The Google Funnel
January 16th, 2008 by Kenric
Google Analytics is a great tool for Ecommerce. In this post I just wanted to show you how the Google funnel works. Basically, what you do is create a series of steps that your customer must take to obtain a goal. The goal in this case is to make a purchase.
You can name each step and set a URL that must be reached on each step. My store is simple and it takes a few logical steps to a successful sale.
- Add item to cart
- Login
- Create Account
- Checkout Payment
- Confirm Order
Five easy steps to making a sale.
So let’s take a look at my store for a period of December 2007. Looking at the funnel on the right, you can see that 175 people placed an item into the shopping cart. 111 people proceeded to login and 105 people created an account. 76 continued to the payment page where it asks for your credit card information. 58 Entered their information and 54 confirmed and completed their order.
You can clearly see that I lost almost 40% of my customers after they placed an item into their cart. I haven’t quite figured out if it’s my store’s fault or if people just do that alot in general. I used to think that getting a person to put something in their cart was a big step.
Once an account has been created to check out, I lose 50% on them before a sucessful sale. This tells me that I have something wrong in my check procedure that is causing people to abandon the store. I am getting decent traffic into the store now, so I am going to focus on conversion rate in the next few weeks.
Posted in Ebiz | 10 Comments »
Stumble it!
Kenric,
Use CrazyEgg / ClickTales to Track where your customers are clicking. You would most likely have to fix the design of the website once you figure out why people are leaving. 50% is way too high for a shopping cart abandonment. Whats the point of even creating an account by the way?
By Peter on Jan 16, 2008
One possibility might be that a person adds the item to the cart in order to get an approximation of shipping and handling. You may be losing customers based on the total cost of your product.
By Mike on Jan 16, 2008
I agree with Mike. A lot of time, sites talk about “shipping and handling” and will only display this information AFTER I have entered my credit card information. Maybe there’s a way on your site you can have an “approximate” shipping calculator . . . it’s worth a look-see.
By Clifford on Jan 16, 2008
When I shop online, I click add to cart all the time, just to track which products I like. Then I will review my cart to see if I really want them. If not, I leave. If I create an account, I’m buying. So that part is problematic.
By knuckle_headed on Jan 16, 2008
Mike, My shipping and handling are clearly posted. It is a 3 tiered rate $8.99/$12.99/FREE. A customer definitely see its between create account and checkout payment. However, I’m going to make it more prevalent on the front page.
Peter, I was going to enroll in clicktakes today. I’ve heard good things about its videos.
Creating an account is the website software’s name. On screen, it actually says “Enter shipping information”
What I am going to try to do is make it a two step process. Not sure how, but I’m gonna try.
Create Account —-> Confirmation of Succeesful Order
By Kenric on Jan 16, 2008
Even if I know what the shipping will be, if I’m looking for a product online I will take it all the way to the payment process, and stop there to look everything over. 95% of the time I do not buy even at this point. WTG on getting things off and running, Kenric.
By JesseO on Jan 16, 2008
What I meant was You posted the process to get a sale.
* Add item to cart
* Login
* Create Account
* Checkout Payment
* Confirm Order
Whats the point of forcing users to “Create Account” ?
You might want to try allowing users to just proceed to checkout without having to create an account first. E.g. State the benefits of having an account, but dont make it compulsory.
By Peter on Jan 16, 2008
Peter,
The create account screen basically says are you a new customer? if not, login here. If new, click here. Then it goes to a screen where they input their shipping info.
Everyone shopping in ecommerce creates an account. When you buy something, you have to give a name, address and email. That essentially creates an account in any backend system for the customer whether its mentioned or not.
The only slight difference is that we ask you to choose a password (just in case you want to come back and check on your order or order again).
By Kenric on Jan 16, 2008
All the best, let us know how Clicktale comes along.
By Peter on Jan 17, 2008
You are not alone, it’s very common to loose people through the process of purchasing online.
Do people really need to create an account with you to purchase? If not then make it optional, or provide some incentive to become a member – like 10% discount on shipping for members with orders over $20
Do you have any up-sell in this process? At any point do make it easy for people to add to their order, or promote some new item/special you are having?
Looking at your funnel, you loose 4 times as many people at create an account than you do at login. Here is what I might suggest:
* create a reason for people to create an account before they start checking out – create a promotion to drive up account creation
* increase the life of your cookies, reducing the need for for returning customers to need to login
* using your newsletter (you have one right?) include links that allow readers to auto login, drive them to a particular product
Make it as easy as possible for people to get from your product to your checkout with as few steps as possible. Give people a chance to upgrade at the checkout (think candy bar at your supermarket checkout).
By Mr K on Jan 19, 2008