New Report from Monetate Reveals US Conversion Rates, Average Order Value (AOV) and Revenue Per Session Rising; Explores the Impact of Offline Data on Ecommerce Performance

PHILADELPHIA, Sept. 10, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Monetate, the leading provider of multi-channel personalization and testing for brands worldwide, announced today the release of its latest global Ecommerce Quarterly report (EQ2 2015). The data reveals US conversion rates, average order value (AOV), and revenue per session all made quarter-over-quarter and year-over-year improvements – a trend toward recovery compared to Q1 2015 when there were steady declines across these key metrics.

The EQ2 2015 delves into the second quarter's ecommerce performance trends and explores how retailers are using proprietary data to improve their online relationships with specific customer segments – and beating industry averages in the process. The customers highlighted in this EQ each used Monetate's Data Activation feature to pull together data from disparate sources and target customers in ways that would have been difficult before Monetate.

"The practice of using proprietary data sources to improve a customer's online experience is still relatively uncommon, but it shouldn't be," said Lucinda Duncalfe, CEO, Monetate. "It used to be a painful, or even impossible, process to match a customer segment from your CRM to your website visitors. With Data Activation in Monetate, you can collect data in endless ways and places then easily bring it all together to improve the customer experience and your business."

Bounce Rates Continue to Increase

Though many metrics went in the right direction during the second quarter, bounce rate continued to increase. It registered at 31.32 percent – nearly identical to the previous quarter (31.34 percent), which was the highest in the 15-month period analyzed. Though most retailers faced this problem, Johnston & Murphy found a way to solve it.

The men's and women's footwear and apparel brand started offering free, two-day shipping standard to their VIP customers, who were identified through in-store and online data. Since implementing the campaign, bounce rate for that segment of website visitors has improved by 19 percent.

Average Order Value Remained Flat YOY

Global AOV didn't change much year-over-year, but there were some significant increases within attention-grabbing segments. For example, in Q2, shoppers hitting ecommerce sites from social networks spent $108.72 per order, the highest quarterly AOV measured in this EQ. Just as important: that number trended up the entire time, increasing gradually quarter over quarter.

Johnston & Murphy was also able to use its offline customer data to outpace AOV averages this quarter. The brand decided to create a better experience for female customers who hit the site on mobile. To do that, they uploaded offline customer data to identify the gender of their logged-in visitor and targeted all female visitors with a specific hero image tailored for them. As a result, AOV for those customers improved nearly 57 percent.

Conversion Rates Improving Across All Devices

In Q2, shoppers were more apt to pull the trigger on a purchase regardless of which device they were on. Desktop, smartphone and tablet conversion rates all increased by significant percentages: Smartphone conversion rates increased nearly 7 percent and tablet conversion rates increased 12 percent. Desktop conversion rates, meanwhile, increased 7 percent.

DIRECTV was able to optimize its conversion rates and surpass industry averages by leveraging proprietary data to reach a highly targeted segment – movers. Working with a third-party partner who pushed change of address information into their data management platform (DMP), DirecTV used the data to target movers with display ads and again on its website. They updated the hero image, the featured bundles and packages, and even the customer service number to call. As a result, DIRECTV has achieved a double-digit lift in conversion rate – without discounting their standard mover-category offers.

UK ECommerce Outperforming US; Buoyed by Mobile Shoppers

If US ecommerce had a "pretty good" quarter, UK ecommerce had a "great" quarter.

Traffic to ecommerce sites analyzed in this EQ increased 30 percent YOY and conversion rates jumped an incredible 46 percent over the same time period – driven largely by mobile shoppers. Between Q2 2014 and Q2 2015, for example, the percentage of ecommerce traffic originating from smartphones jumped from 18.26 percent to 30.54 percent. And, during that same time, conversion rates have skyrocketed from 0.56 percent to 1.5 percent with AOV jumping from $63.55 to $94.15.

The lone blemish among key metrics for UK mobile ecommerce was bounce rate. Mobile shoppers did bounce from sites slightly more often (34% in Q2 2015 v. 32.6% in Q2 2014).

QVC UK, however, was not among those battling rising bounce rates. By focusing on a single segment of customers, pulled from their data warehouse and uploaded into Monetate, they were able to target that segment with a branded experience, including a product recommendation banner for those visitors. The result? Bounce rate dropped to 6.77 percent, an improvement of 44 percent.

Download a free copy of the Monetate Ecommerce Quarterly report (EQ2 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 personalization and testing for 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 personalization software provider.

SOURCE Monetate