eCommerce innovation delivers sales success

Junction, UK affinity provider, has delivered significant improvement in sales for its partners through an innovative e-commerce project, looking at how customers progress with the purchase process online. The project has delivered valuable insights into customers' online browsing habits that have translated into significant online sales uplift.

The affinity specialist has employed a three-step process to analyse online customer journeys and ensure they are as smooth and simple as possible. Changes instigated by this approach have already led to a sales uplift.

In the first part of the process, Junction used standard analytics on web journeys to identify where customers drop out of the buying process. The second step sought understanding into why they drop out, using a technology called Session Cam. Session Cam records all mouse movements and data entered to give clear insight into what the customer is trying to do. Finally, where a customer did give up and terminates their session with the website, Junction identified and listened to calls into its contact centres from those customers to understand their experience fully.

Importantly, this ongoing project suggests that of customers that do have a problem with the online journey, only 20 per cent go on to call the brand for assistance or to complete the purchase.

Vincent Chaney, Director of Marketing and eCommerce for Junction, said: "Most insurance brands invest significantly to attract potential customers, so once they start the purchase process it's essential to keep them. If the journey isn't intuitive and a customer gets stuck, they'll give up - and 80 per cent won't bother to pick up the phone and continue that way. This approach enables us to identify any problematic areas and fix them quickly."

Where issues with a customer journey are identified, Junction then uses Multi-Variate Testing to trial a number of approaches to determine the most effective solution for customers, which in turn gives the best sales performance.

The learning from this online insight will be rolled out across Junction partner brands to ensure that customers get the best possible experience.