The ROI of Usability Analysis
How one company improved its site's usability, thereby increasing its ROI and customer loyalty.
How one company improved its site's usability, thereby increasing its ROI and customer loyalty.
A while back, I wrote about the importance of performing a site audit to identify major areas for improvement. Next week, I’ll be part of “The Usability Narcissist,” an expert panel at the annual Shop.org conference that will evaluate sites based on their usability. Though I usually write about who’s doing it wrong, today we’ll look at how one company improved its site’s usability, thereby increasing its return on investment (ROI) and customer loyalty.
Earlier this year, Fingerhut decided it wanted to redesign its online user experience, and my company performed the site assessment. Its goals were no different from any other retailer: increase conversion rates, decrease cart abandonment, streamline checkout, and make the site more navigable.
Before
Check out this snapshot of Fingerhut’s old home page. Immediately we noticed:
The assessment addressed the entire site (including the checkout path, user registration path, etc.), but just this brief look at the home page analysis shows a lot of room for growth and improvement.
After
Fingerhut began rolling out the redesigned site a couple of months ago. Comparing the redesigned home page with the old version, a few things are immediately obvious:
Fingerhut also streamlined its checkout path tremendously based on assessment results.
Fingerhut’s metrics have been terrific. According to Mike Sidders, director of e-commerce at Fingerhut, the site assessment and redesign have already proved their worth: Overall site conversion and sales are up. Catalog Quick Order is substantially improved. Abandoned shopping cart items are down. And average order is up.
These were exactly the metrics Fingerhut was hoping to improve and were the reason for the redesign. As more of the new design rolls out across the site, these metrics will only get better.
Case Studies
Do you have a case study that shows how usability changes affected your ROI and customer loyalty? If so, let me know, and I’ll try to use it in an upcoming column.
Until next time…
Jack