• View The most popular Web 2.0 functionality

Many of these are decidedly Web 1.0 such as Zoom and Pan, but also includes newer RIA = Rich Internet Applications.

Assessing the business case of Web 2.0 / RIA functionality

Many companies struggle with making the business case for new web functionality, so it is interesting to see how respondents measure the effectiveness when adding Web 2.0 features. This acts as a useful checklist of the sophistication of assessing a business case for Web Design initiatives.

As expected, the most common methods of measuring effectiveness are engagement (site usage = more clicks), revenue and conversion rate, but reducing returns and repeat business are significant. It is not clear how you would model increased repeat purchases.

The full breakdown of effectiveness measures is:

• Increased engagement (clicks/usage) = 63.3%
• Increased conversion rate = 60.2% (reduced abandonment, 35.5%)
• Increase revenues = 47.2%
• Qualitative feedback = 41%
• Increase repeat purchase = 29.6%
• Increase average order size = 28.4%
• Increase average order size = 28.4%
• Reduce returns = 18.5%

Methodology

The Scene7 Web 2.0 Experience 2008 and Beyond Survey was conducted from November 7, 2007, to December 7, 2007.

The survey was commissioned by well-known US E-commerce provider Scene7 which is now part of Adobe.

The key objectives of the survey were to identify and analyze what online businesses plan to do in the next year to enhance their user experience. The results were compiled based on responses from 347 companies representing a broad cross-section of product categories and selling channels.

Many are larger companies consistent with Scene7 user base.