Ever gone online and had a frustrating experience? Maybe you weren't impressed with the way information was displayed or found it difficult to find what you were searching for. That's the dissatisfying picture that consumers experience when shopping on websites that have not been fine-tuned (or "optimized"). The good news is, companies realize that not enhancing their websites lowers their revenue and profits and are now doing everything they can to improve online shopping experiences in a rough economy.

Increasingly, large online retail businesses are turning to testing and targeting solutions to improve visitors' online experiences. allows businesses to present different variations of information and discover which variation you prefer while behavioral targeting enables businesses to understand you better as a consumer so that they can present you with relevant information, such as coupons. This kind of web optimization can help drive Internet sales during a time when visitors are snapping their wallets shut.

One example of a company using testing and targeting solutions to improve the consumer experience is well-known destination site VEGAS.com, which features a veritable buffet of Las Vegas travel choices -- from hotels to shows to tours to front-of-the-line nightclub passes, and then some. More than 2.5 million visitors visit VEGAS.com websites every month. The company realized that they needed to get a handle on how best to present their vast array of travel choices in order to keep visitors online.

To do that, VEGAS.com ran a test to discover what combination of online security messaging elements would be most conducive to raising sales conversion rates for online visitors. The company simultaneously tested four security graphics, three text variations and their placement on five different places within the site to discover the most effective combination. The most effective variation led to significant improvements across multiple key performance indicators, including site abandonment, visitor page views per session, and overall conversion rates.

Overstock.com, the well-known Internet retailer offering branded merchandise at discounted prices, follows a similar approach to VEGAS.com. In relatively little time, Overstock.com optimized its conversion rates and average order values by globally testing new product page layouts against current page layouts.

Another web site you might have shopped online that takes testing seriously is CSN Stores, which provides more than one million products on more than 200 web sites in niche market segments.

CSN Stores has credited testing and targeting company SiteSpect with creating 7 percent of its 2007 sales growth, thanks to the SiteSpect's patent-pending A/B and multivariate testing solutions. SiteSpect allowed CSN Stores to quickly run tests to understand visitor customer responses to variations in site content, search functionality, and features. Based on the test results, CSN Stores optimized its search capability to help customers more quickly find the products they were looking for, improving the user experience and increasing sales. In addition, CSN Stores was able to discover and use alternate image sizes that elicited higher response rates.

Eric J. Hansen, president and founder of SiteSpect, says businesses have a multitude of choices when it comes to getting started with multivariate testing and behavioral targeting.

"We're seeing more and more online retailers move from simplified A/B testing, where you test one or more variations of a single idea to see which one your consumers prefer, to multivariate testing, where you try out variations of multiple ideas," Hansen noted. "Multivariate testing reveals not only which combination of ideas increased conversions, but also reveals which individual ideas influenced visitor behavior versus those that did not."

"During a rough economy, it is more critical than ever for online consumers to find what they want and have a satisfying shopping experience," Hansen said. "Internet marketers must test and optimize their websites to drive more visitors into a site, keep them engaged, and funnel them towards conversions that generate revenue -- or risk going out of business."

== About SiteSpect ==

SiteSpect enables online marketers to optimize website and mobile web effectiveness through multivariate testing and behavioral targeting solutions. By testing different variations of landing pages, product descriptions, search results, and buy-flows, SiteSpect empowers marketers to maximize every part of their website or mobile web offering. For more information, visit www.SiteSpect.com or call 617-859-1900.