Adobe: Gap increases between the average and the Best of the Best digital marketers in Asia Pacific

Bangalore, India, August 6, 2014: New research from Adobe has found that marketers across Asia Pacific who deliver best practices are pulling further away from their competitors. The research also confirms that digital excellence can be closely linked to revenue growth and other business success metrics.

The Adobe Digital Index Best of the Best Benchmark for Asia Pacific compares the overall average versus websites in the top 20% on six key performance indicators across six regions: Australia and New Zealand, Southeast Asia, India, South Korea, Hong Kong, China and the United States. Key performance indicators are mobile and tablet traffic, stick rate*, visits-per-visitor, time spent and conversion rate. The study is based on 120 billion visits during the 2012 and 2013 calendar years and is comprised of the aggregated and anonymous data from 16,000+ websites.

The research reveals insights into how the best digital marketing organizations are performing relative to the average. The research has previously been released in North America and Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and is now available in Asia Pacific for the first time.

“We are seeing a major gap developing between being average and being in the top 20% of marketers across Asia Pacific,” said Tamara Gaffney, Principal Analyst, Adobe Digital Index. “For conversion rates alone, the ‘best of the best’ websites in industries that sell online deliver nearly double the average conversion rate. They are proving that making a commitment to digital excellence can result in a significant increase in revenue.”

Key findings in the Best of the Best Benchmark for Asia Pacific include:

• Share of smartphones visits: The best of the best continue to outperform the masses when it comes to optimizing for mobile browsing. In the past year the gap between average and best in class for mobile optimization has grown in every country. Mobile optimization refers to websites which have been optimized for smartphone visitors. Korea and India standout with biggest percentage difference between the best of the best & average for share of smartphone visits (13.2% and 7.6% respectively).
• Share of tablet visits: The best-of-the-best sites achieve about 5% more tablet visits than the average. Australia and New Zealand, and Southeast Asia, have seen the most overall growth in tablet share.
• Stick rate: The best of the best in India have the highest stick rate of 72% across all countries; this is an improvement of 14% year on year. All countries except South Korea saw an increase in stick rate year on year.
• Visits per visitor: Return visitors have become critical for website success. The ‘best of the best’ websites increase the number of return visits by as much as 25% compared to the average across Asia Pacific. The difference in return visits for the best-of-the-best sites is highest in India, a whopping 41.8% higher.
• Time spent: Asian sites have higher time spent than the US with India leading the pack at 15.39 minutes for the best of the best. The difference between the best of the best and the average is also the highest in India at 8.08%. It is also interesting to note that in 2012 the average session time in Asia was around 6 and a half minutes and has increased by approximately 15 seconds.
• Conversion rate: The gap between the best-of-the-best and the masses is widening in India, South Korea, HongKong and China. The best-of-the-best sites in industries that sell online, nearly double the average conversion rate. While percentage rates may seem small and conversion rates were mostly flat year-over-year, improvements of just a tenth of a percent can result in millions of dollars.

“There is no such thing as ‘offline’ any more. The data is telling us that delivering seamless experiences across devices and within social media is driving the best performance and leading to superior business performance,” Ms Gaffney said. “Across Asia Pacific, those marketers delivering best in class are on par with top marketers around the world. For example, we can see that stick rate is higher across Asia Pacific than in the United States, the United Kingdom and Germany. This is a leading indicator of two important elements of website success – optimized marketing acquisition activities and homepage relevance and engagement,” she added.

“Finding out where your organization falls within the tiers of the Benchmark will help identify strengths and weaknesses and can help marketers prioritize areas to focus on”, said Umang Bedi, Managing Director – South Asia, Adobe. “Conversion rate is probably the key metric to determine revenue success for websites that sell online. Improvement in conversion of just a tenth of a percent can result in millions of dollars in incremental revenue. Cross tabbing conversion rate with device type is important as some of the greatest incremental opportunity comes from optimizing conversion for tablet and mobile users.”