The conversion rate, or the number of visits to the website that result in a purchase, is massive. Some 50 percent of those Americans searching Amazon most frequently are actually making a purchase. That compares with the widely cited retail industry average for turning online searches into purchases at a mere 3 percent.
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/amazon-lifts-veil-prime-084710224.html
Every time I buy via Amazon (which is probably a couple of times per week), I shake my head and admire the vision of Jeff Bezos.
"Who wants to buy books without being able to browse?" was my first thought. I did not see the river of products that would be Amazon.
Why do I mention this? Because now I live in a rural area where it's a 1-hour drive to go buy toilet paper. A 2-hour drive if I want to go to a place like Costco and buy a whole raft of toilet paper. 2.5 to 3 hours if there are chain controls in effect, as this morning. Or 6 hours if it's Christmas Eve and snow and a bus goes off the road and the road closes for five hours.
-- OR --
I sit in my living room with a cup of tea, push a few buttons on my computer (or possibly my phone with the Amazon app) and in two days the nice man from UPS delivers a giant box of toilet paper.
What is the point of this story?
When I go to REI.com, I might know what I want, but I'm probably browsing. I'm definitely going to buy a new headlamp, but when? Where? Not sure.
When I go to Amazon, this is more like when I lived in town and would duck into the corner store to grab one thing, a single thing that I could find with the lights off because it's one of the four single things I might buy at the corner store. Except at Amazon, it's 400 things.
So no, the 50% conversion rate doesn't surprise me. For users like me, that is way, way low. For users like me, the Amazon conversion rate is closer to the conversion rate of the grocery store than it is to any other website or, for that matter, a "browsing" store like REI or Best Buy.
I'm with ergophobe on this one (literally). It isn't just those of us living hours from the nearest substantial retail outlets who are taking advantage of Prime that way. Friends and family pinned down in cities with heavy traffic also say they find it tremendously convenient for essentials. And let's face it, with powerful search features, it's easier to find something online than walking around a shop.
I thought the 50% figure was a little high though.
QuoteSome 50 percent of those Americans searching Amazon most frequently
(emphasis mine)What is the "most frequently" cut off? I wouldn't be surprised that Amazon conversion rates are higher than smaller shops, but the reporting on that number is strange. If you take your top 10 most loyal customers, of course their conversion rate is going to be extra high...
I live in a city, not as large as the last one I lived in, but a city none the less. I have everything available on my doorstep. No 2 hour drive, but maybe 5 minutes....
I still order everything on Amazon, so much so the sneaky gits have given me free Prime for about 5 years now... They've worked out they'll earn that fee a hundred times over easily each and every year. I haven't let them down yet!
My wife ordered a 1TB hard drive from Amazon at 1am yesterday morning and it showed up at our door at 4pm the same day, arriving from their Arizona warehouse. The fulfillment side of their business is just incredible.
>>it's easier to find something online than walking around a shop.
Some of the big box stores are like 8 acres under roof, I can never find what I want so I waste loads of time wandering, and can hardly ever find an employee to ask where stuff is. On Amazon, chances are I can find the exact make and model of the item I want from my chair. Amazon sort of mimics my "guy" shopping style: go in hunt down what I want as fast as possible, buy it and drag it home.
Another thing Amazon did right: customer reviews.
I could improve their sales by 15-12% while reducing their adwords cost at the same time. Fix the damn search engine, Bezos! It sucks. Even non-seo people KNOW it sucks and ask me how to find deep stuff. I tell them to go use google, put 'amazon' as a qualifier. Then start clicking ads or top results. If that's not the product, pick the closest match and feed its description into G. Rinse. Repeat. All the while opening hits in new tabs then scrolling across the related items and also-boughts at the bottom.
What? They have a search engine? Who would have known.
Even when I *plan* to buy on Amazon, I search on Google and depend on Google knowing that I really want Amazon anyway. And, as it turns out, it does.
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[Full disclosure: I did try the Amazon search engine the other day, so I do know it exists. But I failed and went to Google, which immediately found the item I wanted. No need for a site: search either]
>No need for a site: search either
Right. Just adding 'amazon' is all it takes, if even that much. Talking about site: just scares the average Joe Searcher. If an item is obscure or one-off, I do often find the also-bought sections to be where I finally find it.
It surprises me they still have also bought.
I never did believe it, still dont. related would be a better match, but I am sure it is A/B tested.
Yeah Amazon search is pretty bad. I sometimes find the exact model I'm looking for in the "also bought" rather than the search. Even DuckDuckGo SERP brings up better results for Amazon inventory.
Another factor: Trust. Nothing is absolute but I trust Amazon more to keep my CC info safe than many other stores. Why spread my CC info around when I can just order the same thing from Amazon? That's why I keep going back.