Each year we take great pride in publishing the results that we have achieved for our e-commerce clients for the previous year. This year we’re even quicker of the mark with the results. We’re not only extremely open and transparent about the work that we deliver for our clients – but also the results that we achieve.
UK Retail & Ecommerce Trends
eMarketer forecasted that retail e-commerce sales in the UK would reach £81.55 billion in 2017, accounting for 19.1% of total retail sales. By 2021, this share is expected to rise to 25.2%. M-commerce sales (sales via mobile devices) are expected to reach a staggering £35.31 billion, up 28.4% from 2016 and double-digit growth on mobile purchases is expected to continue year on year growth for the next few years. It also refers to one study which suggests that due to a ‘difficult’ economic climate; UK consumer spending has fallen to its lowest point in nearly four years. In summary; retail e-commerce is experiencing tough and competitive times, so it’s never been so important to maximise your brands exposure to gain market share if your ambitions are ‘online’ growth; especially on mobile devices.
So how did we perform in 2017? We specialise in digital marketing for e-commerce in the three primary channels for conversions; (Organic, Paid & Social) and here are the results of our e-commerce clients in 2017.
1 – Organic Sessions Increased by 103.51%
Organic search (SEO) represents 70% of our business. We have developed and have refined an e-commerce SEO methodology & service since 2010 that has withstood the test of time and every algorithm that Google has thrown at us. By aligning an e-commerce site with Google’s algorithms, quality guidelines & 200+ know ranking factors in terms of technical, design content and links – our clients achieved an average of 103.51% organic session growth.
2 – Organic Search Revenue Increased by 102.05%
Our results and performance driven e-commerce SEO campaigns deliver increased organic traffic that converts. As a result of increasing organic sessions – our clients saw an average organic revenue of increase of 102.05%.
3 – Paid Search Revenue Increased by 197.84%
Our multi-disciplined approach to paid search (search, display, retargeting & mobile) helped us deliver an average increased paid search revenue growth of 197.84% for our clients with cost increasing by just an average of 49.98%.
4 – Monthly Return on Advertising Spend (ROAS) 572.37%
Direct gross ROAS from paid search revenue was 572.37 which is slight increase from 2016 figures of 518%. These figures were based on a 30 day ‘first click’ attribution model so the impact PPC has had on ‘assisted conversions’ and ‘overall’ site ROAS has been significantly higher as you will see below.
5 – Social Media Revenue Increased by 63%
Social media platforms are becoming an increasingly important channel, not only for conversions but for brand recognition, trust sentiment in the form of reviews and recommendations and for reaching new audiences. In 2017 our clients saw an average 63% revenue growth from social channels from a 295% in social channel session growth.
6 – BFCM Revenue Increased by 22.77%
Much has been said this year about BFCM and whether it’s still worth offering special offers or not. Many of our clients followed the trend and didn’t launch any kind of special offer for the BFCM weekend and on average; our clients saw an average 22.77% increase in sales compared to the same weekend in 2016. A point to note; the clients that did launch fantastic promotional offers, saw their sales for the same period grow year on year between 60-198% so food for thought for next year.
7 – Overall Site Revenue Growth of 93.27%
Our ‘multi-channel’ approach to digital marketing has again helped our clients to achieve significant average year on year revenue growth of 93.27% and a very pleasing average (gross) overall ROAS of 2530.15%.
Summary
2017 has seen difficult retail market conditions but we’re delighted that we helped our clients’ online revenue grow by an average of 93.27% during last year – more than what eMarketer predicted UK e-commerce sales to grow by in 2017 which was forecasted at just and average of 14.5% so we certainly increased market share for our clients and smashed the expected growth rate.
We are disappointed however that we didn’t reach the staggering heights of 355% revenue growth in 2016 but it’s clearly down to the fact that in the last year we brought on board much bigger, more established clients with £ multi-million annual turnovers on the back of the performance and the results that we have achieved for our clients in the past – long may this continue and happy New Year to you all!