Merchant conversion rates

**SimonR** · 07-02-12

Hi

I have one merchant that converts much, much better than all the rest, despite not appearing to offer more competitive prices. They're a lesser known brand than the others too. They have a nice clean site and decent terms such as free next day delivery on sales over £99 but nothing extraordinary on offer.

Can anyone explain why this might be so and suggest what I could do to improve the conversion rates of other merchants? Could it be that there are fewer voucher codes associated with that merchant? Could their tracking be better? Perhaps with better known brands the visitor has already been to their site and this somehow invalidates my cookie?

I'd be really grateful for any insights.

Simon

**KevinEdwards** · 08-02-12

It's worth finding out what their de-duplication policy is: what other channels they choose to check against to see who was the last referrer. It's increasingly common for advertisers to de-duplicate against all or almost all other channels (with the possible exception of brand PPC). They may choose not to de-duplicate hence you're potentially being rewarded for sales that other channels are also being credited with.

If it's an Awin merchant the de-duplication policy for each advertiser is laid out in their Darwin Marketplace profile.

**KimCullum** · 08-02-12

Originally Posted by SimonR

Hi

I have one merchant that converts much, much better than all the rest, despite not appearing to offer more competitive prices. They're a lesser known brand than the others too. They have a nice clean site and decent terms such as free next day delivery on sales over £99 but nothing extraordinary on offer.

Can anyone explain why this might be so and suggest what I could do to improve the conversion rates of other merchants? Could it be that there are fewer voucher codes associated with that merchant? Could their tracking be better? Perhaps with better known brands the visitor has already been to their site and this somehow invalidates my cookie?

I'd be really grateful for any insights.

Simon

In addition to Kevin's points about the impact of de-duping (or not) it could also be worth considering...

-Comparing their checkout process - maybe the larger brands have too many distractions or don't declare their delivery terms up front which causes drop off, or are not clear about how long their delivery times typically take. Maybe their returns process is less customer friendly too.

- Maybe the larger merchant declines commission if orders are returned, but the smaller one has factored this in to their commission rate and doesn't decline.

- Does the smaller merchant perhaps not work with cashback / large voucher sites? If so, this may work to your benefit. If the larger merchant is working with leading cashback sites it might be your conversion rate is lower because the customer gets the benefit of cashback by using sites other than yours at the time of purchase. Likewise, if the smaller merchant doesn't do vouchercodes and doesnt have a vouchercode box at the checkout, again you may be benefitting from not losing customers who jump ship to hunt for vouchers when they see that visual cue in the check out.

- If the smaller one is offering better services - free returns, cheaper delivery, more flexible delivery options, order tracking, gift wrapping, warrantees etc etc - this could all sway the customer to pay the same to benefit from all of that.

- If the smaller one is less well known but a specialist with lots of good reviews (either on their own site or elsewhere) across the web, the customers may have discovered this and be influenced to shop with them because of the credibility they have proven in their sector.