This report covers sales uplift, conversion rates, abandonment and recovery rates, revenue trends and identification rates over the past 12 months, based on the performance of a sample of over 60 Fresh Relevance clients using these tactics effectively.

This can act as a benchmark for your business.

 

Sales uplift from personalization and triggered messaging

On average, customers increase online revenue by 31% using the Fresh Relevance platform. Fresh Relevance clients have seen consistent sales uplifts with personalization and automation tactics over the past 12 months, with web personalization leading the way as the tactic that generates the most revenue on its own. Cart and browse abandonment triggers, along with custom triggers such as price drop and back in stock alongside email personalization also sees businesses achieve significant sales uplift. The effectiveness of each tactic is also  consistent, with fluctuations of only around 1% most months.

 

Is revenue uplift impacted by industry?

The graph below shows the peaks and dips in revenue that retail and travel companies in different industries have experienced in the past 12 months. A key takeaway when comparing the consistency of sales uplift throughout the year with the variability of revenue is that using these personalization and automation tactics can have a significant impact regardless of whether it is a busy shopping season. Ecommerce and travel businesses should therefore aspire to make personalized experiences across all their channels a core part of their business as usual marketing campaigns, as well as those for events such as Black Friday.

 

Each industry has a slightly different revenue pattern throughout the year. Most retail industries are reasonably consistent throughout March to October, and then see a big spike around the holiday season as Black Friday and Christmas shopping takes over. Multi-brand retail companies saw a spike for Black Friday which continued to climb in December for Christmas shopping. The exceptions to the peak season spike are the Travel and Home & Garden sectors. Travel peaks in January as keen holidaymakers start booking their summer holidays to escape the winter blues and drop in February, when everyone goes back to work. Home & Garden peaks in spring when consumers start to spend more time outdoors, work on renovations and decorate in the warmer weather. There are smaller spikes for holidays throughout the year for some industries. Fashion sees spikes for the January sales as thrifty shoppers hunt for great deals, and also in May when it’s time for a summer wardrobe refresh. The Kids sector saw a spike in July as parents entertained their children and prepared for the next school year over the summer holidays, and another spike around the Christmas period when families buy their gifts for them. Hobbies and experiences also see peaks in August and November until December time.

 

Breaking down the differences in revenue uplift from personalization and triggered messaging for retail vs. travel industries, the most noticeable takeaway is that for retail companies website personalization is the most effective tactic, being responsible for up to 13% of uplift. For the travel industry however, triggered messaging such as cart abandonment emails, browse abandonment emails, post purchase, back-in-stock and price drop emails accounts for more sales uplift, even going as high as 22% in October.

The graph below shows a snapshot of the uplift last month for each sub-industry within retail and travel. Email personalization was most effective for the Fashion and Travel  industries, where tactics like recommendations can be tailored to consumers’ individual styles and preferences, delivering great results. Web personalization was also highly effective for Home & Garden companies who use tactics such as recommendations tailored to each shopper to help them navigate through the many offerings on their website to the products that suit them best. Home & Garden companies did exceptionally well this month as the weather clears and people are spending more time in their gardens.

 

Is revenue uplift impacted by region?

Below are graphs showing the revenue uplift from Fresh Relevance for businesses operating out of and selling predominantly in the United Kingdom and the United States and Canada over the past 12 months.

 

When comparing revenue uplift impact from businesses in the United Kingdom against those in the United States and Canada, there is a difference in pattern. Both fluctuate to an extent throughout the year, both seeing a slight decline after the bulk of peak season shopping was over, and automation and personalization remain highly effective tactics in both regions. In fact, in February, cart and browse abandonment emails reached more than peak-season effectiveness for the UK, whilst the US and Canada only saw a slight increase in March.

 

B2B eCommerce vs B2C eCommerce

B2B eCommerce businesses can implement B2C-style personalization and automation tactics to increase engagement and revenue. Fresh Relevance B2B eCommerce clients see similar uplift from web and email personalization and triggered messaging as B2C clients by creating B2C-style personalization and automation throughout their marketing. B2C see an uplift of 9% with abandonment emails, whilst B2B see an uplift of 13% when using web personalization.

Conversion Rates

The graph below shows the conversion rate from the send of the email to the purchase of product for cart and browse abandonment emails over the past year. These have remained fairly consistent for both cart and browse emails throughout the year, increasing slightly as peak season rolls in. Conversion rate for cart abandonment emails is higher as there is already a significant intent to purchase from the shopper when they cart the product, and their conversion rates are even improving. Browse abandonment emails have also been highly effective at enticing shoppers back to the site to make a purchase after they have abandoned a session, and are steadily converting more and more.

Website conversion rate increased by 21.6% for retail businesses throughout their first 12 months of implementing triggered messaging and personalization tactics. The average conversion rate prior to implementing these tactics was on average 3.7% which grew to an average of 4.5%. Conversion rate can be improved using many tactics, such as recommendations, social proof, dynamic banners and more.

 

Average order value

Triggered messaging and personalization can increase average order value for retail and travel businesses. Throughout the first 12 months of implementing and refining marketing automation and personalization campaigns average order value increased by 14.6% for retail brands and 16.4% for travel brands. Average order value grew steadily throughout the year, as businesses implemented and then tested and optimized their campaigns.

Recommendations are a great tactic for businesses to implement to increase order value at each stage of the customer journey.

 

Abandonment and recovery rates

The graphs below show cart abandonment and recovery rates for the United Kingdom and the United States and Canada throughout the past year.

The abandonment rate in the United States and Canada is higher than in the United Kingdom. The higher abandonment rate implies that there is great opportunity for the use of cart abandonment recovery emails in North America, and for optimizing onsite experiences to keep the recovery rate decreasing. Both the UK and US saw abandonment rates stay fairly consistent throughout the peak shopping season.

 

Cart and Browse ID Rates

The graph below shows the percentage of shoppers in the UK and the US and Canada that abandoned their carts or browse sessions who were able to be identified in order to send them triggered messaging.

In the United States there has been slight fluctuation, but cart abandonment ID rates are nearing UK levels, seeing a steady increase this month.

Browse abandonment ID rates in the US are slightly lower than in the UK.  There are a number of ways retail and travel companies can optimize their sites to increase their identification rates.

 

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