What: The FT reviews the hurdles experienced by online retailers in a context where customers are ‘window-licking’ websites.

Why it is important: Increasing conversion is not about prices, but user experience seen and reinvented through really useful new perks, though to facilitate the customer’s life.

The Financial Times columnist reviews the various attempts from e-retailers to convince consumers to close their deals and confirm their purchases, after having browsed their websites without finalising their buy. This goes through various ways, from reminders sent via email, to discounts, or offers of specific curation.

Now that e-commerce has flattened (after a rise during lockdowns), it is increasingly difficult for e-retailers to boost online revenue. There are two options. The first one, less appealing, is to increase advertising investments in order to bring more traffic. The second one is to increase conversion from traffic, which, according to the journal, can not go through good deals (which kill margins) but through improvement of the online experience. The example of Hilton is given: customers are able to use small icons to search for specific amenities in their rooms, which allows to have 30% of visitors ending up booking a room.

However, as the article points out, steering the customer to the right item and closing the deal is not the same thing, and a complicated purchase and confirmation process might repel many customers.

Closing online deals for e-retailers is increasingly painful