Until recently, technology for increasing online conversion rates has generally been the domain of large retailers.
The high ROI (Return On Investment) associated with increasing online conversion rates is driving retailers of all sizes to now focus on the technology. Online conversion occurs when a website visitor becomes a buyer. A conversion rate of 5% means that 5% of the new visitors to the site have searched the site, found the item or items they want and have made a purchase. Even small changes in conversion rate translate into big revenue dollars. For example, if a site doing $20 million in revenue increases its conversion rate from 3% to 4%, revenue would increase by almost $7 million.
In late 2006 a number of new small to mid market businesses (SMB) joined the ranks of retialers that are using search and mercahndising technology to improve online conversion rates. These SMBs include: Rockler Woodworking and Hardware, Junonia, Tail of the Lion, Mind Drivers and Blindsgalore. These SMB customers are leveraging search and merchandising technology to increase revenues, customer loyalty and build their businesses.
Rockler Woodworking and Hardware
Rockler Woodworking and Hardware – www.rockler.com is the number one resource for woodworkers everywhere. The company has been on the web since 1996 and is reaching more woodworkers than ever before with its specialty woodworking communities such as www.womeninwoodworking.com that tailors to female participants in the growing hobby, www.routermania.com and www.woodworkersjournal.com. These sites and more give Rockler a large footprint in the woodworking community. Rockler is deploying search and merchandising technology to make searching for products and information on their sites easier for their customers and to expand their merchandising efforts.
Junonia
Junonia® -- www.junonia.com is the only retail web site and catalog dedicated to the active lives of plus-sized women who are looking for top-quality gear for workout, ski, swim, camping and more. In 2005 Junonia was named Best of the Web Top 50 Retail Sites by Internet Retailer. Like many mid sized companies, Junonia has limited IT resources and they are not interested in projects with long implementation cycles and slow ROI. Junonia chose to implement a hosted online search solution with the goal of delivering the right product and fit for the busy lifestyles of their customers.
Tail of the Lion
Tail of the Lion – www.tailofthelion.com is a national network of eCommerce sites dedicated to raising the bar in e-commerce. The company’s retail sites are designed to be user friendly, informative, and supply its customers with top quality products efficiently and inexpensively. Tail of the Lion operates online retail sites nationally including: www.modularkitchencabinets.com, www.kitchen-cabinet-hardware.com, and www.ontracklighting.com. Tail of the Lion needed a professional search capability for its growing network of retail sites that would be quick to deploy, easy to maintain and flexible enough to scale as the number of sites grow.
Mind Drivers
Mind Drivers has a fleet of leading eCommerce sites and industry communities focused on boating that include: www.marine.com, one of the most established boating supply sites on the Internet which ranks among the highest in customer satisfaction, www.SailNet.com -- the largest online sailing community with over 100,000 members, and www.Speedwake.com –- the most popular high performance boating community on the Internet. Like many online retailers, Mind Drivers needed an eCommerce solution that would help improve search results, conversion rates, site navigation and merchandising. But Mind Drivers had a vision to sail beyond ordinary eCommerce and search and merchandising technoloy could get them there. By integrating its eCommerce site with its own communities and other boating sites, Mind Drivers will deliver product ratings, customer reviews, recent articles and more along with the right products on its search results. The result is everything that customers need to make decisions is right at their fingertips.
Blindsgalore
Blindsgalore.com offers the biggest selection of brand-name window treatments online - made to order, shipped fast and free. With over 500 blinds, shades and shutters that can be customized to fit even the most difficult window with numerous options in over 7,500 different colors & materials, Blindsgalore will leverage powerful search and merchandising capabilities to help customers find the right custom window treatment for their needs at the right price.