The Challenge
Mobile Revenue Fell With the Biggest Quarter Approaching
The retailer knew they were losing a meaningful amount of revenue on mobile. They did not know why.
The calendar made it worse:
More than 40% of yearly sales historically close in the fourth quarter
A mandatory code freeze every November 1st, standard for a seasonal retailer
Two months to investigate, recommend, and implement, or wait a year
The Investigation
Ruling Out the Easy Explanations
The first question was whether the revenue drop was real. NorthStar Group compared Adobe Analytics data against backend sales data and confirmed the numbers were accurate. The problem was not the reporting.
The second question was whether the cause sat outside the site. NorthStar Group audited the marketing channels, including organic search, affiliate links, product reviews, social media, and paid search. Those came back clean. The problem was the website.
Only then did the work move to the funnel.
The Findings
2.2 Errors per Visit, and a Six Step Checkout
Funnel analysis surfaced the macro problems: checkout ran six steps, and the postal code lookup widget was not optimized for mobile, which made it hard to use. Carts were being abandoned.
To find out exactly where, NorthStar Group implemented Adobe Analytics error tracking to capture which page a user was on and which error they hit, then added field tracking to see the specific field where people gave up.
The delivery and shipping page had the highest drop off rate in checkout
Users hit 2.2 errors per visit, and closer to 10 errors per visit for those who got deep into checkout
Unnecessary fields such as "Title" were required, and were generating errors
Old passwords were never migrated to the new mobile site, so every returning customer had to create a new one
Creating a new password erased everything already entered, sending the user back to the start
Out of stock items were still clickable
Two delivery options, Delivery and Click & Collect, confused people
NorthStar Group then ran sessions on UserTesting.com to watch people use the mobile site. The recordings confirmed the checkout pain points and filled the gaps the data could not explain on its own.
The Results
A Prioritized Fix List, Implemented Before November 1
NorthStar Group handed over the list of items to address, ordered so the quick wins went first, and helped implement them inside the window. The retailer went into the holiday shopping season with a checkout their customers could finish.