Ecommerce Websites: The Return Visitor

When it comes to online success, actually getting visitors to your ecommerce website is only the beginning. Surviving and thriving in today's crowded ecommerce marketplace depends on return visits, a fact that is made shockingly clear in a recent global study carried out by Wolfgang Digital.

Ecommerce websites that attract visitors back again and again are 'thundering ahead of their one-click-wonder competitors' in regard to sales, according to Wolfgang Digital's worldwide study. 250m ecommerce websites were analysed in the study, along with £444m of online revenue.

The Ecommerce Websites Study by Numbers

• Average conversion rates in the UK stand at a thin 1.8%, though this figure still puts the UK ahead of Europe (1.5%) and the USA (1.3%). Travel websites achieve a slightly-higher 2% but retail websites fall slightly below at 1.7%
• Online-only businesses convert 11% more than multi-channel counterparts
• Not only is engagement with a website important, social media continues to develop a more prominent role in conversion. A social media engager is 2 times more likely to buy a product or service (4.4% conversion rate) than a website visitor (1.8%). Engagement on Facebook Messenger enjoyed the highest conversion rates at 9.9%
• 64% of businesses plan to increase social media marketing spend in the coming year
• SEO website optimisation was the second most-important priority, with 55% of marketers citing this aspect
• Google's current dominant share of 60% when it comes to generating traffic continues to decrease as social media becomes more important in the referral arena
• Revenue from mobile purchases continues to increase 23% year on year, now accounting for a massive 32% of overall revenue
• Mobile also dominates as a source of traffic, with 53% originating from a smartphone compared with 10% from tablets and 37% from desktops

The report clearly showed that the more visits generated per user, the higher the rate of conversion and, ultimately, revenue. “Anything you can do to increase this return visit rate is about the best marketing you can do,” the report said, adding that business owners should, "...think of each as a multi-step relationship rather than a point-in-time transaction. Each interaction should add a new layer of value and reach them on a new channel.

Brick Technology specialise in creating ecommerce websites of global quality. To ensure you engage customers and keep them coming back for more, choose us to create and manage YOUR ecommerce website. Call us today to start your journey.