You may have spotted a gap in the calendar for ‘Web Analytics Wednesday’ in London over the summer months as the SCL team takes a well earned break. This has led to the perfect opportunity for Logan Tod & Co to host our very first WAW. The event will take place on the 1st September at London’s Jetlag bar on Cleveland Street W1, from 6.00pm with the presentation starting at 6.30pm.
Please do join us for a free drink, and to hear ‘The Lessons Logan Tod Has Learnt’ during a presentation hosted by our Head of Insight Adrian Nash and Principal Consultant Matthew Banks. We aim to distil our best practice into an informative talk covering key insights from previous work, plus our thoughts on what the future holds for web analytics. We really hope you can join us.

Click here to register now. Click here to view venue map.

My background is varied and so, to the outside observer, online may not seem like an obvious choice for me. After studying chemistry at university I qualified as a chartered accountant in the Banking & Capital Markets division of PriceWaterhouseCoopers. My clients were principally niche funds and hedge funds which sparked my interest in the financial markets. After leaving PwC I took a year off to formulate my own investment strategies before joining Vodafone to model the savings achievable from the outsourcing of their IT function.

In late 2006, after reading one of Richard Russell’s famous Dow Theory Letters, I realised that operating on the Web offers many advantages over traditional bricks and mortar companies and decided to design, build and launch my own website. In his letter, Russell describes the twelve elements of an ideal business. I consolidated a couple of them to cut the list down to ten and here’s what I would like you to do – as you run through the list of ideal company “ingredients” below, cross-reference them against the online/digital channel…

Ingredients of the Ideal Business

1. The ideal business sells to the world, rather than a single locality

The greater the reach, the greater the potential for growth and ballooning revenue. Exposure to global markets also acts to diversify your income streams between regions and currencies, which has certainly been helpful during the latest series of financial crises. A business which is able to cross borders and take advantage of evolving global trends will always outperform competitors constrained to a particular locality.

2. The ideal business does not require big cash outlays or major investments in equipment

If you can create a business which requires little capital to set up and run you will have a distinct advantage over those with heavy overheads, especially during lean times. But beware, low start up costs also increase the risk that you will be swamped by competitors and copycats. If you provide a unique product offering, as discussed in (7), potential competitors will have to work harder to dent your competitive advantage.

3. The ideal business has minimal labour requirements and enjoys low overhead

The ideal business requires proportionately fewer staff, has no requirement for an expensive location, large amounts of electricity, advertising, legal advice, high-priced employees, large inventory, etc. Many great companies have grown from a tiny basement or garage office. Nowadays there are increasing number of “virtual companies” which consist of a few executives who have outsourced all of their manufacturing and services to external companies.

Take a look at this interview with Tim Ferris of http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog. The entire interview is fascinating, but from the 50 minute mark he discusses his virtual assistant…

4. The ideal business is portable or easily moveable

Easy for the “virtual corporation” to action. Work from home or work from your local Starbucks while enjoying a Mocha Frapuccino!

5. The ideal business is one in which your income is not limited by your personal output

If you earn an hourly, daily, weekly or monthly salary, your income is limited by the number of hours you can work in a day. In the ideal business you can sell to 10,000 customers as easily as you sell one.

6. The ideal business offers a product which enjoys an “inelastic” demand

Products which people need or desire regardless of price experience inelastic demand. Often this tends to be rare and expensive materials which are used only in small quantities, such as rare earth metals in electronic equipment. But it can have other interpretations also, certainly my wife would argue that the latest pair of Jimmy Choo’s exhibit inelastic demand (she needs and desires them regardless of price!).

7. The ideal business sells a product which cannot be easily substituted or copied

Perhaps copyrighted or patented product offerings. Also consider news or information about a particular niche market.

8. The ideal business enjoys cash billings

Your cash is not tied up for long periods with complex credit terms.

9. The ideal business is relatively free of all kinds of government and industry regulations

We can but dream!

10. The ideal business satisfies your intellectual needs

Does an Ideal Business Exist?

Continuing with my own experience: After reading the above I set about creating a business that would satisfy as many of the above criteria as I could. Using my background in the financial markets I launched a macroeconomic investment website (1. global reach), which has a successful track record of predicting invstment trends (7. cannot be easily copied). I designed and built the website myself (3. minimal labour) using a single laptop (2. low capital outlay) and frequently work from Starbucks (4. portability). The website challenges me daily (10. satisfies intellectual needs) to optimise SEO and search engine marketing, to provide great content, to ensure that my designs are user-centric and to run A/B and multivariate testing in order to evolve on a continuous basis. Importantly, this limited amount of output allows me to communicate my views to the entire globe (5. income not limited by personal output) and income is received from affiliate agencies on a timely basis (8. cash not tied up for long periods).

As you can see, there are two components missing: I don’t offer a product with inelastic demand and I am not free from government regulation. But I got close. So the question is: “does an ideal business exist out there?” If it does, I bet it is an online business.

By Philip Bolt

OK, so you’re looking to buy a shiny new iPhone 4. But is it worth the money?

The much vaunted new phone from Apple is now available for you to buy over the counter. But be prepared – it isn’t cheap. It may have Video calling, HD video playback and an extra high resolution screen but regardless of which route you opt for – Pay & Go, SIM only or Contract – it will cost you a pretty penny to own the latest ‘must-have-toy’.

In the UK, Orange, Vodafone, Tesco Mobile, O2 and 3 have released their prices with options on Pay as you go, Monthly and SIM only deals. The total cost of ownership for a 32GB iphone 4 will total over £1000 on a 24 month contract but that should not stop you from considering the phone itself – it’s getting rave reviews.

Specification
The iPhone 4 offers the biggest ‘jump’ in spec (in comparison with say 3G to 3GS). And this was perhaps one of the reasons why many 3G owners decided not to upgrade to the 3GS initially and waited it out for the iPhone 4 instead.

This waiting game may prove to be the right move as the new iPhone boasts a massively revamped (Retina) display (doubly the pixel density usually seen on this type of device), 5MP camera (with Flash) and front facing camera along with a noticeable boost in speed.

Interestingly, there has been no improvement on the flash storage capacity with the iPhone 4 still being offered in 16GB or 32GB versions. Battery size and life has been improved on the iPhone 4 however – and this enhancement will prove useful given the emergence of the new iOS 4 with multi-tasking.

Look and Feel
The iPhone 4 has got a whole new look and sleek lines abound in this new design – with custom glass and stainless steel edging making the phone 24% thinner than the 3GS. The plastic casing has disappeared completely – and the glass used in the iPhone is said to be the same type used on high speed trains.

Overall, the look of the phone now is transformed and the stainless steel band around the edge of the phone will also give it some resilience against being dropped.

Features
Whilst many of the new features (multi-tasking etc) sound impressive, they are also be available on the 3GS (with the iOS4 launch) – so from a pure functionality point of view if you aren’t in the market to be doing a load of video calling or making movies using the HD video production features – then you may want to stay put.  However, if you currently have another type of older Smartphone and you are coming to the end of your contract then the iPhone 4 is definitely worthwhile.

Price
Nowadays price is one of the key drivers when buying anything. There are plenty of deals to be had on the new iPhone and if you’re in the lucky position of just coming to the end of your current contract then you are in the perfect bargaining position for an upgrade. Cost of ownership is the key measurement to consider – you can either pay up front for a lower overall monthly fee or pay less initially and pay more monthly – the key thing to consider is how quickly you can upgrade the next time.

Tesco Mobile is offering an almost unheard of 12 month contract which means that if you‘re prepared to pay between £229 to £429 outright you could be free of your contract by the time the iphone 5 is being rolled out!

The Competition
So how does the iPhone 4 hold up against the competition? Well if we take three other popular models from competitors across the pond in the US – Droid Incredible, EVO 4G and Google Nexus One we can see that the iPhone 4 does not fare well across all categories.

Where it does win hands down is when comparing the Visual Display (almost twice competitor display resolution). On the down side the iPhone does not have flash compatibility or a MicroSD slot to expand storage (the other three do). The rear camera of the iPhone 4 has one of the lower specs with 5MP – Droid and EVO have 8MP with autofocus. Also the iPhone does not have FM radio as standard.

Overall
So is the iPhone worth the money? It depends. Overall the new iPhone truly offers a steep upward improvement in terms of technology, processing speed and design. If you are a 3G owner nearing the end of your contract then the iPhone 4 is a no brainer. If you are like me, a proud owner of a recently upgraded 3GS then it may be worth your while to sit tight and see what deals come your way further into the future.

Now compare this to another food delivery service (who shall remain nameless). The delivery time slot came and went. Not a word. I had to phone the company to ask them where my order was. They couldn’t get hold of the driver. Finally it arrives an hour and a half late and some of the items have been mixed up with another order. As the driver has left I have to call up the company again to say my order has been mixed up with someone else’s. They eventually get hold of him and he returns to pick up the incorrect items and deliver the correct ones. The reason was, he said rather grumpily, that he was a stand-in driver and he ‘just delivers the bags’. To add salt into an ever deepening wound, my Gillette Fusion razors were replaced with a pack of Gillette for Women Venus Divine Razor Blades!

The interesting thing about these two experiences is that it took very little for the first experience to be perceived as a delightful experience and for the second to be well…distressing. I’ve since used Ocado many times with different drivers and each one of them embodies the same quality of service. The service has very obviously been designed to delight the customer and it shows.

What can we learn from these experiences? The basic entry level requirements for site usability, features and functionality are currently such that businesses will need to look beyond the site itself in order to start delighting customers and delivering differentiation. What could you bring to your customer experience that would delight them? It doesn’t have to be fancy, gimmicky or grandiose. It could be something that takes the worry or concern away from your customers. It could be a surprise that you package in with your delivery. It could be educating your call centre staff so that they are all empowered to deal with customer queries from start to finish.

Zappos, the US based store, has a set of ten brand values – the first of which states ‘At Zappos, anything worth doing is worth doing with WOW’.  In fact, they never leave you in doubt as to where the core focus lies – delighting the customer. They care. I read a delightful story that Zappos didn’t have a particular pair of shoes a customer was after. The Zappos representative proceeded to call other local stores, even if they were competitors, to ask if they stocked the shoe. Now that’s service! You can read about the other Zappos brand values here.

Simple things really can delight your customers. What could you as an eCommerce business start doing today that would WOW your customers?

Eschewing the enthusiasts 6:30 start,  our day began at 8:30 on a chilly Clapham Common, followed by a sociable but rather too leisurely, sheer-weight-of-traffic, crawl through Sarf London. In Carshalton, the first open pub proved an irresistible draw for Matt and Vitor, with Mark ordering his customary performance enhancing drug,  double espresso.

As urbanisation receded, the pace quickened and the HiPPOs fragmented into the peletons and pant alongs, progress broken up by hot-dog breaks and traffic jams through some pretty Sussex villages. Before we knew it the infamous Ditchling Beacon climb loomed before each of us, to be conquered only by those who had trained hard – Steve! –  and those who had enough gears (Andy).  A fast descent into Brighton saw most of us arrive saddle-sore but happy at around the 6 hour mark. Matthew and Phil, having been held up in a road closure, arrived an hour or so later, in plenty of time for beer, picnic and Frisbee on the beach, thanks to the support crew.

A fantastic day all round, we raised some £2,500 thanks to the generous support of friends, clients and colleagues. A big thank you to those who encouraged and sponsored us.

If you’d like to sponsor us you can still do so by visiting our page at Just Giving.

I did work experience at Logan Tod from 25^th to 28^th May during my school holidays. I was really excited before starting my work experience because I didn’t know what the week would be like and what would happen. Would people be friendly to me? Would I be able to fulfil the tasks given to me even though I’m not an expert with computers? But when I entered the office I felt welcome at once and I forgot all my worries. I was introduced to many people, I got my own desk, my own laptop and Mark Pinkerton as my mentor (he is one of the consultants at Logan Tod & Co).

Mark worked together with me for this week. My task was to compare German retailers’ websites and some French retailers’ websites, to work out what’s different from the British ones (I’m an expert in taking screenshots now) and to make a presentation on it. I was really nervous about that – a presentation in a foreign language in a subject that was new to me. But they encouraged me and nobody worried too much about my mistakes (at least they didn’t tell me!).

The main thing I learnt about the different retailers is that German retailers send out product with an invoice and they also do “cash on delivery” as both of these are the normal way to do things in Germany. The French & English retailers are more likely to use credit cards.

Though work was sometimes slightly tiring I enjoyed every single day and I’m really sad that this time is already over. It was the third time I did a work experience but it was the first time in another country, speaking another language and it was the first time I felt really, really welcome. I love the atmosphere at Logan Tod because everyone is so friendly to each other, it seems like all of them are friends and not only colleagues. You get help whenever you have a problem; that makes it a lot easier to work here.

People at Logan Tod are working really hard to satisfy their clients and to do the best for them, but still they’re never unkind and morose. Even though I only stayed one week I already have the feeling of having learnt a lot (I’m not only talking about the new English business vocabulary) and the feeling of being allowed to return anytime. I will definitely never forget this week and I will always look back with a feeling of happiness and satisfaction. I want to thank everybody for making this work experience possible, for making such a big effort and for taking care of me so much!

While a twenty minute session can never do justice to a site, or highlight all the areas that could be improved, it did flag up the issue of the all important first impression. With the exception of all but one (major retailer) all of the sites I looked at could benefit in varying degrees from paying closer attention to the messages they are conveying to users in those first few moments. As a survey reported by the BBC in 2006 stated, “you may have as little as one 20th of a second to make an impression.”

The layout and design play an important part in those first few seconds. Does this site look trustworthy? Does this company have what I need/want? What is this company offering me? You can address these issues by having a clear and simple layout, with intuitive navigation, special offers and persuasive and motivational messaging. Remember also to include a short descriptive strap line near the top of the page that says exactly what you do. One of the job sector participants, for example, has the strap line ’Our job is searching for your job’. Perfect.

Your delivery costs, delivery time frame and returns policy all contribute to the user’s perception of your brand. Companies still appear to undersell themselves by hiding key brand and purchase proposition messages way down in the site structure. Yet these are factors that could make the difference between someone remaining a prospect rather than becoming a customer – these are all part of your USP, part of your story. A major brand retailer does this very well by showing their delivery proposition at the top of the homepage, as opposed to another company who provided free UK delivery yet buried this in the ‘About us’ section.

The language and messaging you use is critical to ensuring the user knows that they are in the right place and that you have the products or services they want. It’s important to talk in the language of your customer and avoid internal speak. Keep the language clear and concise and focus on the benefits your product or service provides to your customers.

Whilst this session with Google looked purely at front end improvements, it’s vital to look at your web analytics data to see what’s really going on and where to focus your improvement plans. Ploughing on with design and interface changes without looking at the data can lead to purely subjective changes based on personal opinion rather than from insight gained from the analytics. After all, you may end up changing something that’s already working really well! The combination of using the qualitative and quantative data can also be a good catalyst for convincing senior staff and board members that change is necessary.

Finally, no website should be considered a fait accompli. Keep brainstorming and testing different elements and messaging on your site. Got an idea for a different label for a button? Not sure whether one image will work better than another? By testing different elements and monitoring the results you’ll definitely be on the right path to improving your site.

This year we invited client Martin Smith from Premier Inn to join Matthew on the stage. The topic this year: Is Measuring Your Conversion Rate Pointless? As always Matthew kept the room alive with stories such as one from the Logan Tod early days, when a typical day consisted of a 999 call to the office with a client in panic mode because “their conversion rate had dropped 0.5%!” Cue Matthew, briefcase in hand, off to said client’s office to try to work out why this terrible event had occurred! 

Eight years on, and over 150 clients later and Matthew’s presentation at the summit gave a slightly different picture… 

1. The secret life of the average conversion rate 

The Secret Life of the Conversion Rate

This chart demonstrates that the Average Conversion Rate is impacted by too many factors to make it useful. This slide prompted a few funny tweets! 

2. Average Conversion Rate masks good business results, for example 

Average Conversion Rates mask good business results

In this example the average conversion rate is the WORST descriptor of the success of this online business! So why are we still measuring it? 

3. Matthew showed that your Average Conversion Rate is useless for benchmarking by using the Comscore Top converting sites data. 

4. The growth in internet access is adding to the complexity of tracking and making conversion rate even less useful 

The growth in access is also adding to the complexity

This chart demonstrates that the growth in multi channel purchasing journeys means that conversion rates cannot reflect consumer behaviour. 

5. So Conversion Rate has no diagnostic value when looked at in isolation. 

But it’s not all bad news. Whilst there’s no other single better metric Matthew went on to describe ways in which you can use some approaches which will help: 

• Use your web metrics to support the fundamentals of acquiring more customers and generating more revenue from existing customers
• Micro conversion rates are useful if they can be managed and improved
• Compare your Average Conversion rate to your “No-Change Conversion rate to see the real difference you are making

The presentation ended in a lively debate with the resulting conclusion that your average conversion rate is not a valid KPI; there are just too many issues to make it useful as a standalone metric and there is so much more you can do that is more impactful!

So, here we are with the London to Brighton Bike Ride Fundraiser Challenge fast approaching.  We have 7 entrants racing for Logan Tod and we can feel the competitive ambience building throughout the office as we draw closer and closer to the race day.

We have the following candidates racing:

Matthew Tod –After a relaxing holiday plus an extra and undesirable 3 day extension to scramble his way back to the UK, Matthew is going to find it difficult to squeeze training into his busy regime.  First Aiders beware!

Andy James – Will definitely be one to watch out for.  His devoted training includes 5 miles of cycling to and from work every day and eating healthy Japanese food for lunch.

Charles Meaden – will start training after his holiday…in 2011!

Mark Pinkerton – cycling since 1948; is currently thinking about buying a new bike for the event

Matt Banks – Is determined that the new born baby will not deprive him of sleep and energy to complete this race and in good time.

Phil Bolt – Has a lot of power behind those legs but 4:45AM starts may hinder his training

Vitor Lopes – Another young hopeful, Vitor has also been in training by cycling 5 miles to and from work;  Vitor’s only downfall is that he prefers the slopes to the tar. 

Steve Willcocks – Enduring morning and evening training sessions – Steve might be taking this a little too seriously! Dressed to impress, if Steve doesn’t win at least he’ll look good.

We would be very grateful if you can make a donation, big or small it doesn’t matter as the money goes towards a very worthy cause. To donate simply visit our Just Giving page.

We wish all our riders the very best keeping hydrated, cramp free and determined to finish.  Good luck!

However, while each checkout should be tailored depending on your customer, below we’ve listed 10 tips that can be applied to most checkouts:-

1. Make sure any extra charges are presented before the checkout process begins.
Make sure your users are aware of the total cost before entering the checkout process. Hidden charges during the checkout process are a major factor in checkout abandonment.

2. Remove any distractions that may allow the user to leave the checkout flow.
If you need to show product summary information, consider using in-page overlays rather than linking back directly to the product page. Remove any graphical distractions and animations – anything that takes the users attention away may end in a lost sale. We often advise removing the main site navigation which can be an additional distraction for users.

3. Keep the form design itself clean and uncluttered.
A well designed, logical form will be perceived as easier to complete than a poorly designed one. Look at the grouping and context of form fields as well as label alignment.

4. Don’t ask for more information than is necessary.
Keep your users in mind when deciding which form fields to put in. If you need a telephone number then explain why you need it (e.g. “For delivery purposes’). Keep those marketing questions to the end after the user as made their purchase! There is a fine balance between business objectives – ask yourself “Who does this benefit more – us or the user?”

5. Make sure that your security icons are clearly visible.
As users are entering personal information it’s important to provide reassurances that the site is safe and secure.

6. Show a summary of what’s in the basket throughout the checkout process.
It’s frustrating to get to the payment page, ready to hand over your card details only to find that you can’t remember how much you’re going to be charged. Keep the summary details with a cost breakdown clearly visible.

7. Provide contextual help and provide user friendly error messages.
Providing contextual help next to the relevant form field keeps users in the checkout flow. On form fields where there may be some ambiguity as to what the user should enter, show an example (e.g dd/mm/yyyy). Avoid any technical language or jargon.

8. Indicate the number of steps in the process.
This psychologically prepares your users of what’s expected of them. If you can reduce the number of steps – great, however, the clarity of each step is more important.

9. Provide a clear path to completion.
Make it very obvious where you want your user to head to next. For example, on a typical basket page the ‘Go to Checkout’ button should be more visually prominent than a ‘Continue Shopping’ button. By doing this you are effectively saying ‘This is where you should go next’.

10. Make buttons look like buttons and make sure they are large enough.
There should be very obvious clues in the interface as to what is clickable and what isn’t. Generally speaking, users find it easier to direct the mouse to large objects than smaller ones – so don’t make important buttons too small.

Bonus tip (and probably the most important tip) TEST, TEST, TEST! What works on one site may not work on yours so keep optimising your checkout to get the best out of it for you and your users.