Poor website performance is a real problem, with 36% of users reportedly having frustrating experiences on most websites: Contentsquare Data

In its 2023 Digital Experience Benchmark Report, Contentsquare, a digital experience analytics provider, underscores the importance of engagement and dynamic experiences online, highlighting the areas brands must improve in order to bolster conversion and customer satisfaction.

Consumer trend data shows that brands are losing customers when it matters most:  when they’re trying to convert, particularly on mobile devices. On the contrary, brands that offer seamless cross-device customer experience (CX), particularly on the top three high-trafficked website areas – product detail pages, category pages, and the checkout page – are experiencing the most significant digital outcomes: lasting customer interaction, a boost in online conversions, a significant reduction in bounce rates, and better overall website performance across both desktop and mobile devices.

“Data shows that engaging experiences have better outcomes: deeper journeys, higher conversions and fewer bounces. But our data also shows that today, one in three customers is still having a frustrating experience online — often because of poor site performance,” said Jonathan Cherki, CEO & Founder of Contentsquare. “People today expect more out of the interactions they have online. They want to be seen, heard, and responded to in meaningful ways. Optimizing digital content and creating seamless customer journeys is where you should focus to drive growth and retention.”

Best Practices

Give Customers a Reason to Stay, Convert, and Return

Digital experience success is defined by three areas: capturing attention, reducing friction, and ensuring page content is relevant and seamless across the entire website. Merging paid channels and organic search to increase visibility, all the while prioritizing content that encourages interaction and engagement boosts the overall performance of a website. The average visitor journey is not deep– ~5 pages per session at a 50% scroll rate – companies need to identify high performing content and pull these assets, offers and CTAs higher up on the page. Additionally, knowing which content is never seen and which under versus over-performs, enables teams to invest in content more effectively, while improving conversion rates.

Providing clear information with speed, obvious prompts directing customers to the next stage of their journey by signaling pathways for search and discovery, and ensuring content is aligned with their intent gives brands a clear competitive edge.

Blend Experiences Across Devices

Seamless cross-device CX is a bigger priority than most brands realize and the importance of blended experiences is defining an emerging area of opportunity, according to the data. Consumers are exploring web pages through two primary devices – mobile and desktop – with conversion preferential to desktop. Browsing is typically relegated to mobile, where consumers ‘graze’ before making buying decisions. Fifty-five percent of all mobile traffic are new visitors, meaning losing customers due to poor CX can have a detrimental effect on revenue. While Checkout pages are still highly important for both desktop and mobile, mobile conversion rates are down year-over-year by -4%, and any attention paid especially to these final moments before conversion could minimize abandoned carts and frustrated customers.  

Across devices, brands must prioritize delivering seamless end-to-end, tailored experiences that focus on customer value. A May 2022 consumer survey revealed 88% of customers say the experience a company provides is just as important as its products and services, an +18% increase from the year prior, proving that getting a customer to your website is only the beginning.

Lasting Relationships Are Defined by Understanding Customer Intent and Desired Experiences

Positive experiences don’t start and end with great products or prices, smart brands are uniquely tapping into emotions, too, focusing on bringing joy to the overall CX. Forrester Customer Experience index data from June 2022 cites “Elite brands…provide, on average, 15 percentage points more emotionally positive experiences compared to the rest of the field.”

The most trusted way to determine customer expectation, happiness, and satisfaction can be found in digital experience data. As customers evolve, so do their online behaviors, which are the breadcrumbs they leave that tell a bigger story–every click, scroll, search, mouse hover, page forward or backward, and time spent on a brand’s website are valuable insights for brands looking for meaningful ways to improve the digital experiences they deliver. Contentsquare customers that have focused on leveraging digital experience analytics to improve CX throughout the customer journey have realized significant results: 602% ROI, an average of $6.6M in recovered income and additional income, and Contentsquare’s solution paying for itself in less than six months, according to a commissioned, in-depth Total Economic Impact™ (TEI) Study from Forrester Consulting.

The annual benchmark report aims to help brands benchmark their digital performance against industry averages, highlighting areas of opportunity and tips for tactical and strategic steps to take to achieve better business outcomes and customer success. The year’s report is based on analysis of 35 billion sessions, and 161 billion page views across 2,942 global websites.

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