Amazon has become its very own search engine, seeing a 24% increase in people beginning their browsing on the ecommerce giant’s website resulting in better conversion rates and more exclusive buyers than the industry standard, according to new research.
The data from Hitwise indicates that Amazon’s ability to bypass the likes of Google and Bing has seen the company increase its share of retail to over a quarter.
Hitwise also found:
- A 9% increase in transactions processed by Amazon year-on-year – up to 4.22 million\
- 3.48 million exclusive buyers in the lead up to, and on, Black Friday – an increase of 4% on 2017
- A conversion rate of 8.44% by Amazon on Black Friday – double the average of the next top 20 retailers
According to Hitwise, the industry saw a 3% decline in web visits during Black Friday compared to last year. But visits to Amazon, grew 3% to reach 49.98 million – over a quarter of the entire industry. Amazon also processed a staggering 4.22 million transactions on Black Friday, a rise of 9% year-on-year.
Searches starting on Amazon were key to this rise, with the volume of search sessions increasing by 24% on Black Friday. This indicates that less people typed a product search into Google or Bing, and then found their way onto Amazon. They started there. And they stayed there.
Internal searches for the top products skyrocketed on Black Friday – “PS4” searches were up 167% on last year, those for “Laptop” by 343%, and the “Echo Dot” by a massive 1191%.
This data shows that more shoppers are changing traditional ways of browsing. With so much choice and so many offers available to consumers, Amazon’s ability to attract buyers directly onto its site is crucial to the retailer’s growth; its market share; and changing the habits of shoppers at the checkout.
Amazon is also doing better at converting visitors into buyers. Amazon’s conversion rate was 8.44% on Black Friday (the number of visits that led to a purchase), which was double the average of the next 20 top retailers. Amazon’s conversions on actual people visiting the site was also 19%.
Over the two weeks leading up to and including Black Friday, Amazon saw a total of 3.48 million exclusive buyers on its site, and Hitwise found there were 1.26 million individual buyers on Black Friday alone. That means consumers did not purchase on the other top seven retailers – not eBay nor John Lewis, for instance. Compare this figure to 2017, and it’s up by 4%.
“Online retail has slowed down, but Amazon is still finding ways to grow”, says Lisa Luu, Global Head of Insights at Hitwise. “Hitwise data shows that the ecommerce giant has now become its own search engine. It is getting more effective at keeping people on the site, and converting them at double the industry average. Amazon is taking more share of the consumer’s online journey, and we are seeing brands react to this. More spend and efforts are now being dedicated to Amazon, optimising how a brand’s products are getting featured by the ecommerce giant.”
Source: www.hitwise.com