Value of Commerce Site Face Lift?

Minnapple's stunning comment

[jsinger]

I have worked in ecom for 8 years.
Face lifts, are worth 1% additional sales at the best.

Minnapple's quote above is solid gold. Thought I'd give it its own thread.

What results have you seen from commerce site Botox, cosmetic surgery? I'm referring purely to prettying-up a site.

[hippypink]

i have a site that is a huge exception. My conversion rates increased by about 3x (or 300%) as a result.

I can post links to waybackmachine if thats possible.

My goal was to improve usability, simplicity, followed by improve beauty, as the site sells fashionable clothing.

I have seen other cases where design does not help, but lets clarify what we are talking about when we say improving design:

* simple/clean vs. rich/clutttered
* old vs. modern
* are we changing navigational elements?
* are we changing content
* are we changing calls-to-action
* slower vs. faster loading
* animated gif's vs. flash vs. static images (lol)
* etc...

[hippypink]

should also mention:
site had not changed for about two years,
I get a few thousand visitors per month,
nothing else changed on the site,
that increased conversion rate took about 2 weeks to reach.

[wtkad]

Big push for "put some flash on the site". I ask myself, and the client, to what end?

This is a battle I'm fighting more and more as well. I keep hearing "You have to get their attention". I understand the idea, but not the approach. The first example of flash they're considering is the logo in the header - and that's the last place I want to draw attention.

I'm not strictly opposed to Flash, if it serves a purpose or adds value. We do have one particular product where Flash would even be a good thing to show how it works. I'm not crazy about adding it "because we can" or just to be obnoxious. But it's going to be requested more and more - along with moving/blinking text and whatever else.

[jsinger]

All the "flash" I need:

New
Free
Sale
This Week
Limited Time
Was - Now
Last Chance

[minnapple]

I would suggest video over flash.
Improves conversions and offers new optimization ops.

[BananaFish]

The term "facelift" is very broad. The only way it can help a site is if it takes a non-professional looking site and presents it in a professional manner. Usually what a "facelift" does is to take a non-professional looking site and make it look like a non-professional site with fancy graphics and the like. This, of course, will do very little for the bottom line.

However, if you really do improve your web site, it will have a positive effect on conversions and consumer confidence.

[hellraiser1]

hi

The only way it can help a site is if it takes a non-professional looking site and presents it in a professional manner.

if anyone has comments on the criteria on "what makes a site look professional", like the cues, the conventions, or is it just that it is consistant. when does it "depend" and the like

Everyone looks (and visits sites) in a different way, looking at different things. A lot of times, its functional, "do you have the widget i think i need and can i turst you to fullfill my order" ...that knid of advise would be invaulable i think