Bibliophiles’ delight

An online rare and used book dealer is using a Web analytics tool to reach new customers and to improve visitor conversion and site usage.

Alibris has chosen Coremetrics' A/B Testing platform, which is geared toward meeting the marketing, merchandising and site design needs of online retailers.

"When you have over 50 million books, helping a customer find a signed copy of an out-of-print book can be a challenge. We are constantly looking for ways to improve our user experience and make Alibris the easiest place to buy used books," says Brian Elliott, COO at Alibris. "A/B testing lets us manage risk by measuring customer demand earlier in our development process. Rather than rely on subjective evaluations, we can use the solution to quantify the impact on visitor conversion before committing additional resources."

According to Coremetrics, Alibris used its A/B testing and real estate reporting software, for example, to change the presentation of a search function that narrows the focus of a search. Moving the option to a more prominent position on the site had a major impact—500 percent more clicks and a 400 percent increase in sales, Coremetrics reports. With the new system, far more customers are using the tool to refine their search results by book attributes like signed, hardcover or first edition.