Optimizely Experience London event 9th Oct 2014

I attended this very popular event today where we were given several case studies from various clients including The Student Room*, and Haymarket.

Optimizely looks a very capable testing tool with a leaning towards a self managed service or buying Optimizely Partner consultancy.

Key takeaways for me today were:

1. Optimizing for specific audiences. Split out and target sources of business and then focus on improving them individually, i.e spend 20% effort to gain an 80% return.

2. Use mobile wrappers to do proof of concept testing before spending big on a native app development. 

3. The Optimizely native app testing tool is amazing and I want it! An engaging demo of changing the Flappy Bird App on the fly. This was the big one for me today. Effortless AB and MVT testing of an iOS native app. To me this tool is what sets Optimizely apart from the pack. A very trivial demo using a popular game to show the power to change a user experience within an app with just a few clicks? This wasn't creating a test before the app was compiled, this was after the app was live.

In summary a good day to meet others operating with the same issues as me in Conversion Rate Optimization. Lots of Hippos in organisations still making subjective decisions about web design. An expectation of a successful test everytime by the business.

* Love this. The Student Room drag unwitting students off the streets of Brighton and ask them their opinion on their website and then give them a tenner for their troubles. This kind of 'street' qualitative testing I like.

Increasing average basket value

Back in 2009 I wrote an article on increasing average spend citing the creation of the Wilkos 97p shop. Many aspects of this blog have witnessed the web evolve and run with some ideas and drop others. At the time the 97p shop was a novelty, now some 5 years later the $1 or £1 departments are extremely common across ecommerce websites across the web. These are both an easy and powerful tool in driving an uplift in average basket value. As every seasoned online retailer knows it is absolutely crucial  to increase the average balance  of your online shopping trolley if you're to make the difference between a profitable or loss making retailer. They are so effective as a revenue driver because they are so flexible, you can deploy them at the front end of the sales funnel or in the checkout process. Both are effective strategies. Adding low value items to your basket is the obvious method as the customer has already broken through any 'objections' or 'resistance factors' to purchase and adding ancillaries is exactly the same as checking out in a bricks and mortar shop.  Shiny, low value items at the checkout draw us in and we spend less time considering the purchase decision as the mayor hurdle has already been breached with your other items in the trolley.

When deployed up front as in the case of Viking Direct  we can see it is selling  message that they have office supplies that even the most modest of wallets can afford and are breaking down the purchase resistance right at the start of the journey. Either way, if you're in retail deploying this technique in your Optimisation toolkit is highly likely to yield dividends as the last 5 years has proven.

It's interesting to note that Wilkos themselves have abandoned there 97p shop. However the phenomena has perforated very much into the world of online movie rentals.The likes of iTunes, Amazon or previously LoveFilm, Blockbuster (now defunct) and currently BlinkBox have all had their 99c or 99p rental sections although here the act of movie rental is a departure from the rest of retail as the primary product is the movie rental/sale. What it is still doing is breaking down resistance. Someone who hasn't rented online before might be willing to try the experience for a modest outlay. Additionally it helps to keep those already on boarded in the practice of renting. Again it's a win-win selling and marketing technique.

 

Netflix a/b testing

Last week I came across an item on the Netflix Tech Blog that showed a slide and presentation of their plans for a/b testing their new web interface running on Node.js

It was all very worthy stuff and I wasn't entirely sure either what they were doing or trying to achieve by this testing; the body of the content spent most of the time waxing lyrical about not having to touch they're underlying system platform. I guess this is a big deal for Netflix! Anyway as an avid Netflix user I believe I have witnessed their testing strategy firsthand but in a rather perplexing fashion. Below is a screengrab of what I'm talking about. Under documentaries recommendations I frequently see at least two listings of 'The Long Way Down'. These are for the same programm/episode etc but one is shown in some weird Instagram effect the second in a monochrome  colour with a variation in image.

Now this is either a mistake or an entirely new way of a/b testing. I've never seen test variations (if that's what they are) presented side by side before. If this is a legitimate test is it not a rather crude means of promoting an episode to the end user? What is the end goal to see whether fans of Instagram filters opt for one creative over another? Is the 'Long Way Down' just such unmissable viewing entertainment that it warrants mentioning A LOT! Answers on a postcard. Happy testing : )