How to overcome the right objection

for the right person at the right time.

A
B
C
D
Why A/B Testing is
NOT ENOUGH
Why A/B Testing is Not Enough
A/B Testing has historically been one of the most powerful levers to increase
conversions in online retail. Converting a larger proportion of your trafc into customers:
Increases revenues
Increases amount you can spend to acquire paid trafc
Gives you the opportunity to delight additional customers and benet from their lifetime
value
Every online retailer should A/B and Multivariate test. Excluding human resources, the
costs of testing are negligible, given the inexpensive solutions readily available.
However, A/B and Multivariate testing only scratches the surface of whats possible.
Although A/B & multivariate testing is a powerful lever to
increase conversions and revenue, it is not enough.
Lets say, for illustration purposes, you have three diferent buyer personas that shop on
your site.
Buyer Persona A = 25%
Buyer Persona B = 40%
Buyer Persona C = 35%
Conversion optimization through A/B & Multivariate testing will give you results that favor
your largest buyer persona group - Buyer Persona B in this case. The problem is that this
comprises only 40% of your online shoppers. In other words, you are optimizing your site
for less than half of your potential customers. No wonder we see such low conversion
rates!
A/B and Multivariate testing is still prudent. It increases your revenue by allowing your
largest buyer persona group to design your site for you. (note: it is also wise to include
the AOV and product type in your conversion optimizations, since you want to optimize
for your most valuable customers
1
not just the largest proportion that purchases from
you) However, your results will be limited.
Diferent buyer personas have diferent objections.
How many shoppers do you give discounts to that wouldve purchased without the
incentive? How much potential revenue do you forego? After millions of A/B tests across
hundreds of retailers, weve learned that discounts are not the best conversion lever for
many buyer personas
2
. This means you are not only foregoing potential revenue by
giving discounts to those that would buy regardless, but also decreasing your conversion
rate by not helping many potential buyers overcome their objections.
Within each buyer persona, there are 3 shopper types.
While each Buyer Persona has its own objections, each Buyer Persona also has 3 sub-
categories of shoppers:
Buyer Persona A-1
Will buy no matter what
Buyer Persona A-2
Inuenceable
(high-intent, but will not buy
without overcoming their
specic objection)
Buyer Persona A-3
Will not buy no matter what
1
When determining your most valuable buyer persona, you should factor in: proportion of shoppers,
average gross prot, and lifetime value (frequency and number of subsequent purchases).
2
The Most Important Factor for Online Shoppers Isnt Price - Inc Magazine
Top Buyer Objections by Industry - Granify
Figure 1. Granify Inuence Curve.
Buyer Persona A-1 = will buy no matter what
A large proportion of your trafc will buy no matter what. They have already recognized a
need for your solution, done their research, considered their alternatives and made a
decision to purchase either simultaneously while they shop (multi-tab shopping
3
) or
before they come to your site. It is best to leave this segment untouched and reduce the
friction as much as possible so they are not distracted from achieving their goal of
completing a transaction.
Buyer Persona A-2 = inuenceable (high-intent, but will not buy)
This group of shoppers has the largest potential for dramatically increasing your revenue.
These are shoppers that have a strong interest in purchasing your ofering, but they have
a specic objection. Some of these shoppers are lost while they are evaluating their
alternatives. For example, a shopper may make a decision to buy a specic product you
3
Multi-tab Shopping is when a shopper journeys through pre-requisite pre-purchase steps while
simultaneously shopping on your site - using other open tabs or browser windows.
sell, but will buy it from a competing retailer. If you
interact with these shoppers at the right time, they are
highly inuenceable.
Buyer Persona A-3 = will not buy no matter what
A large portion of your trafc will not buy and is not
inuenceable. This occurs for several reasons: They
may have landed on your site by mistake and bounced.
They may be simply searching for information or in an
early stage of the buying process. There are many
diferent reasons why these visitors will not buy, but
that is a topic for another paper.
What if you could understand
shoppers on an individual level
and overcome their specic
objection?
Recent breakthroughs in technology now make it
possible to rapidly collect a massive amount of data
on shoppers as they browse your site. This information is analogous to their digital body
language. Shoppers continually drop clues while theyre on your site. If you can process
and understand these clues in real-time, you can overcome their specic objections
before they leave your site.
Its important to engage shoppers before they leave your
site.
Youve likely seen in your previous conversion optimization eforts that reducing friction
turns more shoppers into buyers. That said, targeting and inuencing shoppers that are
not going to buy before they leave your site is much more powerful than emailing them a
coupon to come back or retargeting them through display ads. In addition, you are able
to inuence them without having prior access to their email address.
Figure 2. Purchase Decision
Making Process
Need Recognition and
Problem Awareness
Information Search
Evaluation of Alternatives
Purchase Decision
Post-Purchase Behaviour
The holy grail of marketing and sales: overcome the right
objection for the right person at the right time.
Right Objection
Each buyer persona has a diferent hierarchy of values and objections. These include
shipping costs, shipping time, price, reviews, credibility, sizing concerns, social proof,
word-of-mouth, support, return policy, and many more. The reason for this dispersion is
the answer depends on whom you ask.
Right Person
It is important to identify, understand and cater to each buyer persona diferently. Trying
to create aggregate solutions for individual shoppers is based on a completely outdated
way of thinking about e-commerce.
Right Time
The best time to overcome a buyers objection is at the exact moment when that
objection becomes strong enough that it deters them from purchasing.
Conclusion
A/B testing is a best practice in the online marketing world, and rightly so. In fact, we
encourage online retailers to continue utilizing A/B testing. However, its important to be
aware of its shortcomings: by optimizing your site for the largest or most protable
segment, you can potentially miss out on sales from other segments. A more intelligent
approach is to show customers the specic message they need to see in order to be
persuaded to purchase. But how can this be done?
Although we are limited in our ability to ask questions in online retail without increasing
unwanted friction, we can read and understand a shoppers digital body language to
better understand and provide them with a more contextual customer experience.
Shoppers will reward you by spending more of their discretionary income on your
oferings.
I invite you to explore the opportunity to overcome the right objection for the right person
at the right time. If you want to learn more, please visit http://granify.com.