As we come to a close to the year 2016, I must ask you a question; have you met someone who has not purchased anything online this year? Yeah, me neither. It is projected that the online marketplace will continue to grow beyond the 1 billion online users that already exist today (statista, n.d.). There are an abundance of highly competitive e-commerce sites vying for our loyalty and our dollar. Zulily is one of many. Based out of Seattle, Washington, Zulily focuses on apparel and housewares. What makes them different is that they work with boutique designers and companies around the country for their product base (Nyitray, 2015). Due to the fact that Zulily acts as an “intermediary” between consumers and retailers, they have very little operational expenses because they collect the order and the money from the consumer and then purchase it directly from the vendor (Nyitray, 2015).
The company reports that their target demographic are female
millennials and Alexa also confirms this target demographic is reflective in
their online visitor reports. Alexa reports that the bulk of its audience has
some college and do most of their browsing in a school environment (alexa.com,
2016) As of today, They rank #70 in the shopping category, #142 in the United
States and #558 globally (SimiliarWeb, 2016).
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| (Photo courtesy of zulily.com, 2016) |
The Data Collection
Process
If you have not enrolled into Zulily by providing your name
and email address. You can forget about even browsing through their catalog,
learning more about their ongoing promotional offers or making a purchase. Upon
visiting any page on Zulily, the very first thing you have to do is register.
Therefore, Zulily must be doing a great job at search engine optimization as
they remain highly competitive amongst large companies such as JCPenny, Kohl’s
and Target (SemRush.com, 2016).
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| (Photo retrieved from SemRush.com, 2016) |
Visitors must feel compelled to divulge their information
without even exploring the site through learning about the Zulily brand
elsewhere. Or perhaps they enjoy taking a risk and if they are dissatisfied they
can unsubscribe later? However, throughout my research, I found the following image
which displays their meta description in which I presume is a small “disclaimer”
regarding their site.
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| (Photo courtesy of Google.com, 2016) |
From this alone in a
Google search, users have an understanding before clicking-through that they
must register where it states, “Sign in or create an account…” When signing up
for an account it’s important to note that you agree to terms and conditions,
arbitration program and privacy practices. These disclaimers include the use of
visitor information, the sales purchase, shipping, etc.
Within this disclaimer includes a detailed list of how Zulily uses personal information. A few highlights include the personalization of content to provide recommendations based on preferences (Zulily.com, 2016). Provide advertising based on a user’s activity on Zulily.com or third-party websites (Zulily.com, 2016). Lastly, by forcing registration user data can be statistically analyzed for marketing purposes to include user demographics and user behavior (Zulily.com, 2016).
Within this disclaimer includes a detailed list of how Zulily uses personal information. A few highlights include the personalization of content to provide recommendations based on preferences (Zulily.com, 2016). Provide advertising based on a user’s activity on Zulily.com or third-party websites (Zulily.com, 2016). Lastly, by forcing registration user data can be statistically analyzed for marketing purposes to include user demographics and user behavior (Zulily.com, 2016).
SEO Techniques
According to SimiliarWeb, the bulk of Zulily’s web traffic
is generated through organic search at 71.99% (SimiliarWeb, 2016). The most
significant technique that helps Zulily is their approach to photography. Zulily
operates in-house testing procedures with their photography. As you can see on
the homepage or secondary pages, Zulily relies heavily on photography. In 2014,
it was reported that a small team of engineers will use customer data to
predict which photos will drive engagement and conversions within a small
sample of a specific demographic through a series of A/B testing (Alsever, 2014).
Amy Webb, founder of the consulting and strategy firm Webbmedia Group, says to
avoid a company feeling siloed, It’s important for every team to be small and
cannot act independently with one another. “You cannot work that way in the big
data space,” Webb says (Alsever, 2014). Also, as previously mentioned within
their privacy disclaimers, every email message, landing page and mobile app is
customized to individual preferences (Alsever, 2014). Through the use of small
analytical projects, Zulily can deliver an integration of a user’s desires and
predict those behavioral outcomes.
Over time, this photo technology has evolved following the
buyout by QVC, they now have the ability to invest more into content
production. Producing as much photography to accommodate 9,000 new products
each day (Zulily Press Release, 2016). Through this diverse portfolio of
content, search engines are more likely to favor the update in content. Within
these drastic content changes, fresher pages equals fresher links and keywords
as it relates to new products (Shepard, 2016). Because Zulily works with
affiliate brands such as Toms Shoes, DC Comics, Under Armour, etc. They have an
abundance of keywords at 425,000 and the list continues to grow (SemRush.com,
2016). Lastly, through the use of fresh and revolving content, more consumer
data is collected and constantly being analyzed and behaviors are monitored and
predicted to determine which items with its supplemental photography, are
purchase motivators.
Room for Improvements
Since there is currently no other lead generation program in place due its gated content. Zulily strategically leaves its footer links open which allows a visitor to peruse two product pages before requiring a login or registration (Shavit, 2015). This vulnerability has led to 600,000 pages being indexed (Shavit, 2015). However, further analysis of a bounce rate of the gate (forced registration) would determine if this is actually backfiring. Zulily has generated more than 3.5 times the conversions from search traffic which means they are efficient as pushing consumers down the sales funnel (Shavit, 2015). My recommendation would be to gate only certain aspects of the website verses the entire site. By providing an extra funnel to certain “sneak peek” pages may provide web analytics to what new users find intriguing especially since new content is constantly churning. The next phase would be for the registration process when a consumer attempts to redeem a promotional offer, customize orders or “see more” about a specific product. This will allow for more time on site and a reduction in bounce rate for those who are not yet ready to make a purchase.
Since there is currently no other lead generation program in place due its gated content. Zulily strategically leaves its footer links open which allows a visitor to peruse two product pages before requiring a login or registration (Shavit, 2015). This vulnerability has led to 600,000 pages being indexed (Shavit, 2015). However, further analysis of a bounce rate of the gate (forced registration) would determine if this is actually backfiring. Zulily has generated more than 3.5 times the conversions from search traffic which means they are efficient as pushing consumers down the sales funnel (Shavit, 2015). My recommendation would be to gate only certain aspects of the website verses the entire site. By providing an extra funnel to certain “sneak peek” pages may provide web analytics to what new users find intriguing especially since new content is constantly churning. The next phase would be for the registration process when a consumer attempts to redeem a promotional offer, customize orders or “see more” about a specific product. This will allow for more time on site and a reduction in bounce rate for those who are not yet ready to make a purchase.
In addition, Zulily has had to overcome negative public
relations since the QVC buy out. What was once a top competitor of Amazon,
Zulily has now grown their product offerings to where they are almost a direct
competitor with Amazon (Wagner, 2016). They also have slower delivery times
making them less appealing in a competitive analysis (Wagner, 2016). From a
marketing and SEO perspective, the last area for improvement would be customer
retention. Perhaps a loyalty program should be in place to attract repeat
visitors and segment user traffic from loyalty program members versus new
leads/first-time shoppers.
To conclude, Zulily utilizes strong strategic SEO practices
to garner a different use experience then traditional ecommerce sites but as
these sites continue to grow and the competition remains fierce with companies
such as Amazon, Zulily will have to make changes that help them find their way
to the top again.
Resources
Alsever, J. (2014, October 19). At Zulily, a small approach to big data. Retrieved on November 21, 2016 from http://fortune.com/2014/10/19/zulily-big-data/
Alsever, J. (2014, October 19). At Zulily, a small approach to big data. Retrieved on November 21, 2016 from http://fortune.com/2014/10/19/zulily-big-data/
n.d. (2016). Retrieved on November 21, 2016 from http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/zulily.com
Nyitray, B. (2015, August 26). Basics of Zulily. Retrieved on November 21, 2016 from http://marketrealist.com/2015/08/basics-zulily/
Shavit, N. (2015, October 21). Is Your Lead Generation Strategy Hurting You? Ecommerce Website Analysis. Retrieved on November 21, 2016 from https://www.jumpshot.com/is-your-lead-generation-strategy-hurting-you-e-commerce-website-analysis/
Shepard, C. (2016, June 28). 10 Illustrations of How Fresh Content May Influence Google
Rankings (Updated). Retrieved on November 21, 2016 from https://moz.com/blog/google-fresh-factor-new
Statistics and Market Data about E-commerce. (n.d.). Retrieved on November 21, 2016 from https://www.statista.com/markets/413/e-commerce/
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