Consumers are less likely to abandon their shopping cart when purchasing diet products than any other product in the retail sector, says research from ecommerce platform Ve.
The recent outrage over Protein World’s advertising campaign shows that there is divided public opinion over the way diet products are marketed. Despite this controversy, diet and health products require among the lowest engagement levels from marketers to generate a sale, according to recent reports published by ecommerce conversion company Ve.
Ve has found that in the retail sector the cart abandonment rate is lowest (62%) for consumers shopping online for diet and health products, alongside food and drink.
Highlights include:
• Cart abandonment rate is lowest for diet product shoppers, beating fashion, beauty and electronics products
• More than twice the number of re-engagement emails were required per sale of beauty products than diet products
• The data was compiled by Ve from 1 January – 31 December 2014, and is drawn from Ve’s global client base of over 10,000 clients
In contrast, consumers shopping for recreational products had the highest cart abandonment rate (76%), followed by home and office products (75%). Fashion and beauty products also saw consumers abandoning their carts at a high rate (73%).
It was also found that an average of 52 re-engagement emails were sent to prospects per diet-product conversion, significantly lower than the majority of other retail-sector products.
Only recreational retail products required fewer re-engagement emails (43) per sale closed.
More than twice the number of re-engagement emails were required per sale of beauty products (127), with only electronics requiring more (159).
Results of the report would suggest that on average, consumers who browse diet products online need little encouragement to convert from prospect to buyer.
Consumers’ insecurities may be playing a larger part in consumer re-engagement strategies than typically thought. While diet and beauty products often occupy similar price ranges, diet products required on average less than half the amount of re-engagement emails to generate a sale.
Neela Ahmed, director of retail at Ve, said, “This data demonstrates that diet products require less marketing engagement than other sectors, which implies that consumers are faster to spend money on dieting. Considering the sensitive and personal nature of these products, diet product advertising must be ethical, responsible and open to public scrutiny.”