Qubit Releases Data on More Than 2 Billion User Journeys

Qubit Releases Data on More Than 2 Billion User Journeys
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Qubit has released the results of an analysis of more than two billion user journeys and 120 million purchases to determine the potential revenue uplift that ecommerce businesses can expect from specific optimization techniques.

The report reveals that ecommerce businesses could add as much as six percent1 to their revenues, representing tens of billions of dollars globally, by focusing on the most effective optimization and personalization techniques.

The report sheds light on the effect for online revenue when businesses engage in high performing website optimization and personalization strategies such as scarcity, urgency, or social proof messaging. These types of techniques perform functions like displaying current stock levels for products being viewed, or alerting shoppers when a sale is ending soon. The report also highlights areas where ecommerce businesses may be allocating resources to lower performing strategies.

“Now is the moment for transparency in our industry. Ecommerce leaders have to get personalization right when they’re trying to compete against the likes of Amazon, and yet it's so hard to know what really works. We want every marketer to know precisely what tactics will help them beat the 800-pound ecommerce gorilla, and I invite other vendors in our industry to do the same.“, says Graham Cooke, founder and CEO of Qubit.

The data shows that programmatic and personalization experiences that tap into customer, product, or business data are providing anywhere from two to 14 times more incremental revenue per visitor (RPV)2 versus traditional optimization efforts, which focus mainly on cosmetic changes such as colors and location of buttons. Conversely, experiences like popups or buttons that take a user back to the top of the page, can even have a negative impact.

The study also finds that businesses that engage in targeted personalization based on user behaviors and preferences can expect a three times better result than untargeted marketing tactics. The complete report can be found here.

The Effectiveness Fog

A survey of nearly 250 marketers shows that more than a quarter (26 percent) of brands spend over $51,000 on website testing and optimization tactics, and of those, nearly one in ten (8 percent) spend more than $100,000 annually. Yet many of these basic tactics are highlighted in the report data as having limited effectiveness.

The survey also highlighted transparency concerns similar to those seen in the advertising industry, with 72 percent of respondents agreeing that tech vendors could be more transparent about the effectiveness and measurement of their solutions.

Consumers Demand Personalization

Qubit’s research also reveals the highly competitive online environment brands face, with almost three quarters (73 percent) of online consumers4 spending most of their money on between just one to five websites.

Consumer sentiment also appears to support the report’s findings, showing that customers value data-driven personalization. Half of the respondents (50 percent) said they enjoyed receiving product recommendations that fit their interests or preferences, while almost half (49 percent) said they were willing to share their preferences with a business in order to receive a better shopping experience.

A majority of respondents (81 percent) said it was either ‘very important’ or ‘somewhat important’ that a website provided targeted promotions based on their own preferences.

“We’ve performed the most comprehensive study of marketing personalization in the industry. What is particularly exciting is the size of the cumulative effect we see for our top performing clients; with some personalization strategies having up to a 6 percent impact on ecommerce revenue.“, said Will Browne, data scientist and product manager at Qubit.

“There are clearly longstanding issues around transparency in marketing, which will only be solved by advertisers and providers rigorously and openly assessing whether the services that marketers are paying for are actually delivering results. My team worked with the Qubit data science team to subject their methodology - i.e. their data capture, calculations and reporting - to our rigorous independent assurance procedures. The report by Qubit provides a detailed analysis of today’s marketing toolkit and, given the scale and depth of data analysed, is a first of its kind that I have seen, said Sam Tomlinson, partner at PwC.