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(Continued) The Rank for $ales Weekly Newsletter, Jul. 29, 2006. Page 18 Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 
Boosting your conversion ratesThere was a great article in B2B News Thursday on the historically low conversion rates on most B2B sites. For many years now, the B2B segment of eCommerce has been characterized by a very low ratio of sales when compared to the number of overall daily visits to business-to-business portals in general. Overall, online buying in the B2B segment is a frustrating experience for many business people. This isn't to say that participants won't do it, but they aren't very happy most of the time when they have to. In B2B today, there are key factors at work, mostly in the socio-economic mix that will, over time, have an impact on online sales' conversion rates. Of course you can ignore them, but at your own risk. Some of the key factors are more broadband power, higher energy costs, tighter budgets and, you can add a greater number of people more experienced in Internet purchasing than ever before. For example, B2B sales conversion rates are, to be frank, disappointing. The conversion rate is the number that represents what percentage of online visitors finally make a purchase on a B2B site. On average, B2B conversion rates hover in the 1 to 4 percent range at best. What does that mean? If you were a brick and mortar store it would mean anywhere from 96 to 99 people out of 100 store visitors would leave your premises without spending a single dime! In other words, you would rapidly go out of business. So why do so many online shoppers leave your B2B portal? The short answer is they didn't see what they wanted fast enough, and went away frustrated. Overall, 20 percent of respondents to a survey reported by Retail Forward say they feel frustrated when they can't find what they are looking for on B2B websites. Another survey reported in the news shows that 55 percent of consumers said a frustrating online shopping experience negatively impacts their overall opinion of that B2B company. Meanwhile, broadband connections in the US have soared. Some 72 percent of businesses and homes now connect from high-speed lines, up from 57 percent in 2005, according to new data from Nielsen//NetRatings. Yet another study issued in May 2006 confirms this. US residents with broadband connections jumped 40 percent to 84 million, from March 2005 to March 2006, says the Pew Internet & American Life Project.  Seems to be opposite forces converging here, on the one hand research shows that consumers are frustrated by what they find (or didn't find) on the Internet, and on the other side they are eager to use the high octane now available to them via high speed Internet access. How to improve your site's conversion rate If this scenario is repeated time and time again, most of you would probably say there must be something wrong with that store, since nobody buys anything, right? Turning to the world of the Internet, if the above comparison seem to apply to your website, there must also be a reason why your prospective customers are looking at your site, then click to your competitor’s site without buying anything at yours. In this article, I will shed some light as to the possible reasons why your conversion rate is so low, and what you can do to significantly increase it. Well, thats it for this week. Have a pleasant and relaxing weekend. I will see you all next Saturday! Serge Thibodeau, Please note that I am available for SEO consultative work or to help you optimize your website for the major search engines. Feel free to contact me for an honest and fair assessment.  All logos, trade marks and service marks on this newsletter are the exclusive property of their respective owners. Note: Although I always try my best to answer each individual question that I receive, there are times when it's just impossible for me to answer every one I get, as the amount of emails sent to me keeps increasing all the time. Also, please note that, for confidentiality reasons, the names of people writing to us are never disclosed. Please send all your questions, comments or general enquiries to: questions@rankforsales.com Subscribe to the free Rank for Sales Weekly Newsletter <<< Previous page Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18  Bookmark the RFS Newsletter by simply clicking here. Search engine industry news corner:  About Rank for $ales Rank for $ales can be reached via email at info@rankforsales.com or you can call from anywhere in the US or Canada, via our toll free number at 1-800-631-3221. Our offices are located near Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Visit our web site at www.rankforsales.com About Serge Thibodeau Pagina+™ is offered by Rank for $ale's parent company: GCIS Inc. Besides serving as editor and CEO of Rank for $ales, Serge Thibodeau currently writes professional search engine optimization articles in some of the following publications:
SEO Today (www.seotoday.com) Additionally, Serge Thibodeau has successfully developed and deployed Global Business Listing, a powerful and flexible 'paid inclusion' search engine that will further increase any company's rankings and visibility in the major search engines. On the Web, at: www.globalbusinesslisting.com Bookmark the Rank for $ales newsletter by simply clicking here. Legal Notice This newsletter is sponsored by Rank for Sales, a professional SEO firm in business since 1997. We suggest you bookmark our newsletter and place it in the list of your favorite websites by clicking here. Feel free to contact us if you need to have your website optimized by a professional SEO firm, or if you have any question on the subject of search engines. |
