Let’s think of a website or a mobile application. Consider that only 1 person in 100 visitors make a purchase, subscribe to the newsletter, or fill in the form.

“So what might be the primary intention of the remaining 99 visitors? For instance, why a user who adds a product to the cart, who has become a member, even filled his/her address details, leaves the page before completing the process? How can we increase this rate from 1%? “

In this post, I will discuss a micro-interaction that can be an indicator of the intention to leave the site. Via a case, let’s pursue the questions of “How do we understand the user’s needs? How can we meet our business and user?“.

Firstly, Let’s Start with a Question

Our user visited an e-commerce site. And the user copied the name of the product on the product detail page. (Apple iPhone X 64GB) What do you think is the next move of the user?

Will this user visit the search engine, Google, and search for the product name copied? But why?

• The user will make a price comparison of the product. Users’ curious about the competitor sites’ prices.
• There aren’t enough product details on the website.
• User is curious about user comments and wants to search them on the internet.

Maybe, will look up other products that are equivalent to that product on the site. (Like other iPhone models)

All of these explanations are just a hypothesis right now! Because we have no data.

However, We Can Create Data and Measure it!

It is possible to measure in what percentage this content-copying behavior has been performed and in what percentage the visit has ended without browsing a new page.

Indeed, we can obtain the data regarding which contents are copied from which pages by the users. (The content about how we can technically measure this provided at the end of the article.)

For instance, the visitors who have been on my personal website have copied my title at most. Perhaps I could take a glance at the internet search volumes and prepare content just for that. But, I should gather some more data first.

The questions of “What?” And “Why?” in User Experience

One of the most crucial matters I emphasize concerning the User Experience (UX) and Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) processes is the consistency of both quantitative and qualitative data. So how?

We have sent data to Google Analytics about text copying behavior. And now, we can answer the question which contents users have copied. But we need to answer the question of “Why did users copy the text?” that mentioned at the beginning of the post.

I created the following survey in an e-commerce company serving in the cosmetics industry so that it will be shown when users copy any content on the product detail page. (How I do this via using Google Tag Manager and Hotjar platforms is explained at the end of the article)

“We thought that you want some more information about the content you copied on the website. We wish to enhance your experience with your feedback. “

In well-constructed surveys, we are able to receive enough feedback.

In this study, the users themselves articulated their reasons for copying the content and leaving the site as also stated by some users.

What Did User Feedback Teach Us?

Most of the answers were not targeted at price research. (Yes, leaving the website to compare prices was one of the feedback topics)

But most user feedback has shown that seeing only the lipstick photo is not enough to make the purchasing decision. So, the appearance of this lipstick on a model was an important need for users.

“I wonder how the lipstick’s color looks on the lips. It is not shown in the product images. So, I copied it to search on the Internet 

Using images that show the appearance of lipstick on a model can increase e-commerce sales, conversion rates?

What an Incredible Insight!

Insight: “The state of understanding a particular object or situation’s importance, meaning or way of usage“

Turkish Language Society, Art&Science Terminology Dictionary / Psychological Terms Dictionary 1974

With only one micro-interaction, we were able to attain substantial insight! Now we are in the action phase.

We can do additional studies of the lipstick’s appearance on the lips and the color details. Because this need may cause our user (or potential customers) to visit a competitor website or become distracted by the content they see and forget about us.

Even though the dynamics will differ for each case and brand, performing A/B testing before taking an action in the decision-making process and move forward with data-driven facts will be the healthiest method.

Some Example Cases I Have Experienced From Different Sectors

Some of the findings that I obtained during my work with brands from different sectors only with this micro-interaction analysis.

• E-Commerce: For a brand that also sells small appliances, on the product detail pages of the ironing products, text copying event was higher. Users said that weight is a crucial criterion when selecting iron, but this information is not provided on the site. I observed this feedback frequently during user testing.
• Travel & Tourism: Since the prices were displayed in foreign currency on overseas tours, users copied the amount to determine its price according to the exchange rate, then, they left the website. “Placing a function that calculates the foreign currency amount in Turkish Lira automatically based on the exchange rate on the website would affect the reservation completion ratio?” question popped up in our minds.
• Content: Users were copying the series name and its episode together like “Behzat Ç 18. episode” in an online TV series/ film website. This was experienced especially when more than 90% of the episode was watched. These data were also ruling out the hypothesis that the user may be searching to watch that content on a different website. After performing some analysis, we have seen that the issue was about users’ inability to discover the skip to next episode feature when the episode ended. Users were typing  “Behzat Ç 19 episode” into the search bar of the website and trying to find the next content.

What We Learned

• There could be hundreds of reasons why users leave our website or even quit the process they started. We also have seen that a particular case can have different causes for brands operating in different sectors.
• At every stage, we need to understand the users’ needs.
• A process following one another as “create and measure the data, analyze, gain insight, optimize” is waiting for us.
• Micro-interactions can provide insights as well.
• The question of “What?” should be accompanied by the question of “Why?”.
• The quantitative and qualitative analysis should support each other.

Bonus: Integration and Analysis Suggestions

Finally, I would like to share some information on the technical dimension of the work that might be helpful.

• I learned this integration 3 years ago thanks to the article by Daniel Carlbom. You can follow this integration step by step, and use Google Tag Manager to publish it on your site.
• Users who exhibit text copying behavior can be segmented through Google Analytics User Explorer and a more thorough analysis can be performed. The analysis of data-based ob breakdown of users in addition to general data and rates can create different insights that you did not expect. At least it helps me a lot.

• You can use the Hotjar platform if you are planning to build a survey that will be displayed to the user during this copying action of the text. With the Tag below, you can trigger the opening of the survey during copying. Hotjar’s support document on this topic.

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