New White Paper Outlines Actionable Steps for Retailers to Optimize the Consumer’s Path to Purchase
Durham, NC (PRWEB) September 26, 2013 -- With the explosion of smartphones and tablets, social media, and review sites, the path taken by consumers to make purchases online is no longer straight and narrow. Shoppers today have more control and options than ever before when it comes to researching, finding, and choosing a product to buy, and they’re doing so from multiple devices. According to a study by Google/Ipsos, 85% of consumers will start shopping on one device and finish on another. How can retailers ensure they’re delivering a good shopping experience and helping consumers to complete the purchase? A new white paper, “Paving the Path to Purchase,” addresses this challenge, detailing actionable steps for retailers to optimize the online consumers’ path to purchase from browsing to order confirmation.
Bronto Software (bronto.com), the leading marketing platform for commerce, developed the white paper in partnership with MarketLive (marketlive.com), the leading provider of eCommerce technology for high-growth merchants. The free white paper is available for download at bronto.com/path.
“Paving the Path to Purchase” analyzes each step of the path to purchase – Browsing, Carting, Checking Out and Confirming – in two sections:
• The Path: Examines the variables leading shoppers to each step as well as the emotional factors likely to contribute to engagement or abandonment.
• The Pavement: Outlines actions and best practices for retailers to maximize marketing efforts to meet shoppers’ needs and guide them toward making a purchase.
“Shoppers experience a wide range of emotions as they move along each step of the path to purchase, including the fun and excitement of discovery during the early stages as well as anxiety and indecision that can set in during carting and checking out,” said Jim Davidson, Bronto’s manager of marketing research. “Our aim in partnering with MarketLive on this white paper is to provide the insights marketers need to take advantage of every opportunity to help shoppers make informed decisions and move toward check out and order confirmation with the satisfaction of having had an enjoyable and engaging shopping experience.”
The white paper also includes examples of retailer product page techniques, online lookbooks, wish lists, product page abandonment and shopping cart abandonment email reminders to illustrate best practices to implement and missteps to avoid along the path to purchase. Bronto and MarketLive provide actionable strategies and expert insights for streamlining the check-out process as well as proven methods to ease last minute “sticker shock” anxiety once the cart contents and delivery charges are revealed.
“We show live data and examples from customers like Peruvian Connection, Design Within Reach, Totes, Title Nine and others to illustrate best practices and make our recommendations more tangible,” said Ken Burke, founder and chairman of MarketLive. “Our deep partnership and technology integration with Bronto allows us to combine our eCommerce platform and analytics (order history, buying patterns, cart abandonment, etc.) with Bronto’s ability to use data to optimize segmentation, targeting and promotions to increase conversion along the path to purchase. These techniques are clearly illustrated in this whitepaper.”
The white paper examines the final step in the purchase process and provides marketers with tips for maintaining a visually rich and dynamic shopping experience as communications transition from promotions to the customer service components of order processing and shipping arrival details. Even at this stage, there are still opportunities for retailers to engage shoppers with their brand and relevant promotions. “Paving the Path to Purchase” is available for download at bronto.com/path.
About Bronto Software
Bronto Software provides a cloud-based marketing platform for retailers to drive revenue through their email, mobile and social campaigns. The leading self-service email marketing provider to the Internet Retailer Top 1000, Bronto is used by top brands worldwide, including Armani Exchange, Timex, Samsonite and Gander Mountain. The company is headquartered in Durham, NC with an office in London, UK. For more information, visit bronto.com.
About MarketLive
Since 1995, MarketLive, Inc., has been the leading provider of eCommerce technology and services that help fast-growing companies successfully sell goods and services online. Designed to meet the unique requirements of catalogers, retailers, direct marketers, and manufacturers, the extensible MarketLive® eCommerce Suite and MarketLive's best practices-based Intelligent Selling® methodology enable merchants to enhance their customers' experience online while dramatically improving acquisition, conversion, and retention rates. The MarketLive platform is the most retail-targeted, fully featured, customizable eCommerce solution on the market today. MarketLive powers many successful retail eCommerce sites, including Armani, Party City, Perricone MD, Sport Chalet, Sundance, Helzberg, John Deere, Title Nine, Intermix and others. For more information, visit MarketLive. Connect with MarketLive on Facebook and Twitter.
Tom Francoeur, Emanate PR for Bronto Software, 617-747-1405, [email protected]
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