages in terms of conversion optimization.

What does a CRO process look like?

Of course this varies per customer. However, the following steps give an idea: inventory of the current situation, discussion of wishes and objectives, interviews with key stakeholders, setting up Airtable for an overview, devising user research, analysis of available data, carrying out impact analysis, and continuous A/B testing .

How do we come up with substantiated A/B test ideas?

This will include: user testing, visitor behavior analysis, interviews, surveys, data analysis, scientific articles, and input from customer service. The more of these sources provide support for a certain test idea, the greater the chance that an A/B test based on a certain hypothesis will be a winner.

Which pages have the most potential?

Various methods will be used for this. For example, an impact analysis will be carried out in which the potential will be calculated based on the current conversion rate and minimum detectable effect per page group. Benchmarks are also used and qualitative data can be added to the findings based on user research.

How much will this earn us per month?

This depends on things such as current turnover, conversion rate, average order value, available budget for CRO, etc. It is therefore difficult to give a good estimate in advance. However, more information about this becomes clear once you understand the data. A unique advantage of conversion optimization is that in addition to any added turnover, less may also have to be spent on development. If you can test in advance whether something works, then sometimes it does not have to be built.

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