Before we examine Nosto's recent 2016 report, let's start from the beginning...

What is Magento?

Magento is one of the most well known ecommerce names in the digital industry. It provides its customers (both B2B and B2C) with a superior and scalable open source platform to launch their online business. In 2016 alone, Magento merchants sold a combined $101 billion worth of ecommerce.

For this reason, Magento has developed a vast, loyal community.

When analysing such a global community, it is important to identify its unique trends and patterns to understand pivotal strengths and weaknesses.

One of Magento's biggest partners is Nosto. Nosto provides Magento merchants with the capability to deliver customers personalised and guided shopping experiences on your ecommerce site. They provide services such as:

• Facebook Ads

• Product Recommendations

• Behavioural Pop-ups

• Personalised Emails

 Nosto's 2016 Magento Year In Review report showcases ecommerce trends specific to Magento Merchants in 2016. The report is built on Nosto's propriety data as well as first hand user experience. Their data was compiled by examining key data trends from over 800 million visits to Magento registered sites around the world.

It discusses (as well as offers way to improve):

• Revenue

• Traffic

• Conversions

A common mistake made by many ecommerce merchants is to overlook these different categories and to analyse their online business campaign on a whole. In order to fully understand the user journey, merchants need to break down each step accordingly, especially when we are seeing a progressive growth in dynamic user activity.

The Importance of Multi-Channel Conversions

Here's an unsurprising fact... Desktop is still number 1 in driving home conversions.

Desktop easily ranks in at the highest percentage of revenue at 57.9% and an average conversion rate of 4.31% (order value: $131 USD)

So, want to hear a surprising fact?

Mobiles have the highest % share of traffic- at a substantial 43.7% even though they deliver the lowest percentage of conversions (2.3%)

Weird, huh?

This statistic tells us two things:

1. Your mobile site simply isn't user friendly enough- your

   UX is failing

   .

2. Consumers are more dynamic. They're not necessarily unhappy, they just prefer to explore what you have to offer on their smartphone device then complete the transaction on PC or table later.

"For Magento retailers, in many ways desktop is still king, but so too is the opportunity that lays in mobile clear"

Merchants should definitely examine this as a possible mobile strategy indication and perhaps think about mobile engagement as a beneficial path towards consumer conversion, but not necessarily the final stage. Conversions are becoming more and more mult-channel and it is clear from the data that mobile devices are favourable in terms of product exploration.

Don't underestimate its importance!

Nosto's tips to improve metrics revolve around optimizing your SEO. Search engines i.e Google, remain the biggest sources for traffic to your ecommerce site. Never stop trying to get that top ranking position. Set relevant keywords, both long and short tail. Make sure your landing page is easily readable. Does it have:

• Visible call-to-actions

• A 'contact us' tag or page link

• Clear logo & banner head

• Product previews

• Content

You must utilise the advantages of content marketing!

The great thing about content marketing is that's it's a very subtle sales technique- consumers don't even realise they're being manipulated. It's not so demanding and in-your-face. Ultimately, by producing informative topical trend pieces consumers are more aware of your brand and what you're selling. It gives you a platform to explain to them why exactly they need your product/services.

Maximise your Social Engagement 

Engagement with your audience is fundamental and the best way to achieve this is by being active across multiple social media platforms. This means getting involved in current trending topics and producing compelling, entertaining content.

Start a competition. Offer discounts to network followers.

Another great way to achieve successful network engagement is by reaching out to the right people. Identify social media stars with large social media followings as well as popular platforms that have a large fan-base. Send them free product samples, share their content. Encourage them to feature your brand!

Say Yes to Digital Advertising 

Digital advertising allows for very specific targeting options which allow you to hone your message and give higher returns.  Perhaps consider dynamic product level ads that display your top sellers. After all, these products are the ones that are most likely to convert.

Once they get to your site, make sure they don't go elsewhere. This goes back to optimising your sites content. Make sure it's aesthetically appealing, yes, but also make sure it's easy to use e.g. streamline your payments and improve your UX.

Be sure to communicate to your audience your unique selling propositions throughout the entire customer journey. Consider sale techniques like free shipping, or personalised discounts when purchases are over a particular threshold.

The average consumer visits a site between 1.80- 1.85 times before making a decision. Techniques like cart abandonment emails are a great way to in persuading them to come back.

Use personalised recommendations such as, 'shop the look,' 'related products' or 'customers who bought this also bought' on your sites checkout page. This is also a great tool for remarketing.

Remarketing/retargeting is a proven successful way to convert customers. It's also proven to be more profitable. Use dynamic ads and maximise the number of products you are able to display to a consumer. Be sure to make them relevant!

Nosto's Key Takeaways 

With the increase of multi-channel usage by consumers, we can see from Nosto's Magento data, that consumers are becoming more and more multi-channel present. This means that making sure your site is optimized across all devices is imperative.Target relevant audiences only. Your bounce rate will sky rocket if your reel the wrong crowd in. This will also decrease the value of your SEO. To prevent this, make sure shoppers know exactly what you're selling, what your products, features and benefits are. Break down your marketing plan and figure out what's working and what isn't.

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Acidgreen is an award winning e-commerce agency  specialising in Magento and digital marketing with over 15 years of  industry experience. Our certified developers and digital marketers are highly qualified to create aesthetically pleasing Magento websites that generate the highest amount of conversions and provide the best ROI. Be sure to follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter, or give us a call to learn more about our services.