Web traffic solution enables UK bookseller to drive additional revenue as focus moves from customer acquisition to conversion management

Web traffic solution enables UK bookseller to drive additional revenue as focus moves from customer acquisition to conversion management

Waterstone’s, the UK’s leading bookseller, has signed a contract with conversion management expert, Maxymiser to drive a significant improvement in onsite conversion rates and online revenues.

Using Maxymiser’s conversion management solution, Waterstone’s will be able to continually test thousands of different iterations of its website with live visitors and then implement winning content based on clear statistical evidence of which designs and page lay-outs drive the biggest uptake in online sales.

David Sheridan, online marketing co-ordinator at Waterstone.com comments, “Over the past year we have been very focused on driving more traffic to our website and our strategy has been highly successful, obviously as part of that process we are looking at every opportunity to increase conversion to capitalise on our ever growing traffic. We decided to evaluate a number of products and having completed this process we quickly came to the conclusion that the Maxymiser proposition was far better suited to our business. We were really impressed by the combination of Maxymiser’s strategic knowledge and expertise in this area, as well as their technology platform, and these two factors made them stand out from the competition.”

Phased introduction targets conversion

Sheridan continued: “After looking at the mix of marketing activities we were running and the returns each area was delivering we have now re-allocated more of our marketing budget to be far more focused on conversions. Maxymiser will be running both multivariate testing (MVT) and A/B testing on a number of key areas on Waterstones.com that we have identified together in accordance with our test roadmap. Initially we will be focusing on the product page, category page and homepage as these are crucial to the start of the purchase funnel and, due to the levels of traffic we are currently seeing on these pages, we believe that Maxymiser will enable us to achieve a significant sales uplift.”

Maxymiser helps customers achieve higher conversion rates by running live testing on site and continually changing the content to match online visitors’ requirements, according to the provider. Mark Simpson, managing director and founder of Maxymiser explained: “In conversion maximisation, the real, live responses of customers are crucial. Even if visitors are polled for their opinions, this may not reflect the way they actually pass through a site. The only way to know for sure that they will respond as expected is to test different versions of a website in a live environment, so that real customer responses can be measured and responded to quickly. It is very encouraging to see brands such as Waterstone’s recognising the importance of conversion management techniques and including these essential services as a key component of their marketing programme.”

Real-life testing proof is in uplift

Sheridan concluded: “With the online market evolving at such a rapid rate, there are various nuances we need to understand if we are to maximise the success of our website, and this is where Maxymiser’s strength becomes really apparent. Their knowledge of the marketplace and of the specific requirements of our business are first class and as a result they are able to guide us effortlessly through the conversion management process.

“Due to the wealth of knowledge Maxymiser offers we are also keen to explore other ways that we can work together to achieve conversion uplift. We are currently in discussions with them about displaying tailored landing pages to visitors depending on the pathway they have taken to arrive on our website – so we can serve up different content to visitors depending on whether they have come to our site via a search engine, via an email campaign or via an advert, in order to ensure our campaigns are even more effective.”

Waterstones.com is expecting to go live with Maxymiser’s conversion management solution this month.