If 97 per cent of all shoppers left a store empty-handed, the shop would be considered a failure. And yet, in the online world, a conversion rate of three per cent is far from abnormal, as most visitors leave websites without getting what they came for.
Key to increasing rates is web usability - creating a site that allows consumers to perform quickly and easily the task they were hoping to achieve.
The International Standards Organisation (ISO) defines usability as the "effectiveness, efficiency and satisfaction" with which a user can perform a task. It is crucial for digital marketers whose sites act as retail stores, self-service portals or the end-point of a direct response campaign.
Eye-tracking
It's rare to find a site that can't improve. Pete Ballard, managing partner at usability firm Foolproof, says: "It's not unusual for us to improve conversion by anything up to 150 per cent, which improves revenue without increasing media spend."
Usability agencies, and usability specialists in digital and direct marketing agencies, are now widespread. Too often, though, websites are design-led, with usability an afterthought.
"Usability should be considered as early as possible," says Giles Colborn, managing director of CX Partners, a usability design agency. "There's a temptation to wait until the product is right and then test it with users. What you need to do is provide background for designers - that way the design process stops being about opinions and starts being about the facts of how people think and act."
Testing techniques owe much to traditional market research. Users are either observed in a lab - where technology such as eye-tracking can show how users look at sites, and which areas receive the most viewing time - or are visited at home by researchers.
Devices such as analytics and click-stream data are also used to analyse the path that visitors take through a website to discover where they might encounter difficulties. Usability firm Foviance used this technique with broadcaster Sky and discovered that online subscribers were exiting the subscription process at a certain point to view the terms and conditions. The site was redesigned to include key information from the T&Cs on the relevant page and online subscriber rates increased.
Framework
Testing should result in a list of design and structural changes intended to improve the conversion rate - or, at the development stage, a framework for user journeys through the site and design suggestions.
Airline BMI redesigned its site with help from Foviance and digital agency twentysix London. It discovered that users had trouble understanding its calendar and destination functions during the booking process. After changes were made, conversion rates rose by 50 per cent.
As the importance of websites in business grows, usability looks certain to move up the agenda.
POWER POINTS
- Testing techniques owe much to traditional market research
- The airline BMI redesigned its website and conversion rates rose 50 per cent
CASE STUDY - HSBC
Usability is a crucial concern for the online banking sector. Customers must be able to find information and carry out transactions feeling confident their money is safe.
When HSBC Bank International, the Jersey-based offshore division of HSBC Group, redesigned its website in 2006, it had to be sure the site functioned correctly and optimised cross-selling opportunities. The bank worked with usability firm Foolproof to research what users wanted and to test prototype designs.
Many internet banking websites work by displaying account information in a separate window to the main site. HSBC decided to display everything in the same window, enabling it to develop personalised ads for customers based on their behaviour and account information.
Testing showed that users felt banner adverts were too large and intrusive and that one of the best places for cross- and up-sell advertising was on the log-out page.
"As people had already done their banking, they were more open to marketing messages after they had logged out," says Richard Fray, channel manager for HSBC Bank International.
Moving to personalised banners doubled the site's banner response rate. Elements of the campaign are now being rolled out to other divisions of HSBC Group.