58 Bloomsbury Street

London WC1B 3QT

+44 (0)207 307 7770

www.amber-light.co.uk

Making websites work

(aka Retail is Detail)

Project Name

Not just about immediate online conversion

• Describe products for later purchase (wish list)• Drive to the high street• Generate leads for later up-selling

• Get customer feedback or market insight• Support sales

Project Name

What to look for

• Three legs of the stool: usability, utility and persuasion add up to the user experience

• Usability• Layout, Forms etc

• Utility• Do people actually want it

• Persuasiveness • Copy, Credibility and Calls to action

Project Name So how can you improve

conversions?

4

You have 3 seconds to make an impression…

Make an impression

04/12/23 Project Name 6

What did you see?

04/12/23 Project Name 8

What did you see?

04/12/23 Project Name 10

Project Name Was that more or less effective at

generating donations?

11

The triumph of creativity over common sense?

http://www.leoburnett.ca/FLASH/index.htm

Understand your audience and their wants

Show people where they are

And help them move elsewhere if they want to

Offer different ways of choosing

Type

Inspiration

Destination

Don’t give me choice. Make it easy for me to choose.

Have effective search

• THE most important navigational element• Simple search has to work well

– Misspellings– Synonyms– Related items

• Search filters should be offered

• DON’T assume people can spell

Bad search results

16

Better search results

17

Best search results

18

Focus on the product page

• Key elements– Buy button– Price– Benefits and features– Pictures– Visitor rankings– Special offers, free delivery etc– You might also like...

20

Project Name

Image details are important

21

JC Decaux research using 200 people

Spot the difference?

Project Name

Don’t forget the “buy” button

22

Copy is important

23

Write for the web

• Reading age of around 8 to 10 (like The Sun)• Lots of paragraphs, bullets, bold, headings• Short sentences and short words (germanic

not latin)• Key words to left of screen if possible• Words are important!

– “Secure checkout” can increase conversion by 20% over “Checkout”

Write for sales

• Have a great headline• Describe benefits not features• Write about “you” not about “us”• Remember why you are writing (selling not

being clever)• Write for the web (sub heads, short sentences,

simple words...)

Slick and intuitive checkouts

• Do keep number of pages to a minimum• Don’t ask for data you don’t need• Do provide links to basket at each stage• Don’t force people to register• Do provide a phone number on each page• Don’t hit them with nasty surprises like

shipping costs at the last minute• Do get an email address early (so you can

mail them if they bail out)

Don’t disturb people when they are paying

04/12/23 Project Name 27

Notice the difference?

28

A/B testing has presumably show that a “Carry on shopping?” option is counter productive

Service is important (for repeat purchase)

1. Make receiving it easy– When will it arrive (delivery windows)?– Where will it be left if you are out?

2. Make it easy to justify the buying decision3. Make returning it easy4. Make replacing it easy

Amazon are great at 2, 3 and 4

Great service from Amazon

30

And finally...

31

Project Name

How to find out what works• Watch the user

• Web analytics• Social media analysis (low vs high emotion)

• Ask the user• Surveys• Remote and face to face UX testing• Eye-tracking and emotion tracking

• Use UX research to “power” A/B and MVT (A/B testing on its own is not sufficient)

• Use best practice as a starting point• Do something – even if you do it yourself

Project Name

The cookie law

• The cookie law will affect conversion optimisation

• You can’t optimise without permission

• You can’t analyse without permission

• It is not sufficient to tell people what you are doing

• Someone had better tell the UK Government!

Project Name

Conclusions

• Understand your audience

• Accept that it’s different for every website

• Use your common sense (it’s not rocket science)

• Subordinate SEO to the user experience • Look to the detail

58 Bloomsbury Street

London WC1B 3QT

+44 (0)207 307 7770

www.amber-light.co.uk

Thank you

jeremy@amber-light.co.uk