Seven interactions ‘produce optimum online sales’

Written by Chris Lemmon

30/01/2017

Online shopping journeys with seven interactions produce a higher average order value than any other number, according to digital marketing agency R.O.EYE.

A total of 110,099 individual sales worth £9.2 million were analysed over a period of 11 months across multiple UK retailers and financial services brands, tracking shopping journeys from first measurable awareness to last click.

The data found that seven interactions encompassing eight different channels - Google Adwords, organic search, affiliates, display ads, blogs and forums, email campaigns, Facebook and direct to site - produced an average order value of £132, compared with one (£69) three (£92) and 11 (£129).

On average, consumers made three interactions when purchasing online. The highest number of transactions (51,081) was from shoppers who only interacted once, going directly to their chosen retailer’s website via a search engine. However, average order value was worth nearly half that of shoppers who interacted the maximum 11 times before purchasing. 11 interactions across all channels saw 86 per cent higher average order values.

Research showed Google Adwords was the most popular first-click channel of the eight that were measured, whether a shopper performed one or more interactions before making a purchase, accounting for 42 per cent and 45 per cent of transactions respectively.

When interacting with multiple channels, organic search was the second most frequently used entry point (22 per cent), followed by direct to site (15 per cent), affiliates (9 per cent) and blogs and forums (4 per cent).

Mark Kuhillow, founder of R.O.EYE, said: “Our research highlights consumer behaviour and the actions retailers could be taking to engage them more throughout the shopping journey. We found journeys with seven or more interactions generate a similar higher value of sales.

“The study also indicates that social media contributes to the success of transactions. When observed on days where Facebook campaigns were running, as sales peaked, the number of transactions involving Facebook also peaked.”