Omniture Articles

4.8% Increase In Revenue Per Visit (RPV) For Sierra Trading Post

Opportunity/Problem:

Chris Lange, Web Operations Manager for retailer Sierra Trading Post, felt certain that the company's web and buying departments, working together, could come up with a way to increase revenue per visit (RPV) by offering impulse purchase suggestions to shoppers on the shopping cart page.

Because Sierra Trading Post purchases overstocks and closeouts from name brand vendors, Chris knew it would be important to track the impulse purchase suggestions and results closely, because quantities of suggested items were sometimes slim. Successful suggestions would have to be watched and switched with other successes when products became unavailable.

Testing Approach:

Sierra Trading Post wanted to discover if, indeed, it could successfully promote impulse buys on the shopping cart page and, if so, what price range the suggestions should be. Chris and his team chose Offermatica's Cross-Selling and Testing Engine to test three price point ranges against a control, to find out.

Actions Taken:

The buying and web departments worked closely with Offermatica to devise a test series. All traffic that came to the shopping cart page was divided and shown one of four different "recipes," to explore impulse purchases:

Recipe A: Three items such as an all-purpose Nalgene water bottle and ultralight wool socks, priced at $10 or below.

Recipe B: Three items such as a "Protect-It" bag for cameras and camcorders and a lumbar pack, priced between $10 and $25.

Recipe C: Three items such as a Camelback and higher-end lumbar pack, priced from $25 to $40.

Recipe D: Control, no impulse suggestions.

The recipes rotated out a series of different items within the appropriate price range. "We have about seven to 10 substitutes we're ready to throw in there," says Chris. "We worked closely with the buying department not only to discuss what would work well but to make sure we know when we're starting to run low on inventory."

The recipes were not intended to explore layout or design, or whether three items worked better than four or five. It was a straightforward test, he says, simply to determine if impulse suggestions could raise sales.

Results:
Through testing, Sierra Trading Post learned the company could improve revenue per visitor through up-selling impulse buys by at least 4.8 percent.

Chris also learned that integrating new items into the shopping cart page is very simple and straight-forward.

"We learned that the low price items in Recipe A are doing the best when it comes to increasing revenue per visitor," Chris says. But all of the recipes lifted RPV.

Recipe B saw a 3.1 percent lift over the control. Recipe C saw a 3.5 percent lift.

The results above reflect sales throughout the month of June. In July, Recipe A has seen even more spectacular results, with a lift of eight percent so far this month.

"We're very, very happy with that," Chris says.