TVC2012 Demo Company Spring Metrics Helps Small ECommerce Clients Increase Sales

Ahead of the CED Tech Venture Conference 2012, we sat down with a few of the executives that will be presenting as Demo Companies to find out what makes them tick…

Peter Bourne, CEO, Spring Metrics

Today's interview is with Peter Bourne, CEO of Spring Metrics. Peter shared knowledge on how eCommerce companies can increase sales conversion rates with Ann Revell-Pechar, who serves on the CED PR/Marketing Committee. Spring Metrics is a Demo Company at the CED Tech Venture Conference 2012 and Bourne is psyched to participate in the Conference and gain access to investors. 

Ann:  CED Tech Venture Conference attendees can learn a lot from you; what does Spring Metrics look forward to accomplishing at the CED Tech Venture Conference?

Peter: We’re really glad to be a part of this year’s CED Tech Venture Conference. It is great for exposure to new ideas and sources of capital, plus gives us the ability to demonstrate Spring Metrics’ new functionality. We’re on an aggressive growth path, and exploring our options for about how to fund that growth.

Ann: We love hearing about growth – can you tell me more about Spring Metrics?

Peter: We’ve developed a conversion optimization solution, delivered on a SaaS platform, that’s tailored to small and medium sized eCommerce merchants –with revenue between $100,000 and $1 million per year. Merchants use Spring Metrics to segment site visitors into behavioral groups, and then present relevant and highly personalized content or incentives. By differentiating offers we increase conversion rates.  

By the time you hit $250,000 in revenue, you have substantial traffic filled with unique visitors. The challenge, then, is moving from increased traffic to a better conversion rate. If you’re at the industry average, you’re converting about 3% of your traffic. If we give you even a 1% increase in conversions, that’s more than a 30% uptick in sales. 

Ann: This must be a huge problem, because it seems like there are more and more companies each day that are offering marketing automation solutions. How different are you from your competitors?

Peter: What we’re offering is less work and better results. In less than 30 minutes each week, our customers are seeing often 16 - 20% increase in sales conversions.

If you have deep pockets, you can buy $100,000 software to get dynamic content delivery on your site, and if you have a large marketing team, it works. But small to medium sized eCommerce companies don’t want to reorganize content, or spend hours figuring out what offers to give each visitor. With Spring Metrics you can synch with your PPC campaign to reinforce the message. And instead of offering 10% discount to everyone, devaluing your brand and looking like discounter, maybe you offer it only after a multipage visit.

Ann: That sounds like a lifesaver for small companies without that $100,000 to spend.

Peter: We charge a monthly subscription fee, tiered based on traffic, which ranges from $200 to less than $1,000/month.

Ann: You came on board as CEO in February of this year. Tell me about your vision for Spring Metrics.

Peter:  Ecommerce is evolving fast, and the margins are fantastic. But things are changing and we anticipate consolidation. Customers want a single source for a group of solutions that might include email marketing, retention programs, and conversion optimization software. Spring Metrics will continue to dominate the conversion optimization software space, and partner for alternate solutions.

Right now, we’re focused on building a scalable customer acquisition model, and we’re breaking through barriers. This year, we’ve add 5% in revenue each week. And it’s due to a vision that’s very customer-focused, and a marketing message all about new customer acquisition.

We’re adding valuable data sources on which users can segment. You may want to differentiate between the visitors using mobile, tablet and desktop PCs. Because the conversion rate for people using a tablet is higher than mobile, the platform may trigger a different offer. We’re adding segmentation on demographics, and ultimately we may have vendors that manage that data for us.

Our new social media module has been very impressive. We generated over 20,000 Facebook likes for clients in last couple of months. So, if you can’t sell them, at least get their data to remarket it, and if not that, use it to drive ‘likes’ on Facebook.

Ann:  You’re in Durham, right? What keeps you there?

Peter: Yes. Durham has an excellent entrepreneurial growth community. That’s part of why my family moved here from Silicon Valley. We’re obviously members of CED, and the company was a graduate of LaunchBox in 2010.

And there’s a strong presence in the Durham area as it relates to retail eCommerce, with Bronto, iContact/Vocus, Windsor Circle, Argyle Social, etc. and that breeds excellence.