We visit and make purchases from websites regularly, but did you ever wonder why you ended up purchasing something from one site rather than another? Whether you made an impulse purchase or closed the browser just after adding items to your shopping cart, could it be that the design of the site subconsciously led you – or your customers, to make one decision over another?

A study published in a 2010 article called “Using Clickstream Data to Enhance B2B Web Site Performance” by R. Wilson in vol. 25 of the Journal of Business and Industrial Marketing, outlined the results from a study designed to examine some of the web design factors that contributed to customers’ purchase decisions as they clicked along the purchase process.

The study examined the behaviour of 900 site visitors who were divided into two groups. One group was not offered free shipping, while visitors from the other group were made aware of a free shipping offer.

Test group without free shipping offer:

92.7% of visitors visited product index

89.1% of visitors went to a product specification page

16.7% of visitors entered the shopping area

8.9% of visitors added items to their shopping card

5.1% of visitors completed a purchase (23 of 450 visitors made a purchase)

Test group with free shipping offer:

92.9% of visitors visited product index

88.4% of visitors went to a product specification page

20.9% of visitors entered the shopping area

12.2% of visitors added items to their shopping card

7.1% of visitors completed a purchase (32 of 450 visitors made a purchase)

In the study, the organisation found that although offering free shipping had greater costs, the ROI was greater with an increase in sales, as well as an increase in the average value of each customer purchase. This study resulted in a 7% conversion rate without free shipping, and an 11% conversion rate with free shipping. Although conversion rates vary by price point and industry, an increase in conversion rates of 4% was found in this instance to be well worth the cost of shipping. In a similar subsequent study, a site that had free shipping listed on the shopping page had a conversion rate of 8.8%, while a free shipping offer listed on a site’s main page had a conversion rate of 11.0%, with a 27.7% increase in the number of visitors completing an online purchase.

Although the information presented simply reflects one study performed, and recognising that each business or industry would have unique results, it does raise the question of whether a site is optimised for purchases. What % increase in sales would make it more financially beneficial to offer free shipping to your customers? What would your ROI be for offering such a service? Is a 4% increase in sales financially worth it for you?

What impact does the design of your site have to your brand and competitive advantage?