Amazon tops post-purchase social stakes
By Retail Technology | Thursday June 13 2013
Owned its study reveals only 7% encourage social sharing, 13% display social media elements prominently and 30% offered immediate incentives
A new study has found UK retailers could do more to use order confirmation pages to boost sales online and are failing to incentivise shoppers post-purchase.
Owned it recently announced the results of its study, Leaving Money on the Table – how order confirmation pages are used to increase sales, on the efforts of 30 leading UK online retailers, including Amazon, Argos and M&S, to identify which brands endeavour to increase conversions via social media, incentives and product referrals on the final stage of the checkout process – the order confirmation page.
Top performing retailers were Amazon, Marks & Spencer (M&S), New Look and House of Fraser. Compared to others, these retailers have optimised order confirmation pages to offer a combination of prominent social media elements, incentives and/or the ability for customers to refer their purchases via various channels such as social networks and emails.
Overlooking further opportunities
It found that, while some major retail brands are using the order confirmation page to increase reach and conversions, the vast majority ignore opportunities at this stage of the checkout process. That is, to encourage shoppers to: join social communities, purchase another product or promote products through their own social networks.
Amazon ranked top in the research. It offered the ability to share purchases through social networks and emails. Amazon also offered a clear incentive to return to the store through a money-off voucher and has a one-screen (or one page) order confirmation page.
Inviting social engagement
The study noted M&S also made good use of the opportunities an order confirmation page presents, with clear signals for customers to follow the brand on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and Pinterest. It also offered customers incentives, with a £100 gift card.
New Look's one-screen confirmation page offered clear signals to engage with the brand and encouraged repeat purchases. While House of Fraser packed its order confirmation page with offers to incentivise repeat buys, with discounts, reward points and encouragement to follow via social networks.
By contrast, almost a third of retailers at the bottom of the table provided a simple online confirmation page with no incentives or opportunities for customers to engage with the brand further.
The social media platform developer’s study analysed various aspects of the order confirmation page such as presence of social media elements, long and short-term incentives, ability to refer products and length of the order confirmation page. It also studied the social media following of each retailer.
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