Most marketers continue to record sales on last-click basis

The majority of online retailers attribute sales based on the last-click yet better technology, more time and more resources would yield better results, according to new research from digital marketing agency R.O.EYE.

by Helen Leggatt

According to R.O.EYE's survey of prominent online retailers, while 91% intend to implement a measurement system to understand the customer journey, 57% currently only record sales on a last-click basis. However, research has shown that marketing budgets could yield far better results if spent across the customer journey.

"Shoppers usually interact with between one and eight channels prior to making a purchase, so recognizing the value each one provides will improve sales," said Mark Kuhillow, founder of R.O.EYE. "Almost all retailers surveyed felt it was very important or important to understand where sales originate from, yet our research shows that few are properly tracking the wider journey and using the data."

However, even among those retailers who monitor which channels contribute to a sale, only a fifth attribute sales to the right source every time. A further fifth identify them "frequently" with most - 60% - doing so "occasionally".

Roughly a fifth (21%) have directed between 30% and 40% of their marketing budget away from last-click sales to other channels in the purchase consideration cycle. A further 21% of retailers have redirected up to 10%. 7% reported moving more than half of their budget following analysis of data.