With eCommerce soaring in light of the coronavirus outbreak, it is no surprise that online stores selling health, beauty, and personal care products have seen a notable jump in sales in recent months. But at the same time, the numbers show that these eCommerce websites are increasingly suffering from Customer Journey Hijacking – an expensive problem in which online shoppers view injected ads designed to entice them to click away.
At Namogoo, we’ve been tracking these trends up close while empowering leading online health and beauty stores to stop losing customers to injected ads. The data we have gathered along the way shows how well these websites have performed since the COVID-19 crisis began. At the same time, these numbers indicate that those who engage in Customer Journey Hijacking are taking advantage of this eCommerce boom to make as much money as possible at retailers’ expense.
To see how COVID-19 has impacted the online health, beauty, and personal care stores we work with, we compared their KPIs from March and April with those from January and February of this year. Among our key findings:
- Visits to their eCommerce websites rose by 41%.
- Total conversions increased by a whopping 129%.
- Conversion rates went up 62%.
- Pageviews per session jumped 40%.
The other side of the coin: injected ads
With these eCommerce websites bringing in more traffic, more active visitors, and increased sales, they have also become increasingly attractive targets for Customer Journey Hijacking.
That’s because the goal of Customer Journey Hijacking is to make money by redirecting prospective customers (especially the most promising ones) from one website to another using injected ads. Typically, these ads appear during 20% of online shopping sessions. While some of them promote controversial content (such as adult websites or online gambling), most instead advertise products sold by competing online stores.
Although our Customer Hijacking Prevention solution enables the companies we work with to offer their customers a shopping experience free of injected ads, in the wake of COVID-19 we recorded a notable uptick in attempts at Customer Journey Hijacking among our clients focused on health, beauty, and personal care products.
Again comparing the numbers from March and April with those from January and February, we can see a 46% jump in attempts to display injected ads on these companies’ websites (higher than the 41% jump in overall visits). All told, attempts at Customer Journey Hijacking occurred during 22% of visits to these stores in March and April (higher than the overall average of 20% we typically see).
Adding to the problem of Customer Journey Hijacking, we have seen an influx of new online shoppers since the coronavirus outbreak began. By offering the best possible first impression, online stores have a promising opportunity to foster customer loyalty. But when injected ads divert new online shoppers to other websites and hurt retailers’ brand reputations, these companies risk losing out on long-term customer relationships. As a result, today’s Customer Journey Hijacking could harm retailers in the long run – while also hurting their short-term sales numbers.
Patching this hole in the sales funnel
What can online stores do to stop losing sales to Customer Journey Hijacking? At Namogoo, we block injected ads in real time – removing a major source of friction and distraction from the customer experience. As a result, our technology is proven to boost retailers’ conversion rates by between 1.5% and 5%.
Additionally, to help these companies adapt to this period of both unique challenge and opportunity, we are temporarily offering cost-free access to our Customer Hijacking Prevention solution. And because our technology can be set up rapidly with no need for on-site access, our new clients can immediately start offering a customer experience free of injected ads.
This way, online health, beauty, and personal care stores can make the most of today’s eCommerce boom – without needing to worry that their customers could be diverted away by Customer Journey Hijacking.
Ready to stop losing sales to Customer Journey Hijacking, at no risk? Request a demo
