Comments on: The Main Factor Necessary to Convert Visitors to Customers

By: Goran Web Design

Goran Web Design — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 22:16:30 +0000

I agree with Prosperity Writer about profits.

By: Eva White

Eva White — Sat, 10 May 2008 06:22:07 +0000

Its not just the brand that you are sold on, it also needs to be easy to get. Specially if you are not living in America. Eva White's last blog post..Rising Hemlines.. Rising Stocks

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Links of the Week (Remix) May 9th, 2008 | .eduGuru — Fri, 09 May 2008 14:38:52 +0000

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By: Tiffany

Tiffany — Wed, 07 May 2008 02:40:20 +0000

I don’t really care about conversion rate too actually. But knowing the fact that the vast majority of customers are already sold to a product or store before they ever come to a site is really surprising to me.

By: Webmaster Forums

Webmaster Forums — Sun, 04 May 2008 18:30:24 +0000

Agree. profit is way more important.

By: Prosperity Writer

Prosperity Writer — Sun, 04 May 2008 15:15:03 +0000

profit is still more important than the conversion rate. you can have high sales volume but a slim profit margin because of high promotion costs

By: Web Developer

Web Developer — Sun, 04 May 2008 11:54:12 +0000

Nice addition Jonathan. Many conversions are actually completed off-line. Many companies will get calls and walk-ins.

By: roxanne darling

roxanne darling — Sat, 03 May 2008 17:11:54 +0000

I think grand plays a huge role - if you ain't got that then your site better inspire confidence in other ways. I'd like to know the referrals. Do people start at Office Depot from memory or land there from a price comparison site (choosing the well known brand if price is comparable) after starting with a generic search? roxanne darling's last blog post..Podcasting Listeners Are Paying Attention

By: seo dude

seo dude — Sat, 03 May 2008 14:10:49 +0000

It also depends on the quality of traffic. You can have the best converting mountain climbing product for a killer price but if all your customers are geriatrics, I doubt you will sell many.

By: Jonathan Steele

Jonathan Steele — Sat, 03 May 2008 10:23:04 +0000

Interesting.

Here is how it worked for me. On deciding it is time to get a crosscut shredder, first all reviews were considered.

Then shopping for price. It turns out not only did the online version of our local office store have it, they were the cheapest price and offered free shipping. Lets see, gas at $3.61 per gallon…plus time = bargain.

Oh yea, we don’t have a Office Depot local to us. Are we catalogers? No, we actually ended up waiting till business took me to a town with the store where the machine could be checked out hands on, and then it was purchased. Oops, this didn’t make it into the statistics but it was a conversion of sorts.

Oh yes, I purchased it at the internet price, over $40 less than the other prices listed.

Jonathan Steele’s last blog post..May 2, Communication style, Meeting the Personality Style of the Audience

By: Web Developer

Web Developer — Sat, 03 May 2008 10:06:31 +0000

So share with us what they did to get these conversion rates. Yeah were did you get the information from. Are they conversions as in sales or are they conversions as in leads, I have seen people add contact us as a conversion.

By: PS3

PS3 — Sat, 03 May 2008 08:07:10 +0000

Jean, I guess it depends who you gauge the cost of conversion. Like the article says, must people visiting sites like Office Depot would have already visited or purchased from them. It’s not like they would be relying on a heavy ppc campaign (I wouldn’t have thought).

By: Wii guy

Wii guy — Fri, 02 May 2008 23:32:07 +0000

Those conversion rates are incredible. I’m not surprised about Office depot being high, as like you say they are a large well known brand. The thing I’m surprised about is Vistaprint, although maybe I’m stupid to think it’s not a well known brand.

By: Jaan Kanellis

Jaan Kanellis — Fri, 02 May 2008 19:56:04 +0000

Sure they are independent, but I bet one is much worse than the other with this high of a conversion rate. Jaan Kanellis's last blog post..SEO Blog RSS Feed List, The Ones I Personal Follow

By: Jayson

Jayson — Fri, 02 May 2008 19:23:43 +0000

These are huge conversion rates – I wish!

Did the study mention if these rates were among first time visitors or if they were a combination of first and regular visitors.

Jaan – I’d imagine that the cost per conversion and conversion rate are independent when just looking at conversion rates. Unless, they’re getting further qualified leads from somewhere.

By: sergei

sergei — Fri, 02 May 2008 16:54:33 +0000

it has been mentioned before, but most of these sites are “cataloguers”. people research the product, find it in the catalogue (decide to buy), go to the online shopping register and buy (nonwithstanding the usability of the respective shopping registers). in other words, the conversion occurs before they visit the site. so, it would be really cool if IR actually tried to weed out the cataloguers, or publisher a non-cataloguer ranking.

By: Greg Howlett

Greg Howlett — Fri, 02 May 2008 15:37:18 +0000

Interesting. In the past, I would have agreed with you. For sure, the rates are probably not exact. Everyone measures conversion different ways, and sometimes these research companies do some estimating.

Here is the bottom line. If you get people to your web site that already know you, they are often presold and the conversion rate is going to be much higher. That is what these companies are benefiting from.

By: Jaan Kanellis

Jaan Kanellis — Fri, 02 May 2008 15:23:14 +0000

Also how much are they spending to get these rates? It doesn't help if you to have a double digit conversion rate if your cost per conversion is through the roof. Jaan Kanellis's last blog post..SEO Blog RSS Feed List, The Ones I Personal Follow

By: Jaan Kanellis

Jaan Kanellis — Fri, 02 May 2008 14:58:05 +0000

I am sorry but I am having a very hard time believing in these conversion rates. Did all of these companies just give IR their conversion rates? Is this the global average conversion rates across the websites? Jaan Kanellis's last blog post..SEO Blog RSS Feed List, The Ones I Personal Follow