'Net Features : monetate

E-Commerce Social Traffic Declines, Tablet Traffic Grows

Allison Howen — Wed, 22 May 2013 18:30:00 GMT

A new report from marketing and website optimization solutions provider Monetate is shedding some light on recent social commerce trends, the growing importance of mobile devices and the opportunity retailers have with U.S. military online shoppers.

The Ecommerce Quarterly report, which analyzed a random sample of more than 500 million online shopping experiences in the first quarter of 2013, reveals that social media is lagging as a direct traffic source to e-commerce websites and online purchases despite the investment brands are putting into this channel. In fact, social media represented only 1.55 percent of all e-commerce traffic, which puts it behind email (2.82%) and far behind search (31.43%). Plus, social media traffic numbers are down from Q1 2012, when they reached 2.36 percent.

That being said, mobile devices including tablets and smartphones are grabbing a larger share of e-commerce traffic. For instance, tablet and smartphones made up 21.02 percent of traffic, which is a huge increase from just 2 percent two years ago. In addition, one of the most surprising stats from the study found that tablets actually led smartphones in e-commerce traffic, with 10.58 percent of the traffic share compared to 10.44 percent.

Another noteworthy insight from the Ecommerce Quarterly study shows that marketing to U.S. military personnel pays off. The data reveals that conversion rates among military personnel in the U.S. is at 5.15 percent, 4.3 percent in Europe and 3.57 percent in Asia. All of these numbers are higher than the overall U.S. consumer segment, which has an average conversion rate of 2.53 percent. Likewise, the average order value of military personnel was 23.39 percent higher than U.S. shoppers.

"As marketers know, data can tell a story and the EQ1 2013 tells the story of a fast-growing ecommerce market where companies face growing opportunities and challenges," said Blair Lyon , vice president, marketing, Monetate. "We focused this EQ on social commerce since the data shows the companies have not yet cracked the code in leveraging social media to drive ecommerce traffic. We know that social media plays an important role in influencing social purchases – to what degree brands are able to leverage social to build loyalty is the next big question."

Key Q4 '12 Insights for Merchants

Pete Prestipino — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 19:55:00 GMT

Data is continually emerging about the performance of online retailers in the final quarter of 2012. Monetate's latest release of its ECommerce Quarterly Report (EQ4 2012) for example, reveals several important trends and includes analysis of key performance indicators including conversion rates and average order value by both device and inbound referrers.

Some of the more noteworthy insights include:

: The Expanding Ecommerce Window :
During the last holiday season, ecommerce conversion rates plummeted after “Free Shipping Day” (Dec. 17) even though retailers continued free shipping promotions beyond the date. Monetate suggests that a consumer “doubt gap” on shipping has emerged, presenting an opportunity for retailers to prove to consumers they can deliver the goods in a shorter window, extending shopping opportunities.

: The Mobile Issue Remains :
On Christmas Day 2012, according to Monetate's data, almost one-third of all ecommerce traffic came from smartphones (16%) and tablets (15.6%). Just a year earlier, less than half of that amount of traffic (14.5%) came from smartphones (6.4%) and tablets (8%). Monetate suggets that online business which do not tailor their web experience for smartphones and tablets run the risk of alienating (or losing) customers.

: Smartphone Conversions Rise :
Conversion rates on smartphone devices remain low (1.2% compared with 4% for tablets), yet smartphone traffic hovered over 10%. These numbers point to consumers using smartphones primarily as “retailer prompted research” tools; this sets the stage for retailers to get more creative in driving the smartphone experience through to conversion.

“One of the most telling insights from the EQ4 2012 is the Christmas Day device data,” said Kurt Heinemann, CMO, Monetate. “On Dec. 25th, 15 percent of all ecommerce traffic came from tablets, whereas the average tablet traffic percentage in December was about 10 percent. This reveals the mobile is increasingly the device of choice. When consumers have leisure time and any device at their disposal, they reach for the tablet or smartphone. Ecommerce had better be paying attention to this trend.”

Monetate Shows Personalization Matters

Amberly Dressler — Mon, 10 Dec 2012 17:30:00 GMT

What was once viewed as intrusive, if not creepy, today is a convenience and a consumer demand.

This is, of course, is personalized online customer experiences. And Monetate, a technology solution that leverages real-time and historical big data, delivers these experiences. In fact, its platform influenced more than $1 billion in U.S. e-commerce sales during the 2012 peak Thanksgiving holiday shopping week, up 44 percent from 2011 comparable traffic.

Monetate enables marketers to create a Web experience that reacts intelligently to a customer based on purchase history, device, demographics, in-session browsing behavior and more, resulting in higher conversion rates, better customer satisfaction and increased revenues, according to the company.

"Consumers are demanding more convenient Web experiences across a broader variety of devices including smartphones and tablets, and we've seen that trend explode over the holiday shopping weekend," said Monetate CEO and Found David Brussin. "Fortunately, our retail clients were prepared for this 'buy-on-the-fly' culture and were able to meet consumer needs by allowing them to find and purchase the products they wanted quickly and easily, regardless of which device they were using."

Monetate boasts an impressive list of retail clients, including Macy’s, Frontier Airlines, Tommy Hilfiger, Office Max, Best Buy and the list goes on.

Monetate's solutions, which combine A/B and multivariate testing with behavioral targeting, merchandising and product recommendations, are used by global brands across a spectrum of industries. Monetate enables brands to use Big Data to increase conversions by creating a more relevant online experience.

Related Article: Additionally, we website’s homepage still plays a valuable role in the customer experience. Check out iGoDigital President, Eric Tobias’s explanation of personalization best practices.

The Mobile Impact; Stats, States, & Data

Allison Howen — Wed, 21 Nov 2012 20:45:00 GMT

Mobile traffic is valuable traffic.

In fact, a recent Monetate study reveals that nearly one out of every five consumers has made an online purchase with a mobile device. Furthermore, over the last year, tablet shopping traffic increased 161 percent while smartphone traffic increased 119 percent.

However, only merchants and marketers who have a strong mobile presence are reaping these benefits. Luckily, Monetate’s Ecommerce Quarterly study contains a plethora of mobile shopping insights, which Web workers can use to better improve their mobile-optimized websites and marketing strategies.

The Stats

Some of the most intriguing metrics from the study show that even though traditional desktop traffic still makes up 81.6 percent of the market share, these shoppers actually have the lowest average order value (AOV) at $91.76. Conversely, tablet shoppers only make up 8.37 percent of the website traffic market share, yet have a higher AOV of $96.84, while smartphone shoppers make up 10.03 percent of traffic and have the highest AOV of $97.82.

This data proves that even though desktops still drive the most traffic, mobile customers tend to spend more when they actually make a purchase. Yet, it is important to note that smartphone shoppers have the lowest conversion rate at 1.01 percent followed by tablets at 3.12 percent, while traditional desktop traffic has the highest conversion rate of 3.28 percent.

In order to get the best return on investment (ROI) from mobile, merchants shouldn’t only create a mobile-optimized site, but instead build smartphone and tablet specific sites. This is because Monetate’s statistics show that tablet shoppers are much more likely to convert than smartphone shoppers, despite the fact that smartphones drive more traffic. This is most likely the result of consumers who leverage their smartphones to comparison shop while inside brick-and-mortar stores. For this reason, merchants should create smartphone sites that prominently display product ratings and reviews, and tablet sites that feature easy-to-use navigational elements and high-quality product images.

The States

While it is clear that mobile is worth the investment, there are still many uncertainties when it comes to mobile marketing. That being said, marketers should be aware of the geographic locations that contain the highest number of mobile savvy shoppers. According to Monetate’s report, Maryland drives the most mobile traffic, followed by South Carolina, Georgia, Mississippi and Texas.

By leveraging this geographical data, marketers can build mobile campaigns that target shoppers in these states. For example, marketers can create location-specific campaigns that include incentives to buy, as well as display geotargeted customer testimonials to consumers in a specific area. Additionally, marketers can combine geotargeted messages with in-store inventory data, which can help drive sales both in-stores and online. For instance, marketers can promote in-store returns for online shoppers or launch a geotargeted banner that features an item that is out-of-stock online, but is available at a nearby store.

Your Data

While all of the aforementioned data can be used as a good starting point for optimizing mobile sites and marketing campaigns, merchants and marketers should rely on their own analytics for optimizing their mobile strategies. For example, even though Maryland is overall the top state for mobile traffic, your analytics may reveal that your business receives most of its mobile traffic from Wyoming or Hawaii, which would make it a better idea for your campaigns to center around those areas.

At the end of the day, it is important to remember that mobile is still an emerging channel, so testing a variety of elements and analyzing the results (for mobile sites and marketing campaigns), is the only way to ensure that you're receiving the best ROI for your company's mobile initiatives.

Optimize the Kindle Fire Experience with Monetate

Pete Prestipino — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 23:00:00 GMT

Personalization and targeting provider Monetate has announced support for the Kindle Fire in its cloud-based website optimization platform.

Monetate, which primarily serves the ecommerce market, enables users to segment visitors from tablet devices and deliver platform-specific options to enhance the browsing and buying experience. For example, merchants have the ability to run multiple concurrent A/B and multivariate tests, leverage geographic and weather-based targeting, and deliver custom experiences based on individual user behavior.

Some of the modifications that merchants can make include making navigation menus larger for greater ease-of-use, enable/disable functions including swipe, pinch-to-zoom and multi-touch gestures, and several others including delivering custom messages such as special offers based on the type of device.

"It is becoming clear that tablet users represent a unique segment of consumers with specific needs, habits and purchasing behaviors," says Monetate CEO David Brussin. "In order to close more sales, retailers must proactively tailor the shopping experience to tablet users in a way that takes advantage of the devices' unique characteristics."

Baynote and Monetate Announce Partnership

Allison Howen — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 07:00:00 GMT

A new partnership between Baynote and Monetate aims at creating a more engaging and personalized shopping experience for site visitors, while also improving conversions for e-commerce brands.

The new partnership, between Baynote, a provider of e-commerce personalization solutions, and Monetate, a provider of testing, targeting and personalization solutions for websites, integrates Baynote’s personalized product recommendations with Monetate’s testing and targeting solutions.

The partnership gives e-commerce companies the ability to test how product recommendation information is displayed while ensuring that recommendations are relevant and based on visitor’s real time interests.

"Monetate's testing and targeting platform combined with Baynote's product recommendations have enabled us to provide a truly personalized online shopping experience to our customers that is making a significant impact on increasing conversions, sales, and site revenue," says Holly Devine, Director of Ecommerce, Urban Outfitters.

The partnership provides online retailers with a platform that helps with marketing and website improvement. It delivers the top recommendations for the best spots on websites. The platform compares results from different personalized on-site search configurations and helps the understanding of how to optimize landing pages, which are both improvements that can have a major impact on revenues and operating margins.

"Creating the best kind of site experience for visitors that is also optimized for conversions does not happen through intuition; it comes from ongoing strategic improvement and testing," says Monetate founder and CEO David Brussin. "Each customer is unique, and Monetate and Baynote are working together to help online retailers determine the best way to reach them on an individual level in a way that will increase engagement and conversions."