In November 2007, ING Direct acquired personal investment site Sharebuilder. While the acquisition was said to be strategic in that ING Direct would now be able to offer investment options to its current customers, the question is whether this acquisition has achieved that goal. Specifically, did the acquisition increase demand amongst ING Direct’s current customers for Sharebuilder products?

Read the farthest point to the right as: ~7% of ING Directs customers who logged in that month also began a Sharebuilder application, and, of that 7%, 5% completed it

The chart above shows the percentage of ING Direct’s active account managers (customers) who began a Sharebuilder application in the same month (represented by the yellow line) compared to the percentage of ING Direct customers who began and completed a Sharebuilder application (represented by the orange diamond). So what we can note from the chart above is that the yellow line is not trending upward, but instead looks relatively stable from the month prior to ING Direct’s acquisition of Sharebuilder in November to 3 months post-acquisition. This indicates that demand for Sharebuilder accounts by ING Direct customers has not increased post-acquisition as we’d expect.

When looking at the orange diamonds, however, notice that they are actually trending upward post-acquisition, significantly. This shows us that after the acquisition, ING Direct customers who started to open an account at Sharebuilder were more likely to essentially finish an account at Sharebuilder*. In fact, in February 2008, ING Direct customers were 5x more likely to complete a Sharebuilder application once started than in October or November.

The finding here is that while the acquisition of Sharebuilder did not exactly increase more demand from ING Direct’s customers in the short term, it did increase the likelihood for an ING Direct customer to complete the application. So what are the implications of this finding? The story the data may tell us here is that demand for investment options do not necessarily change, that a certain percentage of a group of people will always be in market looking at different investment vehicles. However, while a certain percentage of people are in market, these people are more likely to complete an application with a company where they already have an existing trusting relationship, and in this case, five times more likely. So, by acquiring Sharebuilder, ING Direct is in fact increasing its penetration into existing accounts. This increased account penetration will ultimately create more loyal consumers and thus could be the first indication that this acquisition will prove successful in the long run.

*For this study, we considered a person to complete a Sharebuilder account when they completed an account and selected a pricing plan


Analyze more domains: + +

Done reading? subscribe: To get an automatic feed of all future posts subscribe here, or to receive them via email enter your email address in the box in the right column.

Link to This Post:     


Comments

RSS feed for comments on this post.
  1. no credit history credit card card credit credit history no card credit credit history no people

    casino download online casino no download free casino download

    Where casinos ligne casino gambling

  2. slotmaschine online spielen

    bonus casino playtech

    Su jeux video poker sign up bonus stip poker gratis bonus casino playtech blackjack strategien

  3. iso 9001

    thanks

  4. ELD DANISMANLIK

    wonderful blog, thank you


Have something to say? Leave a Comment

Get the comments RSS feed, instant notification of new comments

Latest Blog Posts:


Jul 2: White Gloves & Thrown Elections: Michael Jackson vs. Iran Election
Jul 1: Did the iPhone 3G S Steal the Palm Pre’s Thunder?
Jun 30: The Role of Search in the Online Auto Insurance Market
Jun 29: MJ or Bust: Millions Hit Web to Learn of the Loss of Their “King of Pop”
Jun 26: Digital 180 with BabyAge.com President Jack Kiefer
Jun 25: With Help from Media, Twitter Overtakes Google as Leading Search Engine for “Iran+Election”
Jun 24: T-Mobile and BillShrink.com: Friends with Benefits?
Jun 23: Top Coupon Sites: Saving Money Now Easier, More Popular Than Ever
Jun 22: Unemployment Claims Sites Seeing Dramatic Increases in Traffic.
Jun 19: For those about to RockYou.com, we salute you!
Jun 18: Summer Movie Blockbusters Go Big on MySpace
Jun 17: Palm Pre Shoots to Rival the iPhone Launch
Jun 17: Digital 180 with Canoe Ventures’ David Verklin
Jun 16: Target vs. Wal-Mart: Online Conversion Battle Heats Up
Jun 16: Digital 180 with Virgin Mobile’s Bob Stohrer
Jun 15: May Data Highlights: Twitter’s Growth Shows Signs of Fatigue
Jun 12: Touchscreens: A silver bullet in the wireless phone market?
Jun 11: Bing Attracts New Searchers, But So Far Only For a Trial
Jun 11: Jon and Kate Divorce Rumor Searches Soar, those for Britain’s Got Talent’s Susan Boyle Plunge
Jun 10: May Search Market Share: Pre-Bing Launch, Sponsored Referrals Dip at MSN/Live


Download MoviesBuy NeroBuy Cheap OEM softwareDownload mp3Buy Cheap OEM Software