New Data from Monetate Reveals Cross-Channel Consistency is Key for Driving Online Sales; Email Stars in Breakthrough Performance

PHILADELPHIA, Nov. 24, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Monetate, the leading provider of multi-channel testing and personalization for brands worldwide, announced today the release of its latest global Ecommerce Quarterly report (EQ3 2015). The data reveals that cross-channel consistency plays an instrumental role in helping retailers drive online sales, with email breaking through by boosting add-to-cart rates and social by increasing conversion rates.

The EQ3 2015 delves into the third quarter's ecommerce performance trends. It explores how continuous experiences that start at the channel level and extend through to brands' websites are key for beating industry average KPIs and delivering more personalized customer experiences.

"Users interact with different channels in different ways, and each channel has something unique to offer marketing campaigns. This year, achieving consistency across all these channels is topping the holiday lists of marketers everywhere," said Lucinda Duncalfe, CEO, Monetate. "As retailers prepare to enter peak season, they can benefit from the best practices in our latest EQ report, which provides real-world examples from brands like Bonobos and Missguided."

Add-to-Cart Rate Climbs
Email has been marketers' shining star for the past 15 months with average add-to-cart rates climbing to 10.23 percent (up 1.74 percent over Q3 2014) and a growing share of overall referral traffic. But brands are still struggling to capitalize on social channels and get followers to hit their websites. At 1.3 percent, social referrals account for a slight portion of referral traffic for the quarter, while on the other hand add-to-cart rates for social (4.85 percent) are closer to the stronger conversion rates in Q3 for direct-to-site traffic (3.26 percent).

Bounce Rates Continue to Go Up
As we've seen in recent quarters, bounce rate has continued to increase. At 31 percent, global bounce rate has regressed YoY, up from 29 percent. Interestingly, this trend is attributable to the growth in mobile traffic, which now accounts for 25 percent of all ecommerce traffic. Despite this, those who aren't bouncing are growing more and more comfortable with the concept of shopping from a smartphone as mobile bounce rate has seen YoY improvements from 41 percent to 39 percent, but still significantly greater than bounce rate for desktop (28 percent) and tablets (29 percent). Email bounce rate increased 18 percent YoY compared to steady rates for social and search and increases for direct-to-site visitors.

Conversion Rate Makes Gains
Social networks showed the most promise in this EQ when it came to conversion rates, with a 4 percent increase over Q3 2014. Importantly, when consumers added products to their cart they completed the transaction about 27 percent of the time – a rate that rivals email (73 percent cart abandonment rate) and is closer to search and direct-to-site traffic (respective rates of 68 percent and 69 percent).

Bonobos, a prominent online men's retailer, recently promoted its new New York City guideshop with a retargeting campaign to visitors, offering to book them an appointment for wardrobe tips. Though the main goal was to get customers to book appointments and visit the guideshop, Bonobos witnessed conversion rates of 146 percent above the industry average.

In the UK, Missguided used two different campaigns to deliver a spike in conversion rates. The first was an email campaign for frequent customers, the other a discounted dress offer. The results were impressive, with 32 percent and 37 percent increases in conversion rates.

Mobile Continues to Shine in the UK
Mobile has made strides in terms of ecommerce traffic in the UK. Smartphones now account for 35 percent of all ecommerce website visits in the UK – a 24 percent increase over Q3 2014. But this shift is accompanied by a slight dip in add-to-cart rate and overall conversion rate YoY. Interestingly, this signals a shift in UK behavior to mirror more closely their U.S. counterparts who are less likely to convert, as U.S. shoppers continue to grow more comfortable with actually making purchases on mobile devices.

Download a free copy of the Monetate Ecommerce Quarterly report (EQ3 2015) here.

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 multichannel testing and personalization brands worldwide. The Monetate platform is built for speed. It features an easy-to-use interface that allows marketers to create, test, and deploy customized real-time experiences across web, email, and mobile.

With Monetate, marketing is transformed from a world of discrete one-size-fits-all campaigns to one of always-on, personalized experiences that optimize the lifetime value of each customer.

Founded in 2008, Monetate influences billions of dollars in annual revenue for world-class brands like Macy's, QVC, Office Depot, Patagonia, Sur la Table, and The North Face. During Cyber Week 2014, Monetate influenced a third of all US e-commerce sales. Monetate is the industry leader, with more clients in the IR 500 than any other company.

SOURCE Monetate

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