Flutterby™! : e-commerce customer retention

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e-commerce customer retention

2000-10-03 18:51:45+00 by Dan Lyke 3 comments

Interesting article on web site conversion rate modeling that might have implications for your favorite .com stock... The researchers conclude that generating an initial purchase at an online site is relatively easy. Subsequent purchases, however, are not so easy as shoppers become more familiar with shopping at a given online retail site. Over time, a shopper's tendency to buy again declines as the sheer novelty of purchasing at that website wears off. So what does this mean if your business model was, say, selling books, and involves blowing through a couple of hundred million to build brand loyalty? I'm too lazy to go look through the TIME archives and see if they ever named Ponzi "Man of the Year"...

[ related topics: Interactive Drama Books ]

comments in ascending chronological order (reverse):

#Comment made: 2002-02-21 05:30:22+00 by: shad0w

Huh? I don't think I've ever bought from a web site because of the "novelty"; usually I find that site through a price bot. And I've repeated purchasing on roughly 80% of the sites I've already visited. Am I that atypical?

#Comment made: 2002-02-21 05:30:22+00 by: Dan Lyke

Apparently. But also look at your purchasing patterns: If you're finding sites through price bots you're not the sort of loyal customer that they're spending money to retain anyway.

#Comment made: 2002-02-21 05:30:23+00 by: shad0w

They shouldn't have to be spending money to retain me. I don't care about a fancy site; it merely needs to be functional. If they keep their prices at a decent level, I'll come back. I nearly never hit the absolute lowest priced source for an item; I prefer a vendor I've dealt with, or at least know about.