Inflow eCommerce Best-in-Class Research Study 2019


23 Comments
    • Unfortunately, we didn’t get around to a 2020 Best-in-Class (what a year it’s been!) but look for us to put together one for 2021!

  1. Great report, thanks for putting together. Awesome for checking and comparing to what I am doing on my site. In regards to the displaying price section on gallery pages where would you place those stores that display product price on hover and what are you thoughts on this? Thanks.

    • Thanks for reading Mike! For displaying prices, we would have counted those that only showed on mouse-over based on the descriptions, so if on mouse-over the sale price was shown with the regular price crossed out, that line item would have been a Y.

      That said, we generally don’t recommend doing all prices on mouse-over. This makes it much more difficult for a user to browse the catalog, forcing them to mouse over every product they might consider. I would only do this in rare situations, where users are less price conscious and/or you allow for very easy filtering or sorting by price.

      Hope this helps!

  2. Hi. Thanks for publishing this report. The information is awesome!

    One request. The current format is very difficult to use. As I scroll down the header rows disappear making it very difficult to match up what I’m looking at with the reviewed sites (or anything else in the header).

    Would it be possible to lock rows 1-3 and column A? It would be so much easier to use if I knew what I was looking at and didn’t have to scroll all around to figure it out.

    Really appreciate all the work that went into this document!

    • Hi Craig,
      Thanks for your feedback!
      We used the publish feature of Google Sheets to share the matrix this year and unfortunately, it looks like the “freeze panes” functionality didn’t carry over. We’re sorry that this has resulted in a less-than-stellar user experience.
      We’ve added a link in the top left corner of the matrix that will allow you to download an Excel file (which is setup with those rows and columns already locked in place) so that you can use the matrix however you wish! 🙂

  3. Thank for sharing the list of eCommerce sites with really useful information. I have learned a lot of things from here. Nice work.

  4. Hi Keith,
    I have in recent years done a lot of consulting in conversion optimization and often returned to your Best-in-Class eCommerce List. As usual inspiring and instructive.
    A common question our clients have is (both those who are about to set up medium-sized eCommerce sites and those who are running for some years): “Which ecommerce content management system should you choose to get the best possible CRO?!”. Is there any with built in A/B-test tools, personalization or other CXM stuff?
    Which CMS uses for example the sites that are in your best-in-class list?
    What is your recommendation on CMS that is best suited for ecommerce?

    Thanks for a good article!
    /Benny

    • Hello Benny,
      Great questions. I don’t believe there is an answer as to which eCommerce CMS is best for Conversion Optimization, as each eCommerce site is different and more important than the CMS is giving the user what they expect and want (this is very complex to explain in further detail, but I hope you understand). We have never met a CMS that did not need custom development additional to it to convert better. We have often dreamed of partnering with Magento or Shopify to make them sell better out of the box, but that is not because we prefer these CMS’s, but because so many eCommerce sites use them.

      As far as CMS’ with A/B Testing tools, no, I know of none, and would not expect any to do a good job of it (the test vendors don’t really do a good job at it now, so having a CMS get it right would not be expected).

      Right now, I like Shopify! I know its not the best solution for everyone, and I have not interrogated it for every aspect of success (Technical SEO for example), but in the experience I have had, it comes out of the gate really strong and gives us something to work with. Hope that helps.

  5. Love this list. Being able to reference effective ecommerce sites to model your own off of is so underrated and very valuable. This list is very useful for our members at Cooptimizers, we will be sure to send them this way as a reference. Thanks!

    • Hello Elle,
      The 13 sites included were:

      www.hayneedle.com
      www.wayfair.com
      www.underarmour.com
      www.modcloth.com
      www.gettington.com
      www.newbalance.com
      www.officedepot.com
      www.canadiantire.ca
      www.walmart.ca
      www.zappos.com
      www.backcountry.com
      www.uggaustralia.com
      www.ctshirts.com

      You can see a feature by feature score card by clicking on the links at the top of the Comparative Analysis Spreadsheet.

      • I could not see the the comparative analysis spreadsheet. Is there another link by chance?

  6. Keith, this is a great list of your picks of best in class for CRO. Brilliant. And thank you very much for becoming a contributor to the new Australian eCommerce Guide. Your fame and expertise is spreading far and wide… 🙂

    Cheers
    Richard Keeves
    Publisher, Australian eCommerce Guide
    @AuseComGuide

  7. I’d be curious to know what you think of the PSD2HTML website. I know they aren’t as main-stream as the sites you’ve looked at for this article, but I’ve always found their site to be shockingly well designed for conversion.

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About The Author

A photograph of Michael Kuehn on a couch with a dog.

Michael Kuehn

With more than five years of digital marketing experience, Michael Kuehn combines analytics-based decision-making with a passion for user experience. In addition to CRO, Kuehn is experienced in both project and product management, having previously managed five software units for a leading loyalty website.

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