Hardly anything is increasing more rapidly than e-commerce sales. If we look at various statistics from Statista, the inevitability of this development becomes clear. In Germany alone, the turnover in 2021 was around 84 billion euros. Also pushed by the COVID pandemic, the figures rose again strongly in the last year, so that in 2022 a total turnover of 97.4 billion euros is expected. These figures are offset by a lot of anonymous visitors and potential buyers. In this article, we’ll explain how you can playfully transform them into satisfied customers.
Anonymous website visitors – a huge potential
Let’s assume you are satisfied with the traffic on your website. Your marketing is running according to plan and you are generating a good number of visitors via actions such as ads, banners, social media campaigns and so on. But there is a statistic that makes you sit up and take notice: The conversion rate is just 2.1 % on average. This means that almost 98 % of website visitors do not convert, remain anonymous to you and leave your site without interacting with your company in any concrete way. This is a huge potential that you should definitely take advantage of, especially since these visitors already have a basic interest in your offer.
How do you calculate the conversion rate? There are three important formulas for doing so:
- Conversion rate = Total number of conversions (e.g., sales) / Total number of visits * 100
- Conversion rate = Total number of conversions (e.g., subscriptions) / Total number of unique visitors * 100
- Conversion rate = Total number of conversions (e.g., a service) / Total number of leads * 100
It always depends on what exactly you want to calculate. However, with these three formulas you can calculate and evaluate almost all your KPIs. Let’s make an example:
You sell 522 cookbooks on a Black Friday weekend, with a total number of 11,349 visitors. According to the first formula, this results in a conversion rate of: 522 / 11,349 * 100 = 4.59 %.
With zero party data to your goals
Our recommendation: Make every effort possible to ensure that your visitors do not remain anonymous. Because they are valuable leads that your company can profit from. The difficulty now is to de-anonymize your visitors and potential customers. Zero-party data can be an profitable tool.
Especially in times when tracking is clearly regulated and restricted by general data protection guidelines, it is worth getting creative. Classic tracking also generates so-called third-party data, i.e. data that is usually collected involuntarily and indiscriminately. This data is less specific and not necessarily related to the user experience on the website. This data is hardly suitable to specifically improve the user experience on the website and to fulfill the wishes and needs of your visitors. Zero-party data is a different story. This data is voluntarily and deliberately passed on to companies by customers – and can therefore be used exclusively. It demonstrates a high level of trust in the company and can be used directly to targeted customer loyalty measures. When it comes to identifying anonymous visitors, we ideally talk about generating zero-party data.
The differences of zero-party data versus third-party data:
| Zero-party Data | Third-party data |
| The most accurate and reliable data | Accurate but less reliable data |
| Are voluntarily disclosed by visitors | Are passed on involuntarily in the majority of cases |
| Little analysis required on the part of the marketer | Requires intensive analysis |
| No problems regarding data protection | High data protection concerns |
You can achieve the generation of zero-party data, for example, by incorporating interactive elements into the user experience of your site. Engage and dialog with your website visitors, be courteous and show them that they are important to you. In short: offer them precious value.
You want to make your customer experience more interactive but don’t know where to start? Contact us now! We’ll help you!
Three examples of interactive user experiences
The perfect costumer journey
Ideally, you should convince visitors to make a purchase during their first visit. Design the customer journey in such a way that you bring the customer closer to his desired product step by step – and that they have fun discovering their new favorite product. As a final impulse, you could offer a discount at the right place, for example after viewing a product. Make the user experience and the offer so irresistible that the visitor decides to buy. When the purchase is made, you will receive the visitor’s data. Most of the time, satisfied customers like to come back to make further purchases. And if they take a little longer, you can acquire them specifically on the basis of their data.
A successful gamification marketing
Another way to lure visitors out of their anonymity is to include a small game. Almost everyone likes to play, and if there is the prospect of a small prize, the incentive is even greater. The game should be simple, easy to understand and ultimately not take up much time. A wheel of fortune, a mini puzzle, a short quiz – the choice of the game should fit your company and of course the objective. This can be done, for example, by requiring people to provide their details in order to be notified of a win. Or via a guaranteed instant win, such as a discount that can be redeemed directly.
Want to learn more about gamification? Read everything you need to know in our blog.
Valuable newsletter
Another incentive to leave data on your website is to include a newsletter. Offer good arguments why it is advantageous to subscribe to your newsletter. Valuable industry news, exclusive offers, interesting stories, price promotions only for newsletter subscribers – offer your customers added value in your newsletter. This way, the customer not only leaves the anonymity of nameless visitors, but can be specifically included in your customer loyalty program.
Conclusion
No matter which way you decide to de-anonymize your visitors – stay authentic and show your visitors that they are valuable. It is important that you seek interaction and convince the customer with the right measurements that it is their advantage to leave their data with you. Even if you won’t convince all 98 %: Every single buyer contributes to your sales figures writing another success story. The potential is enormous.
Check out the demo of our gamification platform and let us convince you. We’ll be happy to help you reach your goals and identify your target audience.
