A Tale of Two Visitors: New Research from Monetate Examines Performance Differences Between New and Returning Visitors in Q4 2015

PHILADELPHIA, March 28, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Monetate, the leading experience marketing platform for brands worldwide, announced today the release of its latest global Ecommerce Quarterly report (EQ4 2015). The report explores the age old ecommerce conundrum – do marketers focus on finding new visitors or new ways to keep their existing ones? The Monetate EQ4 2015 looks to answer this question with real-world examples from leading brands Graham & Brown, Ballard Designs, Calendars.com and Waitrose, as well as best practices for driving both acquisition and retention.

Download a free copy of the Monetate Ecommerce Quarterly report (EQ4 2015) here.

"Every business needs to balance acquisition and retention costs. This struggle for balance leaves many marketers asking, 'Where do I focus my efforts so they make the most impact?'" said Lucinda Duncalfe, CEO, Monetate. "Of all the questions, the most critical to answer is, 'Do I invest time and money acquiring new customers, or do I focus on retaining the customers I already have and personalize their experiences?' At Monetate, we ask, 'Why Choose?'"

Following the close of the 2015 holiday season, the Monetate EQ4 2015 reveals a wealth of new data on how shoppers – both new and returning – behaved online. For example, in Q4, despite making up less than half of all ecommerce sessions (48 percent), returning visitors spent nearly $5.3 billion online – almost twice as much money as new visitors spent during the same timeframe ($2.7 billion).

The Monetate EQ4 2015 unravels critical ecommerce KPIs such as add-to-cart rate, bounce rate, conversions and more for the final quarter of 2015.

Add-to-Cart Rate
New visitors are half as likely as returning visitors to add an item to their cart. This is nearly universal across devices and referral channels. In Q4 2015, returning visitors, on average, added an item to their cart 15 percent of the time; new visitors, on average, added to their cart roughly 8 percent of the time.

There are, of course, some exceptions: new visitors on mobile phones only added items in about 4 percent of sessions (versus 10 percent of sessions for returning) and new visitors from social networks only add items 4 percent of the time (versus 9 percent for returning).

Bounce Rate
On the whole, bounce rate was up slightly over Q4 2014: 30 percent in Q4 2015 versus 29 percent in Q4 2014. But, unlike add-to-cart rate, the difference in bounce rate between new and returning visitors varied significantly depending on a visitor's circumstances.

From a device perspective, mobile is still a laggard when it comes to the global average: 37 percent of mobile visitors in Q4 2015 bounced from the site they were visiting. Compared with the 26 percent and 28 percent bounce rates of desktop and tablet visitors, it's clear mobile still has challenges to overcome.

Conversion Rate
As expected, the holiday season contributed to solid conversion rates in Q4. On the whole, conversion rates averaged 3.5 percent, the highest rate in Monetate's trailing 12-month analysis and slightly higher than Q4 2014, which had an average conversion rate of 3.4 percent.

Device performance saw across-the-board, year-over-year gains (even if modest), while email and search both saw growth as referral channels. New visitor conversion rates trailed returning customers in every way imaginable. The average new visitor conversion rate for Q4 2015 was 2.5 percent, with desktop visitors the only segment within the new visitor category to break the 3 percent conversion rate plateau.

"Customer retention and customer acquisition don't have to be two parallel lines that never meet," said Duncalfe. "With Monetate, our customers are able to improve conversion rates, engagement, acquisition and retention by personalizing every experience along a customer's journey."

Methodology
The EQ analyzes a random sample of more than 7 billion online shopping experiences using "same store" data across each calendar quarter. Averages throughout the EQ are calculated across the entire sample. Key performance indicators, such as average order value and conversion rate, vary by industry and market type. These averages are published only to support the analysis in each release of the EQ, and are not intended to be benchmarks for any ecommerce business.

About Monetate
Monetate is the global leader in experience marketing for brands worldwide. Monetate makes it fast and easy for marketers to test, target, merchandize, synchronize and personalize experiences across multiple devices and channels. Our brands grow their business by delivering one-of-kind experiences to every customer at each moment of interaction.

Monetate does it all through the industry's first Experience Marketing Platform, the only platform that combines marketer creativity with predictive models and machine learning to optimize each moment of interaction. Monetate drives your ROI by continually improving your ROE... your Return on Experience.

Founded in 2008, Monetate influences billions of dollars in annual revenue for world-class brands like QVC, Office Depot, Patagonia, Sur la Table, and The North Face. During Cyber Week 2015, Monetate influenced more than a third of all U.S. ecommerce sales. Monetate is the industry leader, with more clients in the IR 500 than any other company.

Media Contact
Bridget Supplitt (Finn Partners) 312-329-3970 or [email protected]

SOURCE Monetate

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