Imagine the scenario: you’re a retailer and your latest marketing campaign to promote a new product drives thousands of people into your stores.  But when the customers arrive they cannot find the products on shelves, so most people leave empty-handed.

The analogy is just as true online as it is on the High Street – an optimised website that appears high in search engine rankings is of little use if, when the thousands  of online customer visit the site, they cannot find the product they want.

The solution is Conversion Rate Optimisation (CRO): realising the importance of usability, and how the journey the user takes from landing on the site, is vital to whether a customer makes a purchase or not.

There have been various studies into which elements of a site generate more conversions, but recently it has been found that users were more than twice as likely to convert if they used a site search.

As well as this, it’s been found that if a user is shown nothing after using a site search, they are 2.5 times more likely to leave the site; so it’s essential that a site shows the user something else if what they’re searching for isn’t in the database.

These findings contribute to a list of best practices the agency implements when designing and developing ecommerce sites. But even some of the biggest and most highly-visited ecommerce sites aren’t heeding CRO best practice advice, and only need to make a few small changes to make a big difference to their conversion rates.

With that in mind, I’ve picked five top FTSE 250 e-commerce brands and looked at what they could improve on their sites to increase conversion, and gave them a CRO score out of 10 (one being very poor and ten being excellent).

1.  WHSmith.co.uk Market capitalisation: £828.53m; CRO Score: 7/10 

This site is really well branded and uses great colours, and through its clear signals it’s immediately obvious what the site is selling and what the brand is about.

It uses an easy site search, and has a clear purchasing journey. It also has a good indication of sale items, and gives availability information on each product.

Overall, the site is simple to navigate.

However, the key to conversions is to make the path to purchase as least restrictive as possible; and WHSmith asks you to sign-in before buying, which is possibly one of the biggest hurdles an ecommerce site faces in terms of increasing conversion rate; and this is what lets the site down.

2. Tedbaker.com Market capitalisation: £376.43m; CRO Score: 8/10 

Fashion sites are generally a little more difficult to gauge in terms of CRO, as each target segment is different, the visitor segment for H&M, for example, will be very different than that for Ted Baker. While H&M may favour a site which is clear, easy to navigate and functional; more expensive brands such as Ted Baker will need to factor in brand exclusivity. As such, a balance is made between exclusive/unique site design and ease of accessibility. For Ted Baker, the fonts are a little bit small, but perhaps in-line with how the brand positions itself.

The slider on the homepage doesn’t pause when you rollover it, which can be a little frustrating for the user; but the interactivity of the images is good.

The site has really good interactive filter options, but it’s very slow. It’s a great sign that they have a site search feature, however it doesn’t seem to be very accurate.

There’s a good response to live chat which is a great sign, but this is only found via a small link at the bottom of the page.

The use of the PayPal API helps to create a seamless buying process, and the fact that the site doesn’t require the user to sign in at any stage is great for making the purchase journey much simpler and smoother; and there are very good sell-up advantages offered for signing up.

 3. JDSports.co.uk Market capitalisation: £341.12m; CRO Score: 8/10 

The JD Sports website has a great, clear delivery message towards the top of the homepage; and clickable brand icons for improved usability.

Users can easily navigate through the slider on the homepage, which also pauses on rollover. The site search shows related items for misspelt terms, encouraging users to stay on the site and find what they’re looking for.

The images used are high-quality, especially for the exclusive items. The details shown on purchase are concise, and the site allows you to checkout with PayPal without forcing users to sign in.

This is a fantastic example of a site which allows users to buy easily; it’s fast and leads you easily through the buying process.

4. Debenhams.com Market capitalisation: £1,287.25m CRO Score: 8/10

Debenhams also does very well to promote sell signals with clear routes to purchase and advertising ‘free delivery’ on orders over £30. Their use of highlighting colours and links to different sections of the site in the big banner space really improves the user experience.

The search function works really well with useful recommendations for misspelt words; and the site in general uses high-quality imagery with a clear indication of sale items and reviews.

There are useful category filters which make it easy to find specific brands etc. but there’s no option to be notified for out of stock items.

Product information is clear and concise, and sale items are easily recognisable. The use of reviews, in particular the inclusion of a date, adds to the freshness and appeal of the item as well as increasing site trust.

The checkout allows purchase without sign-up which is a huge plus!

However, Debenhams are missing out on future selling opportunities by foregoing a notification option on out of stock items.

5.  Dominos.co.uk Market capitalisation: £867.97m CRO Score: 5/10

This site is really well geared for visitors who are on the site to make an order; but the site is solely geared towards conversions and encouraging someone to order; whilst completely missing another aspect as to why visitors might be on the site: to look at the menu.

It also doesn’t allow an entry by town, but only postcode; requesting information before giving any information is not a good tactic.By trying to funnel visitors down a specific path, they’ve made the site very restrictive and made it difficult to find information. The interactive images are teasing as they’re not clickable for more information.

However, the checkout process is easy to follow and has a good up-selling of items. But the ‘Meal Deal Wizard’ below the total on the checkout page should really be on the order page.

There are probably two main groups of visitors to the site; those looking for information, and those wanting to order; and it’s clear that the site has a priority for the latter.

Conclusion:

In this brief study we analysed five big ecommerce sites from different sectors, but the main goals of each were the same; to sell items.  With no access to any qualitative (questionnaires) or quantitative (analytics) data, we had to base findings on a visitor journey approach, identifying possible areas of friction.

The path to conversions is a long one and the only way to ensure success is to test and test again. But there are a few key points to take away; for an ecommerce site that is geared towards selling, it always amazes us why prospective buyers are forced to register to buy, this is a key drop-off point and is like a brick wall to conversions.

Any form of site optimisation can’t beat a site which allows a user to buy easily. If your site is good, built for easy and intuitive user navigation (and not only for search spiders), people will remember, come back, buy again and maybe even register.

Alan Ng is Branded3′s Data Analyst.