Telephone numbers on merchants sites where is the proof?
I had a very interesting discussion with one of our clients and the associated affiliate network about prominent telephone numbers running across the merchants website.
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Before I proceed, yes the merchant removed them after explaining about affiliate commission leakage and yes also aware that there are scripts that can be run to remove telephone numbers from merchant’s websites. But here is the thing. I went off to do my research on proof that having telephone does increase sales. I went to a lot of websites including econsultancy.com to go and find anything that could even point to the fact that consumers decision to buy was based on the fact there was a telephone number on every page. What I found was that the majority of sites I visited who advocated a telephone number on every page had nothing to back up why this should be. A common belief is that this aids consumer confidence in the company. Of these sites that recommend telephone numbers on every page, not one made any reference to there being an exception to the rule when it comes to a merchant having an affiliate program and offering advice on how to get around this. Another thing I spotted was that none of the sites used the arguement that of giving the end user a choice, which is what I would have expected to see.
So is there any data out there that proves sales will increase if there is a telephone number on every page of a merchant’s website. If there is none, does this mean it’s a metric that no one wants to know about, if I was a merchant, Id want to know.
Of course there will be occasions where by a phone number on every page is necessary for example very high priced items. But the norm should be every merchant should be shouting about their secure payment methods and on the static nav bar “how to contact us” opens in a separate window which lists the telephone number there.
For merchants with an affiliate program here is why we do not recommend that you have a telephone number on every page. Its called Affiliate commission leakage. Affiliates aggregate targeted traffic for you, costs them money, they direct their traffic to you to make money from sales (leads). Now pop on your affiliate hat and step into their shoes. If a percentage of referred traffic that are going to buy by picking up the phone and placing an order via this route, the affiliate has just lost his/her commission. As an affiliate Im thinking why should I refer traffic if I run the risk that some will pick up the phone, Ill just go push a competitor that understand affiliate commission leakage. Chances are the affiliate will already have done their pre-check on you and wont even bother joining your affiliate program. Can you have your cake and eat it? Well yes.. but will depend on your affiliate network or in-house tech guys. Most affiliate networks can now offer the facilities for merchants to be able to hide the phone number when a visitor comes through an affiliate link. Some networks even offer pay per call meaning that affiliate referred visitors who like to pick up the phone, the affiliate is still credited with the commission but I find this all a bit messy.
So show me the stats that say sales were made as a direct result of having a phone number on every page, I feel a new survey coming on :0)
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