E-Commerce Insights: Get to ‘Yes’

Do your site’s sign-up forms read like a bungled attempt at getting a date?

You: Hi, would you like to get coffee?

Visitor: Umm … sure. OK.

You: Great! LET’S GET MARRIED! I love kids! I want a big wedding, then a week in Hawaii. Two girls and a boy, (after I make partner). Now Wednesday is poker night; can we spend every other Christmas with my mom? I like to garden, cook and …

Visitor: You’re scaring me. Please go away now.

Of course, you’re not that clueless about relationships. But your site may be. The No. 1 mistake marketers make with their sign-up forms is asking for too much too soon. And when requested information is irrelevant to the task visitors seek to complete, they’ll typically abandon your form.

How well does your site handle these “marketing conversions”? Take a closer look at your primary sign-up processes:
● e-mail subscription form;
● catalog request page;
● wish list sign-up; and
● account creation form.

Does your site treat these processes with care, remembering that every completed form is a conversion? Or is it more like Mr. Eager Lonelyhearts, asking for too much too soon?

Delusional Expectations
Many otherwise savvy marketers burden their sign-up pages with ill-timed and excessive requests for information, which result in abandonment and missed opportunity.

Take this example: An online retailer we encountered “teased” visitors with a simple, single-field e-mail sign-up form at the bottom of every page on its site. Standard stuff, except that on this site, entering an e-mail address and clicking “submit” didn’t yield the expected confirmation page. Instead, would-be subscribers were greeted with a second form, requesting 10 more pieces of information, including a complete physical mailing address.

The abandonment rate for this form was pushing 60 percent.