A01 chaf6542 06 se fm indd

Channel outcomes

Record customer actions 

taken as a consequence 

of a site visit.

Attrition rate

Percentage of site 

visitors who are lost at 

each stage in making a 

purchase.

Figure 12.8

Attrition through e-commerce site activities

Payment & fulfilment

0

Per

centage of site visits

Failed

delivery

No email

notification

Card validation

error

Price

uncompetitive

Awkward

selection

Clumsy site

navigation

Slow page

load

Wrong

audience

Unclear

marketing

message

Unengaging

look and feel

No real-time

stock information

High shipping

costs

Product selection

First impressions

Depth of relationship

Acquisition

100

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Chapter 12  Digital business service implementation and optimisation

5  Channel profitability

A contribution to business 

profitability

 is always the ultimate aim of e-commerce. To assess 

this, leading companies set an Internet contribution target of achieving a certain proportion 

of sales via the channel. When easyJet (

www.easyjet.com

) launched its e-commerce facility 

in 1998, it set an Internet contribution target of 30% by 2000. They put the resources and 

communications plan in place to achieve this and their target was reached in 1999. Assessing 

contribution is more difficult for a company that cannot sell products online, but the role of 

the Internet in influencing purchase should be assessed. Discounted cash flow techniques are 

used to assess the rate of return over time. Service contribution from e-channels should also 

be assessed.