5 Ecommerce Stats That Will Make You Change Your Entire Marketing Approach

Neil Patel

Co Founder of NP Digital & Owner of Ubersuggest

Jan 12, 2015
7 min read

The best information is usually the most straightforward: Cold hard statistics.

Even though stats aren’t exactly emotionally scintillating or suspenseful, they are nonetheless very powerful.

In this article, I’ve collected some of the most surprising ecommerce stats that I believe have profound implications for the way that we do marketing. These statistics come from the recent report by Visual Website Optimizer in their eCommerce Survey 2014.

1. Shipping charges kill conversions.

The Statistic: 28% of shoppers will abandon their shopping cart if presented with unexpected shipping costs.

This doesn’t sound like a huge number, but the situation is worse than it sounds when compared with the other reasons why people abandon shopping carts. There are six main reasons for abandonment, ranging from causes such as shipping charges to coupon codes.

The shipping charge category is the highest source of abandonment. Here’s how it stacks up:

When viewed that way, unexpected shipping costs looks pretty macabre.

It’s not necessarily that people don’t want to pay for shipping. Rather, it’s that people don’t like to have to pay for shipping unexpectedly.

Sometimes, people are going to have to pay to get stuff delivered to their door. They get that. But when they are confronted with the need to pay for something that they didn’t expect, that’s when they get a bad feeling, and leave the site.

What needs to change: Be explicit and upfront about your shipping charges.

Shopping cart abandonment is going to happen. But you don’t have to accept the fact that 28% of your users will abandon, especially if you can do something about it.

Just tell it how it is. If you are going to charge for shipping, inform users about this before they get farther down the funnel.

2. Account creation also kills conversions.

The Statistic: 23% of users will abandon their shopping cart if they have to create a new user account.

Some sites are so dead set on their membership model, that they completely ruin their chances at converting some users. Face it: Some users don’t want to create account. They just want their stuff.

When you force users to create an account before checking out, you are basically saying “no” to a huge amount of conversions. Personally, I’d rather have a more conversions including guest checkouts than to have less conversions and a few extra membership signups.

What needs to change: Provide a guest checkout option.

Don’t refuse customers just because they don’t create accounts. Instead, give them an easy way to checkout without the hassle of a membership creation.

3. Discounts will win back your customers.

The Statistic: 54% of shoppers will purchase products left in shopping carts, if those products are offered at a lower price.

Most shoppers are willing to spring for a bargain. If you drop the price on items in their shopping cart, they’re way more likely to buy.

What needs to change: Offer lower prices.

Price is one of your bargaining chips. If you can negotiate the price to gain a sale, then do it. The statistics back you up. You’ll get more than half of shoppers to complete a purchase by just retargeting and shaving a few bucks off their order.

4. Retargeting is the new frontier.

The Statistic: 72% of millennial shoppers are favorable to retargeting.

In the world of ecommerce, retargeting is one of the most powerful and effective forms of marketing.

What needs to change: Start retargeting if you haven’t. Increase retargeting spend if you already retarget.

The idea behind retargeting is simple: Show users ads even after they left your site.

5. The best marketers are satisfied customers.

The Statistic: 55% of shoppers say that online reviews influence their buying decision.

You probably already know that testimonials can dramatically influence your conversion rates. When a potential customer sees the review of a satisfied customer, they are far more likely to buy the product or service themselves.

What needs to change: Feature product reviews and/or user generated content (UGC).

No matter what your traffic level or conversion rates, 55% is a pretty significant number. That’s the percentage of shoppers who think that customer reviews are important.

Conclusion

You’re a marketer. You want better conversion rates. What’s going to deliver higher conversion rates? You split test. You work hard. You learn stuff.

And you change your approach.

If you don’t change anything, then you won’t be able to improve your conversion rates. If you give these data-driven techniques a try you could see some pretty dramatic improvements.