‘SeeWhy’ conducted a study on a sample of 60,000 e-commerce transactions to analyze the origin of the people that added items to their basket. This study shows that e-mail brings the most traffic with 56.8% followed by Direct traffic with 17.9% and 10.3% with for Search. Social Media provided only 4.3% of traffic while picking up the rear was Display Advertising which managed only 1.7%.

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‘SeeWhy’ then studied the origin of those who had completed their purchases on the site. Not surprising then when they discovered the best conversion rate is up e-mail with 67.37% followed by Direct with 23.68%. Search Engine Marketing (SEM) and Display, two sources of traffic charge, contribute 1% of the traffic conversion.

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Don’t think that SEM and Display are useless, and to remove them would be more foolish, consider them as part of your overall strategy. Just because the user didn’t buy first time it doesn’t mean they won’t the next. It makes sense not to put all your eggs in one basket.