An important job for every website is to understand and respond to the differing needs of new versus returning visitors. For example, first-time visitors are more likely to be interested in your return policy or best-selling items, while returning visitors and loyal customers probably will want to know about new products and current promotions.

One way to target content to these core segments is to change up the home page, still a significant source of traffic for any ecommerce website. A specialty products retailer did just that, serving this product-focused promotion to its new visitors:

Returning visitors, on the other hand, saw this sale-oriented appeal:

By creating a more relevant message for shoppers who had been to its website before, this retailer drove a 50% lift in average order value and a 7% lift in average page views for this important segment.