Usability should be a foundation for any online store – Interview with Paul Rouke, PRWD

Posted on 19/05/201615/05/2016 by Andrei Radu

Just very few days left until The Most Important E-Commerce Event in Central and Eastern Europe: GPeC Summit May 25-26-27. We got a lot of great speakers in store, hot topics and a lot of practical keynotes and workshops meant to show you how to increase your conversions in e-commerce. One of our conversion optimization expert speakers is Paul Rouke, the Founder & CEO of PRWD, who will keynote at GPeC Summit May 25-26-27 and give practical tips and case studies on how to make usability the foundation of your online shops. We’ve had the chance to discuss a little bit with Paul already and get a sneak peek into his presentation and the conversion rate optimization strategies that he is applying for PRWD’s clients. Check out the interview below and make sure you don’t miss Paul Rouke‘s keynote on May 25 at GPeC Summit.

GPeC: How can you get conversion optimisation wrong?

By simply not taking it seriously enough. A failure to develop the right foundations for growth through conversion optimisation is one of the most influential reasons why there is so much poor A/B testing around the world. Too many businesses “talk the talk” about being a customer centric organisation – very, very few walk the walk. A failure to recognise the crucial importance of conducting intelligent 1-1 research with your customers and prospects means the quality and impact of your conversion optimisation efforts will be reduced significantly. Ask yourself this question with every test you are planning to run: why are running this test? What evidence have we got that moves this from being a toss of a coin, to realising the potential of really impacting user behaviour?

Paul: In your book you’re talking about the growth strategy that’s being ignored by everyone. What is that strategy and why is it important for an online business?

The growth strategy I am referring to is making intelligent, customer driven, methodical conversion optimisation a pillar of your company’s growth forecasts. Most, if not every business, would like to grow their revenues, profit and market share. Therefore, a conversion optimisation strategy which influences everything from the micro interactions your visitors have on your website, all the way through to your actual value proposition and end-to-end customer experience, is crucially important – yet currently being ignored.

GPeC: Should an online store focus on getting new visitors or converting the returning visitors?

Paul: Firstly retailers need to truly understand this: by focusing attention and investing in research to understand how visitors can be persuaded to buy from you, whilst at the same time providing them with an intuitive, memorable experience (not forgetting the crucially important but often ignored order confirmation page), you are not only creating the conditions to make these new customers long term customers, you are also creating the conditions to create brand advocacy. What this then provides you is more new visitors who have been recommended to buy from you, who in turn are more likely to convert.

The quick and easy option is always to just increase your PPC budgets in the hope that more acquired visitors equal more customers. The reality is, retailers who truly understand the importance and long term impact of investing in intelligent, customer insight driven conversion optimisation know that is their biggest growth lever, not simply acquisition. Did I mention that by doing this you also improve the ROI of all your acquisition investment too? Which retailer would like that?

GPeC: How important is usability for an online store?

Paul: Usability, or quite simply ease of use and intuitiveness, should now be a foundation for any online store. It should have been a foundation years ago. Deliver friction, confusion or frustration to your new visitors whilst browsing your online store and you are almost guaranteed not to convert them in to a new customer. I am continually surprised at how poor the web forms are, particularly during a checkout process. Best practice is a term used too often and typically in the wrong way – when it comes to delivering the experience visitors have when they want to interact with your brand and buy from you, form best practice is crucial.

In summary, do not forget to do the basics right first. Get your foundations in place for an easy, intuitive online experience before you even think about the “hollow hot topics” like personalisation, behavioural targeting and “big data”

GPeC: What are you going to talk about in your keynote speech at GPeC Summit on 25th May? (a sneak peek)

Paul: I’m going to talk about the state of the conversion optimisation industry – about the role everyone of has the opportunity to play in helping to fight back against the decision makers, tool providers and practitioners who quite simply aren’t willing to truly understand the importance of delivering conversion optimisation intelligently. People, skills, methods and processes, combined with cultural transformation, are the areas which the worlds most successful brands focus on to grow their businesses.

I’m going to explain what are the four pillars every business needs to establish and focus on in order to turn conversion optimisation from a simple tactic of A/B testing to the most fundamental growth strategy that underpins how your business. I’m also going to share how the traditional HiPPO (Highest Paid Persons Opinion) needs to be re-invented so that everyone of us has the new HIPPO characteristics which will accelerate our careers and allow us to exploit our individual and business potential. Finally, I will be sharing what is the one biggest and most exciting opportunity everyone of us has to play in fighting back against “the machines” that we keep getting told are going to take over the industry.

If you wish to hear more on the ConversionXL model for optimizing low traffic websites then we say you should’t miss GPeC Summit May 25-26-27. The event agenda can be checked on our website and registrations for GPeC Summit are done by filling in the online formmhere: http://www.gpec.ro/en/registration-gpec-summit-may/

_________________________

GPeC 2016, the 11th annual edition, is an event powered by FAN Courier – the leader of the Romanian courier market

Event sponsored by: Allpacka.ro, ALTEX, AVON, Competence Call Center, ContentSpeed, DPD, DWF, Frisbo, Garanti Bank, Mediapost Hit Mail, Microsoft, New Black, NewsMAN, Online-Online.ro by Credius, Orange, PayU, SALESmanago, Simartis, Retargeting.biz, Visa, Zitec