The pandemic accelerated the digitisation of customer interactions by 3 to 4 years, according to a report by McKinsey & Company (How COVID-19 has pushed companies over the technology tipping point—and transformed business forever). Companies saw 27 times increase in online demand for products and services at the beginning of the pandemic and responded by increasing the use of advanced technologies for operations by 25 times.

There is no going back now, at least in terms of the need for digital growth and a digital-first approach for businesses. And in this climate, conversion optimisation has become even more important.

In this seventh post of our CRO Insights series, Adam Wahrén, Account Executive at conversion optimisation and marketing automation platform Symplify, speaks on the trends, challenges, and lessons in the optimisation industry in the recent past, and what’s in the pipeline for Symplify.

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What new trends have you observed in the past year in optimisation?

The past year has, no doubt, been very different for all of us. Dealing with the pandemic has been challenging on so many levels.

Now, the pandemic also brought about a big boost for the digital space because it became the primary platform for a lot of businesses. This, of course, means that companies have had to put a lot more focus on developing their digital platforms and eCommerce.

Within optimisation, what’s been most noticeable is a diversification of how visitors have behaved on websites. In general, we’ve seen a lot more users browsing websites as the world entered a more digital period because of lockdowns and isolations. This has, in turn, given personalisation more prominence and testing on specific user groups has been more efficient.

There has also been a bigger move for digitising the B2B segment because we’ve almost been forced to move to digital spaces. So we’ve seen a lot more B2B sites on the market looking to optimise their websites.

What do you forecast are going to be key for eCommerce in the next 12 months when it comes to optimisation?

I’m sure no one has missed out on the new changes when it comes to cookies and privacy on the internet. The key to surviving as an eCommerce brand will be in cookie-less infrastructure and tracking.

These changes are going to be challenging when it comes to A/B testing and optimising. Integrity is key and it is only getting bigger and bigger.

What common mistakes have you seen companies make or challenges you’ve seen them face in the field of optimisation?

One thing that has actually been quite surprising during this pandemic is how, even though we’ve made major digital moves and progress, there still seems to be a lack of development resources being dedicated to optimisation.

When things get hectic, we see a lack of consistency and deprioritisation of A/B testing. In reality, when we are stressed, we tend to make the most mistakes. This can also be applied to when things get hectic for eCommerce, and they start rolling out un-tested changes to their website.

There will no doubt be changes there that are bringing your conversion rates down.

For bigger companies, testing across multiple teams becomes a big issue along with information sharing. Because there are a lot of touchpoints here that need to be included, there is a heightened possibility of misunderstandings.

In these cases, making sure you document everything that is happening and every test result, becomes crucial in order to have smooth communication across the different teams involved.

How is Symplify preparing to stay ahead of the game in the optimisation landscape?

With Schrems II, we have dealt with privacy issues and made changes to how we store our customers’ personal data. This is in addition to us being GDPR-compliant.

Our new script is even better and faster, and flicker-free. The expected user experience today is so high that flickering is no longer an option. Which is why we strive to stay ahead of the game and give our clients a tool that can deliver on these points.

This is the seventh of a series of posts where we speak with leading customer experience optimisation brands on trends and the future of digital growth. Check out the previous conversations with the likes of VWO, Fresh Relevance, Nosto, and Webtrends Optimize.

Stay tuned for the next one!