The company I audited for the previous work was Boohoo, and for the strategy proposal, I chose to try and improve upon two of their features, the first being Boohoo’s paid searches, or their lack of using it. Then we move onto the bounce rate and strategizing how to lower that. I have tried to simplify it through the use of the diagram. In the later stages of this process, I shall be using the SOCTAS framework to talk through the individual steps and targets to be achieved.

Pay-per-click marketing is a method of advertising on search engine results pages. Basically, you bid to have your ads appear in the sponsored results when someone types in a query including your keywords (Kim, 2017). This is something which Boohoo has very little of, and is an area I feel they could see vast improvements if they make some investments.

When a user (e.g., customer, prospect, or reader) visits your site on any page (known as an entrance page) and leaves without visiting other pages on the same domain, it is a bounce (Patel, 2016). This could be down to the website not being engaging enough, or the home page not enticing the consumer enough that they want to carry on deeper into the website. Once the website is fully effective, the bounce rate in theory will be lower, and the customer conversion rate should be higher.

When we examine Boohoo in terms of a successful company, an immediate close competitor springs to mind. Asos are another UK based online fashion retailer, so comparisons are easy to draw between them. When it comes to search marketing, they use a different models to each other, and ASOS have been a much more dominant firm when it comes to market share/ sales etc. When looking at Boohoo’s paid searches, they have very minimal website traffic from paid searches, bringing in only 2% meaning they don’t partake very much. Looking at the stats, about 21% of ASOS’ traffic comes from it (Similar web, 2017), with keywords bringing up their page on a google search. The difference in size between the two companies cannot be fully attributed to this one channel, however with Boohoo at 15 million total visits and ASOS sitting comfortably on 73 million (IBID), there must be vast differences somewhere. This could be a tactic which Boohoo may want to incorporate, as ASOS is their main competitor, but in terms of business ASOS are miles ahead. With the internet being such a prevalent thing in today’s society, I feel that they should employ more paid searches, as their whole business is online.

Secondly, their bounce rate is very high, at 31%, something which they could definitely work on improving. By updating their homepage, they may appeal to some new people, and be able to capture a wider audience, but that is only if they feel their needs have been tailored for. There is not as big of a difference between the two competing firms in this, and it may be a feature of the industry, however with added interaction for the users, I feel they could bring this figure down. With a lower bounce rate, it theoretically means the site will have a higher conversion rate, and in turn Boohoo will bring in more revenue from sales.

Overall, I think the Boohoo have a solid strategy, which is currently working for them, as they are still bringing in around 15 million visits monthly. When compared with other larger firms like ASOS however, there is a vast difference in their size, and at first glance the websites do not look noticeably different. However, with higher paid searches, a lower bounce rate topped off with a large social media following, I feel it would be a wise move for Boohoo to implement changes in these areas to unleash their true potential.

References:

Kim, L. (2018). SEO vs. PPC: When to Use Organic Search, When to Use Paid Search | WordStream. Wordstream.com. Retrieved 28 January 2018, from https://www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/2010/08/19/seo-vs-ppc

Patel, N. 13 Ways to Reduce Bounce Rate and Increase Your Conversions. Neil Patel. Retrieved 28 January 2018, from https://neilpatel.com/blog/13-ways-to-reduce-bounce-rate-and-increase-your-conversions/

SimilarWeb. (2018). Boohoo Traffic Statistics. Retrieved 25 January 2018, from https://www.similarweb.com/website/boohoo.com#alsoVisited