In a previous article, I described which product lists are best to show to certain groups of visitors on your website to increase conversion. To whom is it best to show related products? And which visitors convert faster if you show them similar products viewed by fellow visitors? You show dynamic product lists based on visitor behavior on the website. In the blog I presented the formula:
'Visitor type X + buying behavior Y = product list Z.'
After writing this blog, I was asked whether the same page thus looks different each time a visitor revisits the website or returns to the same page via a different route. This may indeed be the case. Showing the right product list at the right time is useful, unless a user wants to reach a particular product via the same route and can no longer do so because the list of related products disappears, for example. However, not every user will do that.
Every visitor behavior is different. There are visitors with a targeted search or people who prefer to find inspiration first, but of course there are also the differences between the online shopping behavior of men and women. Users can be grouped in many ways. So is the difference between the immediate buyerandn the returning visitor.
In the image below you can see the ratio of the percentages of "direct buyer" (session 1) and "returning visitor" (session 2). In the third session, there suddenly appear to be a lot fewer opportunities.
Dynamic product lists and the second visit
The above formula is easy to apply to the customer behavior of a one-time visit. But how does it work with visitors who return a second time? For example, an e-commerce customer also visits the website at different times. Below you can see three examples of customers who only made a purchase during a second session.
You can see that there are one or a few days between visits each time. The customer behavior per visit may look as follows:
You can see that there are one or a few days between visits each time. The customer behavior per visit may look as follows:
The user searches for a product in a search engine and finds it on your website.
Search for 'product name' in search engine -> Product page with product list 1
The second visit 'Website search'
The user has memorized the domain name and arrives at the website through the home page.
Directly to 'website' -> Home -> Overview page -> Product page with product list 2
Your visitor is always changing
When a user returns to the Web site, he may have a different intention. He viewed several similar products in his first visit and now, for example, his goal is to purchase one of these products. The user changes from a spontaneous visitor who may accidentally land on the Web site to a methodical visitor who consciously approaches the Web site.
This means you need to show other product lists as well. When a user views the same product a second time, showing a similar product is less interesting than showing package lists or related products. After all, he has almost decided that he is going to choose this product, but you can still make him happy with a matching bag or SD card for the camera he picks out. By doing so, you might give him an extra reason to buy this product on your website. Targeting listings can be presented in several ways:
- Based on visitor behavior
A first visit or a follow-up visit. The first visit can be exploratory and a follow-up visit targeted. - Based on product navigation
Are multiple products visited, then chances are it is an exploratory visitor. - Based on search
If a user has used a search function a lot, he/she is looking specifically for a product or product with certain features. - Based on shopping cart behavior
If many products are added to the shopping cart or order list, chances are that the user has used online e-commerce websites a lot and is using them as temporary storage.
- Based on visitor behavior
How exactly does it work?
If the user returns to the page in the same session and accesses the same page via a different route, the information shown on this page must be remembered. A user visits several pages per session. This means that for each page the information must be stored in, for example, a cookie. Deciding to base the information on a first session or recurring session will involve considerably less work. Storing whether or not the user comes a second time is easier than tracking an entire user behavior.
Do keep in mind that visitors may clear their cookies and search history, making it unclear whether they are new or returning visitors. On average, about 10 to 20 percent of users do so.
Preventing 'disappearing' information
It is possible to prevent the disappearance of information. For example, information 'disappears' when a customer has arrived at product Y via the 'related products' listed with product X. When he returns the second time and a different product list is displayed, he cannot follow that same route again. This can be avoided by displaying more than one product list on a page. It is then no longer about what is shown on the page, but the choice is taken to a higher level. It is then about where the product list is displayed.
At the time of taking into account multiple types of visitors on one page, the return of the same visitor can only change the priority of list. This only means a shift of information on the same page.
What is appropriate for your website?
You can make it as hard or easy on yourself as you want. Websites with a large number of visitors and little development capacity can notice a big difference with an A/B test on a small percentage of visitors. If your website has a targeted audience with a high percentage of repeat visitors, ask your visitors via a survey, for example.
