Background:
Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) research reduces customer acquisition costs by getting more value from visitors. I did this research on an American department store Kohl’s for Retail Ecommerce Ventures. This is a brief version of thorough research.
Timeline:
One week (2021)
Tools:
Alexa
Goals:
Imagine you’re a product designer for Kohl’s. Your team has noticed customer conversion rates for adding items to the digital shopping cart have fallen to 4.3% compared to the company’s 5% goal. The team is eager to make experience improvements that increase the likelihood a customer selects and adds an item to their shopping cart.
Research:
I have researched through the following steps.
- Site speed analysis
- Profile analysis
- Competitor analysis
- Traffic trends
- Engagement metrics
- Keyword analysis
- Referral sources
- Social engagement analytics
SITE SPEED ANALYSIS:
Speed Scores:
The analysis is done through Pingdom only for desktop.
- Homepage: Performance grade: E 60, Page size: 6.5MB, Load time: 3.29 s, 474 requests
- Department page: Performance grade: E 60, Page size: 3.8MB, Load time: 4.22 s, 422 requests
Key takeaways:
- Website loading time needs to be reduced
Opportunities:
- Avoid URL redirects
- Reduce DNS lookups
PROFILE ANALYSIS:
Traffic Engagement Ranking:
Alexa Rank is a daily estimate of a website’s popularity. It is calculated using a combination of average daily visitors to this site and pageviews on this site over the past 3 months.
Key Takeaways:
- Rank reduced by 637 in 90 days
- Missing current niche demands and trends might be the reason
COMPETITOR ANALYSIS:
Key Takeaways:
- Macy’s and Target have the most overlapping audience and hold better rank than Kohl’s
- Analyzing their design philosophy to improve Kohl’s profile
TRAFFIC TRENDS:
Key Takeaways:
- Macy’s and Target are in better traffic rank compared to Kohl’s. Analyzing their strategies can lead to opportunities.
ENGAGEMENT METRICS:
Pageviews Per User:
The estimated daily unique pageviews per user for this site
Key Takeaways:
- Macy’s unique page views are higher than Kohl’s.
- The keywords or engagement strategies of Macy’s to get the more diverse interest of the customers are more effective.
Bounce%:
Estimates percentage of daily visits to this site that consist of a single pageview.
Key Takeaways:
- Macy’s is showing a consistent lower bouncing rate which is an indication that their homepage products are relevant to most of the customer’s interest, regardless of source
Time on Site:
The estimated daily time on site in seconds for this site (in seconds)
Key Takeaways:
- Kohl’s is falling behind Macy’s and Target in holding customer interest. Perhaps focusing on a more timely niche or trend can give customer engagement a boost.
KEYWORDS ANALYSIS:
Keywords Gap:
Keywords driving traffic to competitors, but not towards this site.
Key Takeaways:
- The gap shows missing keywords which can drive more traffic to Kohl’s
- Matching the new keywords with the inventory important before adding
Easy to Rank Keywords:
Popular keywords within this site’s competitive power
Key Takeaways:
- The items that have a high popularity and low competition, definitely demand more attention for increasing conversion rate
Buyer Keywords:
Keywords that holds purchase intent
Key Takeaways
- Focusing on the keywords with purchase interest is a direct contribution to increasing conversion.
- Especially focusing on the targeted competitors’ profile can be beneficiary because of their proven success
REFERRAL SOURCES:
Traffic Sources:
Alexa estimates website traffic based on a sample of millions of Internet users.
Key Takeaways:
- Focusing on the keywords for better search result and increasing referral link can drive more traffic
Referral Sites:
sites that drive traffic to them
Key Takeaways:
- Finding the backlink of the targeted competitors and joining the relevant and most popular sites can benefit our traffic in a great number
SOCIAL ENGAGEMENT ANALYTICS:
- KOHL’S
- MACY’S
Key Takeaways:
- For additional traffic, we can analyze the most popular social engagement topics to identify our next trend and niche
Test:
SURVEY:
I have done an online survey on 3 people with ten qualitative and qualitative questions.
Key Takeaways:
- Customers demand a more visually pleasant experience
- Product finding experience can be improved
- Product finding experience can be improved
Opportunities:
- Redesign based on modern successful design trends
- Things can be well sorted
- Departments can me more customer behaviors based organized
REMOTE USER TESTING:
Platform:
www.usertesting.com
Participants:
3
Tasks:
- Task 1.Without leaving the homepage, what are your initial impressions of the website? Explain your answer.
- Task 2.Try to guest checkout a pair of shoes (do not buy them). Please describe out loud what you expect to happen. When you’ve decided, move on to the next task.
Testing Analysis
Tester |
First Impression |
Task |
Confidence |
Difficulty |
Site Overview |
Maxporter42
29 Male $80,000 – $99,999 United States |
|
|
|
|
|
Takeaways:
- The website is not a ‘special one. It is average compared to the similar brands
- Too crowded with promotions, difficult to focus on one
- Nothing is well structured, no clear space division provided
Solution:
HEURISTIC ANALYSIS:
Heuristic means discovery
- Discover all of the problems that I can perceive on the site
- Discoveries based on conversion optimization best practices
Homepage Observations:
Findings:
- Crowded with distracting features
- Unorganized sections in display
- No hierarchy and colours are all over the places
Key Takeaways:
- Add value proposition by prioritizing customer’s Time, Experience, and Services.
- Focus on support and giving back to keep the trust and reliability from customers
- Prioritize on seasonal niches. Keep it limited and display in a minimal, organized way with emotional big images
Prototype:
Kohl’s homepage prototype on Figma.
Key Takeaways:
- I hope too much focus on simplicity would not make the viewer feel underwhelmed by the contents
- Focusing on untraditional structure for department store might make them doubt in the beginning
- It is crucial to make the sections work effectively. There should not be repetition or confusion to find a product or deal