At Sitebrand we’re always publishing new case studies around classic e-commerce challenges associated with low conversion rates, high shopping cart abandonment rates, low average order sizes, high bounce rates, low return visitor rates, market segmentation and so on.

In our most recent case study, we dug into life online at BBCrafts.com – a leading retail and wholesale company for craft, wedding and party supplies. Sounds fun already, doesn’t it! Even though we’re talking about a very niche website with a decent amount of activity, there were concerns about cart abandonment and low order sizes.  

After approaching many potential personalization and conversion vendors, BBCrafts.com selected Sitebrand because in addition to having a proven personalization platform (Segment&Serve), BBCrafts.com was and is impressed by our consultative approach, aka our Blueprint Success Services. We have a team of pros who help customers optimize their every website move with respect to personalization opportunities.

While high shipping costs are a big reason consumers abandon shopping carts, it’s not the only reason… so BBCrafts decided to do some testing. With respect to reducing shopping cart abandonment, one of the most powerful lessons they learned is that you don’t always have to “give away the farm” using hard incentives and discounts. In some cases all it takes is a bit of reassuring and relevant information – compare this to that friendly in-store assistant at the cash. Presenting this type of reassurance and building consumer trust at the right point in the shopping process (aka the sales funnel) has proven to have significant impact. Call it that little nudge or handshake to go ahead and complete the check-out.

Using an a/b testing type approach, BBCrafts.com experimented with two different types of personalization campaigns at the check-out stage. One focused on information security and the fact that BBCrafts.com does not share or store buyer’s credit card information. In this day and age, this is a huge deal for consumers.

A second campaign simply reinforces that BBCrafts.com usually ships orders fast – often within 48 hours.  Of course a default group would see nothing.

The results? Like the headline of this post says – shopping cart abandonment dropped from 85% to 45%…

For more on BBCrafts.com success with website personalization – including how they achieved a 15% increase in average order sizes and a 160% (+) increase in return visitors, read the full case study!