The most common on-site retargeting practice is to capture visitors before they leave your eCommerce website in a subtle yet clever way.
As discussed in our first onsite retargeting blog post, on-site retargeting is as valuable as your most precious business associate is. It is a highly customizable tool that allows you – as part of a greater effort to raise customer retention and increase revenue – to grow, nurture and eventually convert leads into customers.
Many big brands, such as Amazon, have come up with creative and clever ideas to offer their visitors valuable shopping experience. The process of designing great on-site eCommerce retargeting is rather like starting a new friendship with another person. As you try to get to know the other person, you observe his behavior and reactions as you interact to find the best way to communicate with each other. Similarly, the ability to monitor visitor web behaviors in order to appropriately appeal to visitor’s interests area helps to establish trust between your customers and your brand.
In this post, we explore three essential ways to use on-site retargeting tactics for Ecommerce.
1. Capture leads pro hominem
Getting visitor email addresses is a big challenge for many online businesses. Many people are reluctant to give away their email for fear of getting non-relevant spam. However, if your website is credible and has indeed value to offer then you can keep them coming by offering quality content and/or concrete benefits. It is also advisable to generate the prompt after the visitors, particularly first timers, had the chance to see what your site has to offer.
Take for example The New Yorker, the message only appears after the visitor has browsed around for a while and it is explicitly stating an argument, a fact and a benefit:
By leveraging a trending theme in the US politics, the New Yorker sends a clear message: “Do not succumb to fake news, we offer you the chance to get real news by written and edited by true professionals at your ‘doorstep’”. This way the credible news and culture website ‘sells’ qualitative content by playing off a relevant and also contemporary concept. At the same time, the simple yet attractive design helps attract visitors’ attention, thereby further adding to the value of the brand and building a connection with the subscribers.
A simpler way to get more contact to your lists is offering free or ‘complimentary’ content. In the example below, the subscriber will receive updated stories. For eCommerce businesses, a common practice is to offer a discount with purchase in return for sign up.
2. Use on-site retargeting for eCommerce cross selling
If a visitor is browsing and possibly comparing your product with a competitor, jumpstart a sort of discourse with them by recommending products based on their interests and clicks. Retargeting helps combat fierce competition and price sensitivity by offering unique experience thru a targeted and suitable recommendation.
Amazon is great at delivering a valuable shopping experience to a potential customer. Assume you are looking for body moisturizers, Amazon makes it almost impossible not to strike a conversion. Aside from the recommendation carousel (Up-sell, Down-sell tactics) and the cross sell tactics that many online retailers offer, Amazon highlights video content relevant to that particular product. Ecommerce pioneers such as Amazon take care of their prospective customers by offering value in a relevant way that, simultaneously, does not cost much for the business.
3. Prevent cart abandonment while visitor is on-site
Cart abandonment is costing your eCommerce business many potential sales and no one can afford that. Thanks to on-site retargeting tactics, you can recoup a percentage of abandonment by delivering the right message to “persuade” the customer to continue his shopping journey. Oysho, a company that offers women lingerie, loungewear, and activewear, successfully retargeted customers at the eleventh hour! By calculating the amount of time it takes to complete the purchase stage, the retailer pops up a new message approximately 2 minutes after the visitor has stood still on the product page:
…and another message a few minutes after to promote the “Free Shipping and Free return” benefits.
Testing is key to success
AB testing is an important asset in your pouch of retargeting arrows. It allows you to experiment various retargeting approaches in order to optimize on the outcome for your customer segments. For example, you can run AB tests by offering half of your existing customers a referral discount code and free shipping offer for the other half to see how well your consumer response to different incentives. By running the experiment in parallel, AB testing provides you a glimpse into what works in the shortest possible time. (Read more on A/B testing email campaigns).
Amazon, for example, runs hundreds of AB testing its landing page and product recommendations simultaneously in order to optimize on conversion. You may observe minute differences between visits such as placement of product pages, font size or even color of the buttons. Over time, these subtle changes in the way Amazon retarget its customers generate substantial impact in its ecommerce earnings.
In Closing
On retargeting tactics are effective ways to attract sign ups, prevent abandonment, and increase overall conversions for every eCommerce business size out there. Try out these 3 essential tactics above and see how it can help your e-commerce sales soar.
