Just read an interesting post on Ecommerce strategy over on Econsultancy from Matt Curry who runs the Wiltshire Farm Foods website amongst other things.
He’s discussing a new year review to prioritise the activities to improve performance and is using a useful ‘divide and conquer’ framework to think through the factors which drive performance of an Ecommerce site and how you measure them.
The diagram he uses reminds me of this diagram that I have in my Ebusiness and Ecommerce Management book taken (with permission) from Ashley Friedlein’s 2003 but still relevant book (see end of post for reference). I think Ashley’s diagram is stronger since it not only looks at referrers but splits out first time and repeat visitor types.
Here’s the diagram:
Matt’s diagram is a good way to look at all the factors, but Ashley’s works back one step further to show some of the tactics that can be used to improve performance. If you go for the complete picture, which I do, these days I use the Ishikawa or Fishbone diagram which I use in my Econsultancy SEO and Pay Per Click Best Practice Guides, but not the Web Design Guide. Maybe I should tackle that one?
The nearest I have is this cause and effect diagram taken from the first Econsultancy Masterclass back in 2005 which looks at the factors which affect relevance and experience and so loyalty.
I think this is still useful, but the obvious omission is using social media to engage and drive loyalty. ASOS.com gives a nice example of commitment to social media which has resulted in substantial numbers of Facebook Fans and Twitter followers – maybe we’ll see how this translates to the bottom line in their next annual report.
Digital marketing tactic: Conversion Optimisation, Customer engagement, Customer segmentation
Advice type: Best Practice
Expertise level: Intermediate
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Cheers Dave! Yes, since the diagram I first mentioned was “slightly” intended to be throwaway, I didn’t think it through properly. I did think about repeat custom (since it’s the most profitable!) but I put this under increasing # of orders. battling first-time customer attrition is somewhat of a crusade of mine at the moment.
What would be really cool, would be to spin this out into a complete causal map, so you could figure out “why” they ordered a second or third time? What part, or combination of parts of the experience was it?
Oh, and if you hold out for part 3, there’s a very thinly veiled ASOS example about using the power of fans
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