Case Study: Home Page Abandonment Study

A major worldwide shoe retailer solves the problem of users who visit the home page, but refuse to enter.

"Many shall visit, but few shall enter" was not the slogan this worldwide shoe retailer had in mind when designing their web site. Even with the success of high-dollar ad campaigns that drove millions to the site, clickthrough data showed that something was stopping users from entering the site to shop.

Guesses were made: Was the site too slow? Should there be more content? Were users on different browser platforms experiencing technical difficulties? Factor TG was called in to provide concrete answers.

Working through the client's digital marketing agency, Factor TG co-developed a brief survey with the goal of finding out precisely why users were visiting, but not entering the site. Due to the concerns about interrupting the user experience, the survey was designed to gather the most information, and the shortest amount of effort. In addition, the client wanted to offer incentives in an effort to convert the visitor with a coupon incentive.

It took the developers 15 minutes to install Homepage Abandonment survey, which present an pop up invitation to participate in a brief survey only to users who leave the home page without entering the site. Users who chose to participated went to a branded survey that took less than a minute to complete. Like all Factor TG surveys and online requests for feedback, users were given the option to not participate in the survey, take the survey or simply request to take the survey at a later date. A cookie was set to ensure that users never saw the invitation twice.

Due to the coupon incentive, response rates were very high, and data poured in during the first 24 hours of the campaign. Within seven days, the marketing folks had the answers they needed. They learned that the complex flash animation on the front page made the site prohibitive for users on slower connections; they learned that their users checked the home page frequently to check for new content, and left if they didn't see anything new; and, using Factor TG's online analytic tools, they were able to cross-reference the study groups for enhanced insight.

With this information, they made changes that improved home page clickthrough rates by 44% in less than a month. Finally, users who were driven to the store, actually opened the front door and were able to buy.