Category: Ecommerce

[Luxury journey] 3 ways to triumph at customer experience

Posted on by EyeSee Research

One of the many things the luxury industry excels at is going beyond just the product – but creating exclusive experiences at every touchpoint of the customer journey. Luxury has always been a state of comfort, an intangible feeling of exclusiveness – and as such, not rational. The key challenge for high-end brands lies in capturing that unique and implicit feeling of luxury. How does one go about researching something that is irrational, subconscious and not easily communicated – all while taking into account the pandemic-driven changes in customer demands? Cue behavioral market research to ensure a safe metamorphosis.

LVMH has been paving the way for changing the luxury customer experience and the ways we approach enhancing it. As a part of the annual LVMH Innovation awards, EyeSee had the honor of being amongst the 28 finalists dedicated to providing tech-driven solutions and bringing the future of customer experience one step closer.

Check out Milica Kovac‘s quick guide to winning big with behavioral insights:

Here are 3 ways brands can embrace the evolution of customer experience:

Tap into transformative in-store trends

The pandemic has pushed a lot of brands across industries into fight or flight mode – some flourished and some failed to adapt to the new dynamic the health crisis has brought on. However, now, as more vaccines are administered every day, buyers have started to go back to the stores after a year-long pause. But just as shopping habits continue to evolve, in-location gadgets, protocols and regimens will have to be reinvented and tested to fit the new needs.

One of the ways to keep up with the consumers is by putting them in context, a completely simulated virtual environment of any store, and testing new touchpoints to tap into which store elements work with the consumer – and which ones don’t, beyond the explicit.

On top of it, mapping out their entire decision-making process and identifying the type of customer is crucial when it comes to brand loyalty – and luxury is all about loyalty, but having a loyal customer is a luxury. From there on it’s all about how to assist and improve their shopping journey to ensure they stay with your brand and understanding where new buyers come from, and what allures them to your brand.

Lean into digital

Luxury brands have been on a mission to tap into the digital experience, but most of them have met the same challenge – making it feel exclusive to the consumer. The rise of Gen Z and the perpetuated need for digitalization are disrupting the market and pushing high-end retailers to get innovative. From virtual try-ons, to digital shopping assistants, even the likes of Ralph Lauren and Gucci have invested in the development of digital platforms to unlock a new way of connecting with their customers. So, how can brands engage with luxury e-shoppers and meet their new demands?

Over 53% of planned online purchases fail to be completed – consumers tend to get frustrated and give up if there are any setbacks in their online path to purchase. Understanding how to navigate all the steps consumers take (or don’t take) while shopping online will determine the common pitfalls and pain points where you could be losing shoppers – but ultimately the opportunities ahead. To uncover the fine nuances in the ways consumers are interacting with shopping platforms, you must tap into the online path to purchase.

Bridge the in-store – online gap

The need to tie in both commerce and e-commerce and create a seamless experience across all platforms has been something companies from every industry are trying to achieve. One of the trends that emerged in the Auto Industry, for instance, is the development of virtual showrooms where consumers are able to view and browse vehicles as they would in person – and this trend found its way across many industries.

Click-and-collect is becoming a more and more popular choice among buyers, and as Google reports, 63% of shopping begins online. But what’s certain is that consumers still want to experience the immersiveness a physical luxury space can offer – from social interactions to touching and seeing a product. The key to ensuring a smooth omnichannel path to purchase lies in truly understanding the consumer, their expectations and needs – and, perhaps more importantly, their behavior.

    A glimpse of the future: E-commerce insights from APAC experts

    Posted on by EyeSee Research

    Watch EyeSee’s expert panel discussion looking into e-commerce practices and habits in the APAC region. With an e-commerce-first approach to business in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, both retailers, manufacturers, and delivery businesses along the value chain, everyone is feeling the changes. 

    Having deep knowledge about regional differences, category insight and research technology is essential – but how can we use these learnings to optimize performance across platforms? Which trends are on the cusp of adoption, and where is the rest of the world still lagging behind advanced Asian platforms and established consumer behaviors?

    Guests:
    Anatole Rousseau, Director Foodservice and E-commerce, Barilla
    Delphine Dierckx, Head of Commercial APAC, Foodpanda
    Omnath Killekar,Product and Consumer insights, Swiggy
    Tom Vande Moortel, Business Development Director

    Host:
    Sanja Copic, Content strategist, EyeSee

    Request the webinar recording of EyeSee and APAC experts on e-commerce:

        Thanksgiving, Black Friday, Christmas: Optimizing for a challenging holiday season

        Posted on by EyeSee Research

        No doubt that the holidays will look different this year – huge lines in front of stores on Black Friday, big family gatherings for Thanksgiving and Christmas, and crowded NYE celebrations all seem like a thing of the past in 2020. New trends emerged, and some burgeoning ones were fortified during the pandemic. From curbside pickups, click-and-collect options, or just good old delivery, both brands and consumers found alternative ways to play their respective parts in the shopping transaction.

        Even though brick-and-mortar holiday shopping is a staple at this time of the year, there is no doubt that the pandemic has permanently accelerated the growth of e-commerce. “At this point, I think we can expect an increase of at least 30% for the peak festive trading season, but if stores have to close, this might push to 50%,” – Andy Mulcahy (Strategy and Insight Director) from IMRG.

        However, be it the holiday season or not – omnichannel optimization and a seamless cross-channel experience are crucial for success with shoppers at the start of 2021!

        The proof is in the advertising pudding

        2020 presented a multitude of opportunities for brands to take a stand on different social issues and communicate timely offers – but the question is, how do you do it right? Our extensive mobile behavioral study found several principles in how seasonal, tactical, and crisis messaging affect brand perception.

        We found that the critical factor in ad retention is personal relevance. Either by way of brands talking about relevant topics, showing they care for their consumers, or through different offers and posts that directly concern the consumer in terms of the product or service that is promoted. Posts that do neither of those perform poorly and are glanced through and not remembered.

        The holiday season is a unique challenge for advertisers – how do you stand out in the sea of the same ads, decorated with similar visual elements and identical keywords? Our study proves just how hard this can be – Seasonal & tactical posts perform the worst when it comes to how innovative and creative the content is, as this type of brand communication is most commonly seen on social media. On the upside, Tactical posts and Seasonal offers are the easiest to understand and Tactical offers have a long retention power – such as posts explaining the rules of a giveaway or discount offers.

        Regardless of the content type, it needs to be optimized for each platform. Are you thinking about using your Christmas TVC for social media as well? An average online video ad is seen only for about 3 seconds, meaning a 20 second-long TVC will most likely flop in a busy social media feed.

        EyeSee and Twitter joined forces to explore which assets are part of next-level holiday ads – here’s what we found out:

        • Ads focusing on gift-giving rather than a family atmosphere increase purchase consideration by 27%
        • Using logos in festive ads boasts a 133% higher brand recall;
        • Attention and brand connection are 10% higher in ads highlighting the product;

        Virtual stores can emulate emerging shopping touchpoints

        How much of this year’s Black Friday will be a Cyber Friday? A rising number of shoppers have now turned to the virtual retail world – some who are first-time online shoppers, and some, like Gen Z, never knew life without online shopping. All the signs are pointing to the unavoidable growing prevalence of e-commerce in the average consumer’s life. Apart from the usual way consumers use online retailers, two relatively new shopping practices have developed: ‘webrooming’ and ‘showrooming’. The first implies the consumer researches about a product online only to then buy it in a physical store, while in the latter, the research is done in the store and the product is bought online. For example, a consumer looking to buy a laptop may go and check it out in the store and then purchase it online. For cases like this, research needs to expand outside of the usual touchpoints to encompass the entire path to purchase and not merely big stops along the way. Thankfully, virtual shopping has developed into more than just shopping off a virtual shelf. 

        Nowadays, you can test all the P2P touchpoints in a variety of 3D contexts, such as specialized stores (tech, drugstore, coffee places), malls, or big retail chains. Virtual stores have evolved to capture behavior in multiple touchpoint scenarios, even if they are new, or hard to replicate en masse with in-person research – such as click and collect, curbside pickups, and numerous others.

        How has online shopping behavior changed during COVID-19?

        We found that the consumers are spending more time browsing the Product listing pages – 50s on average, which led to a 36% increase in noticed products. More time is spent per product as well, by 11% longer than pre-COVID browsing. Similarly, Product detail pages are browsed for almost 20 seconds longer and scrolled through much deeper – nearly 60% of shoppers reach the page end compared to the usual ~5%.

        So even when shoppers are seeing more and more products, exploring them for a longer time and with more attention, and with the numbers are only bound to increase – still, more than half of planned online purchases are unsuccessful.

        Here’s what you can do about it:

        • Good things come in optimized packages – use Hero Images – they increase visibility and with it purchase by 15%
        • Optimize the Path to Purchase – pinpoint precisely where consumers can get discouraged and click off
        • Make sure more products are seen with PLP ads – they also increase product purchase interest by 14% and ensure longer browsing

        How should you be stocking up your shelves?

        It’s not uncommon for certain products to be sold out around the holidays. Though retailers and brands welcome great sales – the possibility of empty shelves that retailers are unable to restock due to supply shortages and chain disruptions is still daunting. If an SKU flies off the shelf, you have several choices:

        • Display the same # of facings for the top tier brands with fewer different items on show (so fewer SKUs)
        • Replace the lost top tier SKUs with more facings of Private Label.
        • Replace the lost Private Label SKUs with more facings of top tier facings.

        If you decide to go for the same number of top-tier brand facings, when the # of different items is reduced, the # of products bought declines by 2%, and the dollar spend declines by 5% compared to the control shelf.

        However, replacing lost SKUs with Private Label facings shows the same 5% decrease in dollar spending (compared to the control shelf). Note that the total units bought remain about the same, suggesting that the lower price accounts for the dollar change we see.

        The third scenario of replacing Private Label SKUs with more A-brand facings increases the average dollar spend by 2%.

        To wrap it up:

        A seamless consumer experience across all channels is critical for the consumer in 2020 – from your online store to social media communication and in-store presentation, showing up with consistently good materials enables a confident end-of-year season for the channel-hopping consumer. Each touchpoint can impact all others: a good online experience drives even brick and mortar shopping, and vice versa. In a high season like this, contextualized omnichannel research in your biggest ally.

          How to optimize your e-commerce assets

          Posted on by EyeSee Research

          In recent months, we witnessed profound changes in our habits and how we shop – many people are switching to online shopping, even in categories where it was previously neglected, such as groceries and household essentials. With the pandemic still active, many consumers are experiencing very different restrictions in different places across the world. This has presumably affected every aspect of daily life, and it most definitely affected some key shopping categories.

          With ongoing changes, EyeSee’s digital experts have combined their expertise to help you make the most out of your e-commerce presence and answer crucial optimization questions:

          • What are less obvious ways the search bar can make or break the purchase?
          • Which parts of the PDP convert best on which devices?
          • How can brands use their e-commerce insights when negotiating with retailers?

          How did online shopping change?

          Different age groups reported various changes – for example, throughout all study waves, the majority of the population (between 55% and 65%) in their late fifties and older didn’t recognize any changes in their online shopping behavior. In other words, significantly more people in these age categories – specifically those from 55-64 & 65 and older (55-64 & 65+) claimed no change occurred. However, among those whose behavior has changed in this age group, over half of them – 57% – claim they order products online more frequently than before, compared to 48%, which represents the total average for this claim across all waves and age groups.

          What this tells us is that there are new adopters of online shopping, and with those that did try it, their behavior was affected dramatically by this new habit. In a way, those who are new to this might be realizing all the benefits it has both in a crisis like this and in ordinary life.

          Overall, the majority of respondents claim that they will not change their behavior in the next month (41%) – this is the total for all 4 waves. However, among possible changes, more frequent online shopping (1/4) and ordering of non-perishable goods (1/5) take the lead. Bear in mind that these findings are on those who acknowledged existing changes and those who claimed they haven’t changed their shopping behavior so far. Below, we examine how different age groups pick a preferred online retailer.

          Does the search bar make or break the purchase?

          Following the consumer’s footsteps enables the optimization of every step of the online path-to-purchase. With as much as 50% (2/3 on mobile) of all tasks being executed via the search bar, finding the desired product this way is the most commonly used route. On the one hand, this can be great because the desired SKU can be found very quickly, but on the other, if not executed right, e.g. if the autosuggestion changes the input, or if the algorithm is not precise enough, it can make it seem as if there is no desired product in the store and might lead to switching retailers.

          Studies that show you exactly which percentage of people used which route to solve the same task in different stores are precious because you can pinpoint exactly where in the path to purchase you are losing them.

          How does exploration of small and big retailers vary?

          In a previous wave of our E-commerce study, we found that people browse the PLP for a longer time, and scroll deeper than they did before the crisis. With more time on their hands, and on the lookout for the right bargain, brands have a bigger chance of being bought due to this longer browsing. Of course, SKU positioning is the one key factor that makes a difference between being seen (and bought) or not.

          As far as the search bar goes, there are a few more things worth noticing. One of them is the predictive click, or suggested search query completions – this is also very important to optimize, and ensure that your product shows up. If you are not careful about the way the retailer lists or tags your products to appear here, even a slight difference in spelling or naming certain things among markets might be detrimental to your product showing up when it needs to.

          For commonly bought items, respondents always look for the shortest route. These items are usually bought from the Search results page or the Product list page, without even opening the Product detail page. As soon as there is an opportunity to add the product to the cart, it will be used/ If your buyers are aware of you, it is wiser to invest in PLP positioning, hero images that stand out, or even PLP ads – things that can prompt shoppers, rather than only optimizing the PDP and thinking your work is done.

          Which promos are worth optimizing?

          The home page banners and promotions are quite effective at this – presuming they’re optimized and aligned with the need of the consumer. Banners work best if they communicate an offer, or a promotion with a clear benefit for the visitor, instead of some basic information – this fails to garner any interest. If the homepage is cluttered, and if people are overwhelmed with the content, they tend to zone out and not really register the visuals they are looking at. Moreover, PLP banners that promote a specific SKU can boost sales significantly if the SKU is found on the same PLP. These banners are not clicked on often, but they drive sales by reminding people of a product they maybe weren’t aware of at the beginning of their session.

          How does browsing on mobile and desktop contrast?

          It’s important to note that there is a variation in the navigation mindset between mobile and desktop. Usually, shopping from desktop means consumers sat there ready to shop, and they know what they want to find. Use the above the fold section of the PDP to present all the most relevant and most general information and include enough image thumbnails, as people love to see the product from more angles and in multiple settings. The product details should be very specific and concrete, and preferably presented in bullets, or a table, making it more straightforward and quicker to read – interests tends to drop if there is a huge block of text in the description on the PDP.

          Meanwhile, considering that people access mobile more often during the day, with very low effort, and more casually – it is more commonly used more for exploration and browsing. Here, people will more often get to that Product detail page and all the way to the end of this page. This insight presents a great opportunity for brands: use mobile PDPs to tell a story, and build the case for why someone should choose your product.

          How can brands use their e-commerce insights when negotiating with retailers?

          If consumers have a lousy e-commerce search experience, they will give up on the retailer – so this is not only bad for the brand, it is also bad for the retailer since it means the overall shopping level decreases.

          Navigation studies can show where people get lost and pull out of shopping because they can’t complete the task at hand, which is finding a specific SKU. Sometimes it happens due to the page categorization – the way products are organized, or the nomenclature. Based on these insights, brands can go to retailers and ask for a different product classification, especially if we show that it drives sales for the entire category, not just one brand.

          Another negotiation asset is running performance tests on competitor brands and websites. If you can locate where their competitor website facilitates better results, you can go to retailer with these specific and concrete results and ask for a change in an area where their competitor outperforms them. This type of direct benchmarking is better to use in negotiations than a more general descriptive comparison. E-commerce tests are this way often beneficial for multiple parties, not just for the brand we are testing, but for their partner retailers – it is a joint effort for optimization.

          Key takeaways

          • Homepage banners should be clear and communicate promotions
          • PLP banners drive sales if the advertised SKU is present on the page
          • Invest in hero images and search optimization rather than in A+ content on the PDP
          • Optimize mobile pages for browsing (focusing on the PDP) and desktop pages for functionality and visibility of the above the fold areas.
          • Analyze more pages in the online path to purchase: go from the home page, category pages, and search results – all the way to checkout – some precious insights might be hiding in places outside of the product list and detail pages.
          • Combine e-commerce studies with virtual shopping for an omnichannel effectiveness assessment.
          • Investing in the optimization of your online performance is beneficial for your brand, partner retailers, category sales and last, but not least – to your customers.

          If you’re interested in learning more, check out the full webinar session with even more e-commerce tips and findings.

            Online shopping behavior – what COVID-19 changed and how to test it

            Posted on by EyeSee Research

            When it comes to e-commerce, the current pandemic fortified the already booming position of online shopping in the daily life of an average consumer. The past few weeks have seen a big change in behavior, with 48% of consumers increasing their online shopping. But how lasting will these new habits be? What is different now, in comparison to how adopters of online shopping used to behave and experience it before the crisis?

            Check out the full webinar below to learn more about our study and get all the insights!

            This study included 500 respondents split into 2 cells, with each cell exposed to one retailer (Amazon or Walmart) and 4 categories, both food ones (coffee, chocolate and cereals) and one non-food category (cleaning products). They completed 2 eye-tracking & click tasks, which served to determine which products the participants considered and what elements of product pages they found useful.

            The first wave of the study was conducted in June 2019, and the replication study in April 2020.

            Here’s what we found is different, and that could help brands gain a competitive advantage:

            Shoppers saw 36% more products on the PLP than before COVID-19

            Both prior and during the COVID-19 crisis, positioning is crucial for product noticeability, as our study showed that items placed in one of the top 10 positions on a PLP have a 34% higher chance to be noticed. Also, as a rule of thumb, the middle columns of the PLP perform better in terms of visibility than the lateral ones in a grid layout. Overall, a simpler PLP layout that is showcasing fewer products per page, with clear organization, ensures that a greater portion of content will be seen and explored.

            The most significant change in the way respondents behaved was in the time shoppers spend on the retailer’s product list. It is substantially longer – from half a minute on average to almost 50 seconds! Not only is the exploration of product lists prolonged, but the average time spent per product is also higher – 0.17s more, or 11% longer. An extended browsing time brings a higher visibility of PLPs – there’s a significant increase in the number of noticed products.

            Purchase interest stays on a more or less same level – with a slight decrease in some categories (chocolate, cereals), but with leading brands remaining the same among the tested categories.

            Consumers are scrolling further and noticing more on a PDP

            The difference in product detail pages exploration is notable – they were explored for almost 20 seconds longer during the COVID-19 crisis. Respondents also scroll through the page much deeper, ensuring that a more significant portion of the page is seen – nearly 60% of shoppers reach the page end compared to usual ~5% who did in our other tests. This results in twice as many areas seen on a PDP, compared to the usual, pre-COVID browsing.

            The areas above the fold – product image, product name, price, short description & add to cart – remain the most visible and among most useful in reaching a purchase decision. However, some other areas are gaining in importance for shoppers, primarily – suggested products and customer reviews.

            Basket size is the same, but its contents have changed

            Pages for the four categories included in the study were all browsed longer, with coffee and cleaning products keeping the same purchase intent, and chocolates and cereals having a somewhat decreased number of considered products. Lesser-known brands that provide value at a lower price were taken into consideration for both cereal and coffee categories, while the interest for healthy cereal products and ‘greener’ packaging options for coffee increased.

            In contrast, sanitizing properties and convenience of use rule our choices when it comes to cleaning products, while value packs, family, and variety packs that offer a bigger assortment of products at a competitive price in the chocolate category are two tendencies clearly influenced by the ongoing crisis.

            Previous research has shown that, when unaffected by a crisis, consumers notice only a fraction of the products during normal browsing. So what are the ways you can optimize your website to gain a competitive advantage? From an online shopping strategy, or testing shopper behavior on specific websites, to tactical impact studies, know how to choose the right type of study to up your e-commerce game!

            Here are the key takeaways – listen to the full webinar for more insights:

            • Longer browsing time in search for new info and best value during the crisis
            • This might be the right time to optimize your e-commerce strategy and assets
            • Consumer behavior is changing, so change with it!

            Interested in learning more about e-commerce testing? Reach out to us at [email protected]

              Online consumer behavior in a global health crisis: The US vs. Europe

              Posted on by EyeSee Research

              To better understand the ongoing impact of the health crisis, we are conducting a large-scale study tracking shopper and media consumption behavior. Using a combination of survey and RTM, the research is targeting the general population of the United States, France, and Germany – countries heavily affected and currently experiencing different phases in the pandemic cycle.

              EyeSee’s remote model of testing via respondents’ own devices online ensures that the study is conducted completely safely for everyone involved, and provides us with more timely, cost-effective, and relevant insights than traditional central location or in-person testing.

              The study is set up to track the following in the upcoming weeks:

              • consumer pessimism/optimism and recent purchase assessment
              • usage of channels, trust in networks and habits in media consumption
              • frequency and volume of online shopping, choice of retailers, and priority of online purchase needs

              Our research has shown a peculiar thing about human behavior and why measuring it needs to have both implicit and explicit components. When people judge their own behavior, it is quite often different from what we see happening in the real-life. This is why we used RTM tests to feel the ground on the optimism index of these three countries.

              RTM or Reaction time measurement gauges whether the critical info about a product is processed in a split second. It indicates how strong the subconscious connections between brands, products, and specific attributes or statements are. While surveys measure consumer attitudes by focusing on rational, explicit opinions, RTM captures the implicit, emotional certainty of the stated attitude. Learn more about RTM here.

              We asked the following questions to assess the consumer optimism index: How do you expect your personal/ family financial outlook to be? How do you expect your country’s financial outlook to be? How do you expect the coronavirus health situation to develop?

              Shaky optimism in the US – no one is sure of what the future holds

              Our study shows that in general, uncertainty is high (around 60%), with the most optimists in the US (21%), and the most pessimists in Germany (28%).

              When it comes to the personal financial situation, most people predict it will remain the same, while 39% of French and German respondents think it will get worse, and the former being more certain of it. A third of Americans even believe it will get better. What about the financial situations in the countries? With a higher speed of their RTM response and thus higher certainty, both France and Germany believe it will get worse. In perspective, this might affect their price sensitivity and willingness to spend.

              Another curiosity is that more than half of French respondents say they believe the situation with Coronavirus will get better in their country, and yet are very uncertain of it. This might have to do with the way they gather information. Around 29% of French respondents rely on official media sources such as the WHO website, compared to the US at 30% and 39% of Germans.

              Cost of healthcare biggest concern in the US

              Concerning what they are most worried about, the results vary due to the differences in the scope of the welfare state. These T2B results could serve to paint an image of the spread of an attitude: the Germans and French are most worried about the epidemic, while in the US, this is topped by the worry about the cost of healthcare. When it comes to its intensity, with 52% of the French sample saying they are a great deal worried about the coronavirus situation, it is clear how much it occupies the consumers right now.

              Aside from the pandemic, which all three samples are apprehensive about, another significant difference is that the German respondents are far less worried about all other issues, such as the cost of healthcare, crime, inflation, recession, and corruption, than their French and American counterparts.

              In a mode of intense local crisis, it is hard to worry about the global issues that are usually a part of the public domain and discussion. However, there are some outliers: besides the Pandemic, 79% of the French respondents say they are worried about both climate change and environmental pollution. Typically, we can’t worry about issues that are too abstract during a time of pressing crisis. However, it will be a precedent if COVID 19 sparks a trend of thinking about topics such as these with more vigor and treating them like the genuinely global problems they are.

              Food and household: US carts grow bigger, while EU tightens belts up

              What is universally agreed upon is what activities and aspects of their life will change: local and global travel, eating out, and entertainment and events are the areas that over 90% of all three samples will either decrease or stop doing.

              On the other hand, when it comes to shopping, Americans are the ones who plan to increase shopping for food and beverages and household essentials – which is something we’ve already witnessed in the past weeks. The European part of the sample expects to restrain their spending in these two areas as well, with French cutting their spending the most, and Germans more likely to stop an activity, rather than decrease spending in it.

              Change in online habits stronger in Europe

              The French have already changed their online habits in the past two weeks – the pandemic already influenced changes in 31% of the respondents’ shopping behavior. In the US and Germany, 22% have done so. And in which ways? Everyone started buying more non-perishable and locally produced goods, with Americans stocking up on over-the-counter medicine, larger packs and multipacks, and Germans increasing the frequency of online shopping, in tune with the health recommendations.

              Additionally, free delivery and low prices are the main drivers when selecting an online retailer for over 50% of both US and EU consumers. Add to that fast delivery and enough supplies in stock as the second round of key features, with speed being particularly crucial to 52% of Germans.

              In the past two weeks, 52% of Germans started ordering online more frequently than before, with 32% of Americans, and 22% of French claiming the same. When it comes to the next month, most people (around 60%) say they will not change their online behavior. Still, 18% of Germans say they will order online more frequently, along with 15% of Americans and the French.

              Learn more about E-commerce testing.

              TV is still the (trusted) king

              Nearly 80% of all study participants get most of their information about the ongoing outbreak on TV, followed by talking to friends and family and social media – proving that in the media, a global strategy is likely to do well in different markets. It is interesting to notice that in a time like this, we turn to what we know the best – mass channels such as TV, and the people we trust. Social media is a double-edged sword – it is both useful in keeping us connected during social distancing, and comes with the caveat of spreading fake news.

              Around 30% of them used official websites of the World Health Organization, Center for Disease Control, and the European Center for Disease Prevention and control – here, the Germans rely on the official sources the most of the three countries, and the French the least.

              Learn more about TVC testing here.

              Main takeaways

              In tune with the stage of the outbreak in each country, and some cultural differences aside, we can say that there are many similarities between the three samples. Here’s the rundown:

              • Shaky optimism with impact on Food and household: US carts grow bigger, while EU tightens belts up The perception of behavior lags the actual practice, and we will have a better picture of it in the coming weeks.
              • Cost of healthcare is the biggest concern in the US – more people worry about it than about the pandemic itself. Everyone is apprehensive, with some variations in the outlook depending on the welfare systems – but the overarching feeling is uncertainty about the future.
              • Change in online habits stronger in Europe – people started ordering online more frequently An average of 36% of respondents report ordering online more frequently in the last two weeks. This might be an excellent time to feel out the needs of the consumers because what happens now might be the new normal once the crisis starts to ebb.

              In unpredictable times like these, we have an opportunity to deepen our understanding of the consumer and the complexity surrounding their daily choices. We will continue to monitor and report on the situation, merging both the explicit and implicit methods to understand behavior in a global health crisis.

              Stay tuned for more insights as the situation develops.

              Interested in learning more? Check out our webinar on the topic.

                Award-winning framework for more effective e-commerce testing

                Posted on by EyeSee Research

                With e-commerce expected to grow to nearly double by 2023 to more than $6.5 billion globally, it gives rise to new opportunities for brands to be competitive. However, market research in the online domain is still in its early stages, with brands often opting for a much wider variety of research questions and a lack of focus in comparison to brick-and-mortar studies.

                So, how to set up the e-commerce testing approach with actual impact? Our collaboration with Microsoft was recognized in the highly competitive category as the Global Market Research project of the year at the Marketing Research and Insight Excellence Awards by Quirk’s last November.

                Based on this successful collaboration, Sanja Cickaric, EyeSee’s leading expert on UX and e-commerce  shared takeaways and 3 steps for testing your online platform more effectively:

                Step 1: Choose the level of the study and invest in the bottom-up approach (start with tactical, and then address strategy), which willprovideyou with have quick wins that demonstrate impact to your stakeholders.

                Step 2: Combine the right conventional (survey) and behavioral (eye tracking, virtual shopping) methods to increase the predictability by up to 30%.

                Step 3: Test in-context on a (mockup of a) specific website  

                Check out the full guide:

                  Behavioral insights for 20/20 vision: Mastering channels and platforms

                  Posted on by EyeSee Research

                  For the end of 2019, we compiled a list of most valuable behavioral insights that will give you a clear view in 2020. These insights are platform- and channel-specific, making them highly actionable and tailored to the environment in which you are operating. Read on for the best of our knowledge built up by examining various shopper, social media, and e-commerce solutions.

                  Top 5 behavioral insights for 2020, by channel:

                  1. Brick-and-mortar

                  Stated purchase intent overestimates actual purchase behavior by 25% to 70%

                  Let’s get back to the self-evident basics – what consumers say is not always what they actually do. This is a part of what makes us human and how our brains are wired – we are biased when making assumptions about the future, and very often overly optimistic when claiming that we would try or buy a product. When we get to an actual store, our behavior is influenced by a million other factors, and we often make purchase decisions in a split second, powered by our System 1 thinking. In a traditional research setup, e.g., a focus group or a survey, we can take our time and use our System 2 thinking to formulate the right decision and opinion.

                  That is where behavioral research steps in – it allows us to bypass all the pitfalls of decision-making and get to the hard-wired behaviors, as shown by our gaze patterns, facial expressions, and quick reactions.

                  Knowing this, you won’t be surprised by the fact that the stated purchase intent is wildly overestimated in comparison to shopping behavior in front of a virtual shelf in some of the studies we conducted. Using purchase intent as a vital KPI when measuring the potential success of your product is unreliable and risky.

                  We believe that purchase intent should be measured in a relevant context with real products. If you rely on asking people about their intent, they might overestimate the chances of buying the product by 70% – this doesn’t sound like a very good metric to base business decisions on.

                  On the other hand, studies have shown that virtual shopping has a very high and reliable correlation with real, in-store data by Nielsen – as high as 0.8. Virtual shopping and other implicit methods are much more reliable in assessing the true potential of your products or marketing materials.

                  Be wary of what consumers say – it’s what they do that counts.

                  2. Twitter

                  6 seconds – enough time to get a message across in a Twitter ad

                  Recent studies have shown that video ads are incredibly compelling – they can create brand impact in a matter of seconds after playing. Our mobile advertising study for Twitter found that short-form, clearly branded, sound-off videos, significantly improve ad recall and message association.

                  Based on the results of our study, Twitter has recently introduced a completely new ad format – biddable six-second video ads. In it, advertisers will only be charged after their ad is viewed for at least six seconds, with at least 50% of the pixels, effectively ensuring they pay only for the genuinely interested viewers. This is another exciting format innovation from the team at Twitter, who are continuously exploring unforced and serendipitous ways to help the users get promoted content that matters to them.

                  How do you optimize your ads to make the most of Twitter’s platform?

                  Make the content clearly branded – tweets with both the logo and brand included generated 13% more buyers. Additionally, mentioning the brand in the post copy, AND using a product shot in the footage also increased purchase intent. When it comes to the position of the logo, we found that the upper left corner (the one closest to the avatar/user name/profile pic) works the best for boosting recall.

                  3. Facebook

                  In-context social media testing is far superior to forced exposure

                  It is not easy to grab the attention of ad-avoidant consumers of the digital era. We are always surrounded by a slew of messages and visuals – which is why showing a standalone, full-length ad during advertising testing is just not going to cut it. Why? Aside from a delayed and conscious ad assessment, this approach entails forced exposure of the tested material to the consumer. A critical precondition to evaluating ads is checking if they manage to reach the consumer and get noticed in its natural environment, to begin with.

                  If the visibility for a tested post is 100% in standalone mode with a 30% visibility of the brand name in the last few seconds of the video, and the same ad has an 80% in-context visibility, you can expect that the brand will be 20% less visible in this case as well. If you only test in standalone mode, you might get useful information about the later parts of your ad – but the fact is that most people don’t get past the first 1-3 seconds of the ad. Forced exposure can often provide you with overly optimistic insights.

                  Testing in context is vital, and settling for less-than-convincing testing environments will soon become a thing of the past. We should strive to get testing conditions as close to reality as possible. So far, we have two great options: simulated social media feeds, and ad insertion in the respondent’s own feed. Our study shows the two methods yield the same insights, regardless of the difference in browsing behaviors: users browse slightly faster through their own feeds than through simulated ones. Still, both testing environments delivered the same conclusion on the tested ads, supporting the other method’s accuracy with findings.

                  A cherry on top: Ads on the top of the feed have significantly higher attention

                  Another thing this study shows us is that the position of the tested post in the feed makes for quite a big difference. Ads positioned near the top of the feed have substantially higher visibility – this is expected and makes sense. Curiously, aside from higher visibility, the ads on top of the feed also had higher attention – 4.6 seconds vs. 3.4 seconds for the last ad in the feed – meaning the quality of the interaction with the ad was higher. Posts that were on the second position in the feed had a visibility of 94%, posts that were on the seventh position 89%, while 75% of viewers saw the posts positioned as the 12th in a row. For us, this is important to keep in mind and vary in our environment design to ensure the highest standards and accuracy of our methodology. Since we can test multiple ads in a single test, we need to make sure we account for the influence of their positioning. However, the advertiser’s industry can also affect this – for example, ads for travel services had below-average attention and visibility even on the top spot in the feed.

                  More interestingly, though, is will Facebook find another way to monetize this insight? Higher visibility means Facebook’s algorithm ensures the number of impressions by moving certain posts higher up in the feed – but higher attention is vital for advertisers as well. Finding another way to secure a top spot in the feed for a certain period would be a win for brands and the platform alike – we have Twitter’s successful First view ad format to prove it. Although there are considerable differences between the two platforms, we feel that this data speaks for itself. The sooner people see the post when scrolling, the more people will notice it, spend more time looking at it, and recall the brand better.

                  4. YouTube

                  The ratio of skippers vs. watchers on pre-roll videos is around 80:20

                  We recently developed a contextual testing solution specifically for YouTube ads – this enabled us to look into how people engage emotionally and interact with pre- and mid-roll advertisements on the platform. As you already guessed, our study confirmed what we all assume – most people click the skip button as soon as they get the chance. Almost 80% of viewers skip the ad at some point. We were curious to learn more about watching behavior and find ways to combat the intimidating stats. On average, only 20% of watchers continued watching the video in entirety, and 53% of the video’s length was watched.

                  What can you do about this? 

                  Use lively and uplifting music and present innovative claims throughout the video. Try to hook the viewers, primarily focusing on the seconds right before the skip button appears. More than half of viewers skip the ad in the first two seconds after the button shows up, so try to boost interest during those seconds – even though 5 seconds sounds short, in video ad real estate, that is just enough time to convey the main message. Also, for boosting brand recall, make the brand name or logo visible right off the bat.

                  When it comes to pre- and mid-roll ads, YouTube has a different set of practices when compared to other, scrollable platforms. People who watch content on YouTube are mostly quite motivated to stay on the page for the duration of the ad to access the content they are interested in. On the other hand, ads on Facebook might make people give up on the content they meant to watch if they have to wait for it, only by scrolling past it. Advertisers should keep this in mind and try to make their ads as relevant to the audience. In those few seconds, before the button appears, they have a considerable chance to arouse interest and keep people watching. After all, if their attention is stuck to the flow of the video, it is as easy as not clicking anything.

                  5. Amazon

                  PLP ads on top of the page significantly increase the visibility of the same SKU in the list

                  We test 40 e-commerce sites a year, and there is one curious insight we came across this year while conducting a comparative study of 3 retailers across 4 categories. To make sure we cover different consumer decision strategies, we’ve included non-food and food categories, and to break it down even further, some of them are impulsive (e.g., chocolate), and some are habitual (cereals, coffee).

                  We explored how different elements of the retailer’s pages influence shopping behavior, and additionally, how ads found on PLP pages affect the performance of advertised SKUs. Knowing that only a small fraction – 2% of people – end up clicking on the ad itself, we wondered, is it worth placing an advertisement on PLP pages? Are the ads even seen at all, or is there banner blindness? What is the impact of the position of the ad?

                  Although almost no one clicks on the ads, they do influence shoppers in another way. The way this happens is that the ads subconsciously drive interest in the advertised product, which then gets purchased on its primary position, i.e. the list.

                  However, this does not work for all products and all categories equally. An uplift in brand purchase can be as high as 40% for different categories, but as low as non-existent for others. We found that if the SKU/product shown in the ad is also available on the list, shoppers are significantly more likely to buy it.

                  If the communicated SKU is not available on the list (but other representatives of the brand are), the purchase interest might not be affected. Ads at the top of the pages were seen on average 3.9 seconds while ads on the side positions are seen for 1.3 seconds.

                  Aside from this, there are several other benefits of product list pages that include ads: users browse lists with ads 20% longer than their ad-free counterparts. Online shoppers see 10% more products overall on pages that contain ads, and as a result, there is a 14% increase in product purchase interest.

                  Conclusion

                  Regardless of the channel or platform, it is essential to explore the implicit effects they have on your target audiences. Some of these insights are universal to our day and age and work on more than one platform – for example, short-form videos work better on both Facebook and Twitter. Likewise, contextualized testing has the upper hand on both of them in comparison to standalone testing. However, to master them thoroughly, we suggest having separate research strategies and approaches to testing the performance of your product on the ones that have the highest ROI for your business.

                  This list is just a fraction of the curious and diverse batch of insights we discover in each of our studies – use them in 2020 for a sharp vision of each medium.

                    From Zero to Hero: Understand behavioral e-commerce testing

                    Posted on by EyeSee Research

                    E-commerce is growing at an unprecedented rate all over the world and giving rise to new opportunities for brands to be competitive. Market research in the online domain is still in its early stages, with brands often opting for a much wider variety of research questions and a lack of focus in comparison to brick-and-mortar studies. Although all research questions are legitimate, clients tend to fall into the trap of wanting to test everything; from strategic to tactical, online path to purchase to specific content, and other. The result of which is too broad, only scratching the surface on many KPIs, with very little actual impact.

                    So, how should you approach structuring the questions for more effective research? In general, we find there are 3 levels of studies:

                    • Level 1 – online shopper strategy including motivations and full journeys (who, which sites visited, and why)
                    • Level 2 – online shopper behavior for specific website: how do shoppers navigate the site; which pages are visited; and what are key shopper marketing assets
                    • Level 3 – Tactical impact studies for optimized shopper marketing assets (that apply for most websites): what are the best practices for the shopper marketing assets (e.g. online package design) to maximize the impact on purchase decisions

                    Typically, the 3 levels demand a different research methodology framework. Surveys will suffice for Level 1 (online shopper strategy), while for Level 2 and Level 3 (shoppers’ behavior on a specific website and tactical impact studies), a combination with behavioral methods is required. Furthermore, the Level 3 study requires a design experiment (e.g., A/B/C test of package design or ads) to understand the impact on sales uplift.

                    Level 1: Testing online path-to-purchase and strategy

                    The key questions for online path-to-purchase studies boil down to who buys online, and why? Which websites did they visit? Which phases in the shopping journey did they go through? Where do they eventually purchase, and for which reasons? Within this level, it is also possible to explore who is close to buying and what would convert them.

                    To dig deeper into the research questions, here’s a breakdown for an example product:

                    Level 2: Testing online shopping behavior

                    The key question is how shoppers shop on specific online retailers and what are the opportunities to influence their purchase decision. Moreover, which pages do they visit, how do they interact with them, and what is essential in facilitating a purchase decision? Typically, shoppers are not good at recalling their behavior – therefore, to obtain good data, their behavior needs to be measured (clicks, navigation, gaze…) in context.

                    Most frequently, we test on the key online shops such as Amazon, Walmart, and Target; for pet food producers – Chewy; for electronics and tech – Best Buy, etc. We mainly focus on 4 areas: website navigation (search/navigation/filters), product list page, product detail page, and ads. Optionally, the check out as well.

                    Here is what you should explore to get the most out of online sales: 

                    Level 3: Tactical impact studies for optimized shopper marketing assets

                    The key goal is to maximize the impact of crucial shopper marketing assets such as online package designs, PLPs, and PDPs. We know that getting your product image and the PDP right is vital for conversion. Once you have that under control and leverage as much as you can, then start testing ways to increase the traffic to your category online.

                    So, what’s the best way to approach e-commerce testing?

                    Firstly, pick the level of your study: online strategy, shopper behavior, or tactical impact studies. There are two ways to approach this: top-bottom (strategy to tactical) or bottom-up (making sure your ads, product image, and PDP work first).

                    Although it might sound logical to follow a top-down strategy, the bottom-up approach might be the best: you will have quick wins that demonstrate impact to your stakeholders, and these studies are the easiest. Certain marketing assets are essential on all sites (e.g., online package design), so you don’t need to have the info of higher-level studies. Investing this way will ensure you get results faster and provide you with leverage to dig even deeper into strategic questions.

                    Secondly, depending on the research level you pick, combine the right conventional and behavioral methods. The complementary mixed-method approach will provide you with +30% higher predictive insights and an understanding of the full picture.

                    Lastly, pick an appropriate specific retail website to test on and make sure to test in context. Being able to expose respondents to testing environments that are visually and functionally the closest to the actual retail website ensures a higher correlation with real purchase behavior.

                    Interested in testing your e-commerce solutions? Reach out to us via [email protected]

                      EyeSee demystifies behavioral insights on Envoyé special

                      Posted on by EyeSee Research

                      [Watch the entire episode below]

                      Last month, EyeSee was featured in Envoyé Spécial – one of the most-watched television programs in France. The show discussed behavioral research methods and their huge impact on advertising evaluation.

                      Jean-François Sonder, Director of Business Development & Global Clients at EyeSee demonstrated our remote eye tracking and facial coding solution to journalist Laure Delalex:

                      As most consumers decide what to buy subconsciously in a matter of seconds, he further elaborated on the value of understanding purchase decisions using subconscious methods:

                      The influence implicit measurements have on companies using market research nowadays is enormous. Envoyé Spécial’s journalist added that “Facial coding is revolutionizing marketing research. Today, more than 60% of the major brands have become addicted to it. It allows you to test hundreds of people at the same time with one click. It costs half as much as traditional surveys”.

                      EyeSee’s segment starting from 05.27.

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