Retailers are achieving significant numbers of new customers via price comparison websites, new research reveals. The study, carried out by Become Europe between January and July 2013, focused on two prominent retailers, Chemist Direct and Made.com. 75% of online pharmacy Chemist Direct’s price comparison-generated sales came from new customers while designer furniture store Made.com saw […]
Retailers are achieving significant numbers of new customers via price comparison websites, new research reveals.
The study, carried out by Become Europe between January and July 2013, focused on two prominent retailers, Chemist Direct and Made.com. 75% of online pharmacy Chemist Direct’s price comparison-generated sales came from new customers while designer furniture store Made.com saw new customers make up 61% of its price comparison-generated sales.
“New customer acquisition is key to a fast growing company like Chemist Direct,” said Richard Garrod, Product and Marketing Director at Chemist Direct. “Working with Become and its comparison shopping partners has been a great source for new high quality customers.”
Until recently, the industry standard was for retailers to track sales on a ‘last cookie wins’ basis, with the last party who referred a user to a store being recognised as having generated that sale. However, by using web analytics technology, it is now possible to see a precise overview of the interplay between all marketing channels and campaigns, allowing retailers to see exactly which sites customers visit prior to making a purchase.
This is known as the assist-trigger effect, because the price comparison website has ‘assisted’ the customer in pulling the ‘trigger’ on purchasing a product, meaning the initial involvement of the price comparison website was a strong push towards the eventual sale.
“Although acquiring new customers is one of the key metrics in any online marketing effort, it is often overlooked by retailers,” said Michael Rausch, General Manager at Become Europe. “The high ratio of new customers making purchases who were originally alerted to these retailers by a price comparison website confirms the power of indirectly influencing a customer’s shopping decisions – the value of price comparison providers extends beyond just the cost of sale.”
“Price comparison providers are indirectly contributing to a significant ratio of new customers by exposing them to a retailer’s products; they then subsequently revisit that retailer at a later date, illustrating the ‘assist-trigger’ effect,” continued Rausch. “Knowing precisely what contributes to each sale gives retailers the ability to make informed choices about where their marketing budgets go.”
Become Europe’s UK clients include Moneysupermarket, Twenga.co.uk, Offeroftheday.co.uk, PriceGong and Alatest.co.uk.
www.become.eu
www.chemistdirect.co.uk
