Client : Anonymized for Privacy (Gift Products Online Store)
Split-Testing Platform : Optimizely
Site Type : E-commerce (Multi-Product)
Test Approach : Variable Cluster A/B Split Test (Multi-page)
Objectives : Increase in sales conversions and revenue per unique visitor

Commentary and Critique on Original Site (Control)

Control Homepage (Click to Enlarge)

This eCommerce stores sells a large variety of products suitable to be purchased as gifts. These products are the newest gifts on the market, incorporating unique, engaging and highly desirable gifts for anyone and everyone.

Based on previous test results as well as feedback from customer support, there is indication that customers had trouble finding suitable products as gifts and they need help. We also gathered that few people scrolled down to the bottom of the homepage.

For such an eCommerce store it is important that potential customers are able to easily identify and purchase what they need. If they are having a hard time finding what they need, they will just leave the store for another.

We identified some possible areas of improvement for conversion testing, based on 4 main areas: initial experience, value proposition, friction and anxiety. Below we highlight some of the major issues we looked at.

Initial Experience

Treatment Homepage (Click to Enlarge)

As mentioned earlier, in the control, customers have trouble finding suitable gift products. We hypothesize that if the site improved on this aspect, their conversion rates would see an increase.

In the treatment page, we tested our hypothesis and changed the top navigation and side navigation to improve the focus. We designed inspirational paths to help potential customers browse the shop more effectively. We based our design on surveys, customer support as well as information from previous tests.

Value Proposition

To reinforce their core value proposition of variety, we added a headline in the treatment that conveys the message above the inspirational path banner. We used reverse text as the attention maps show that this design captures more attention.

The marketing copy below the headline serves to draw the visitor into the shop experience and strengthen the value proposition.

Friction

Inspirational Path

As mentioned earlier, we designed inspirational paths to help visitors browse effectively as there are many products on the site. We categorized products based on by the person you are gifting, by occasion, by price and by personality. This can help reduce friction as it allows them to find exactly what they need and make a purchase.

Treatment Inspirational Path (Click to Enlarge)

Newsletter Feature and Product Display

We reduced friction on the treatment page by removing the newsletter subscription function as it might distract potential customers from the primary goal – to browse and buy.

We reduced the number of products displayed to 3 so as to reduce friction. Having too many options can overwhelm the visitors and complicate and distract the potential customers from the main goal of purchasing. When information is presented to them in a manner that is difficult to digest, it reduces the likelihood of them taking action.

Control Product Display (Click to Enlarge)

Treatment Product Display (Click to Enlarge)

Anxiety

To reduce anxiety, we added a very obvious “Shipping and Returns” link on the top navigation bar. Shipping and returns is important to the potential customers and by letting them know clearly how much their shipment cost and introducing the 365-day 100% money back guarantee policy would counter their concerns.

The “checkout” button in the control was changed to “view cart” in the treatment. In actual fact, the button functionally leads to the cart and not directly to checkout. It intuitively makes sense to label the button clearly based on what it actually does. By doing so, anxiety of potential customers is reduced if they want to view their cart before proceeding to checkout immediately.

Checkout Button

View Cart Button

To further reduce anxiety, we added credibility icons by showing where the eCommerce store had been featured on. This would provide social proof and a peace of mind for potential customers viewing the page.

Running the Test

We used Optimizely as the A/B split test platform for this website, and conducted the A/B split testing on several template elements on the site clustered as a single variable.

Test Results

Increase in Revenue Per Visitor (Click to Enlarge)

Increase in Conversion Rate (Click to Enlarge)

The combined changes made to the site resulted in an increase in both conversion rate and revenue per visitor.

The conversion rate for the treatment improved by 12.8% in comparison to the control at 95% level of confidence.

The revenue per visitor increased by 16.2% in comparison to the control at 95% level of confidence.

The post 16.2% Increase in Revenue from Implementing Inspirational Paths Design (Case Study) appeared first on Bluelambda.

Client : Momomango.com (Korean Skincare Products Online Store)
Split-Testing Platform : Optimizely
Site Type : E-commerce (Multi-Product)
Test Approach : Radical redesign, testing several template elements on the site clustered as a single variable
Objectives : Increase in Sales Conversion Rate and Revenue Per Unique Visitor (RPV)

Commentary and Critique on Original Site (Control)

Control Homepage (Click to Enlarge)

This Korean skincare products company is an eCommerce site that offers 100% authentic Korean skincare products.

For such an online store, it is important that the skincare products sold are seen as trustworthy and authentic by potential consumers as they are applying these products directly to their faces.

We identified some possible areas of improvement for conversion testing, based on 4 main areas: initial experience, value proposition, friction and anxiety. Below we highlight some of the major issues we looked at.

Initial Experience

Treatment Homepage (Click to Enlarge)

While a visitor can tell that this eCommerce store retails Korean skincare products, we wanted emphasize this point even more. The control page did not express clearly the “Koreanness” of the store.

If a potential customer does not see the uniqueness of this store and cannot see clearly what it has to offer within 3-7 seconds, they will just leave for another competitors’ page in a click.

The control page had an image slider which usually has poor usability as they move too quickly and don’t capture the limited attention of the visitor well. Most visitors actually miss the message on the images or do not notice them at all if they are constantly moving.

Value Proposition

We decided to test a core value proposition of stocking 100% authentic Korean skincare products. This value proposition has always been in place but we wanted to improve the communication and clarity of it further.

In our new treatment page, we changed the main theme color of the site to create more of a “skincare” feel to the site. This further enhances the clarity of the value proposition on the site.

The logo was changed to be smaller and to express more “Koreanness” to further express the authentic value proposition. Free sample icons and authenticity icons at the side serve to increase incentive as well as clarity of the value proposition.

Control Logo

Treatment Logo

We added number of happy customers at the top of the banner to highlight credibility and create social proof to reinforce the core value proposition of the shop.

We also added statements and headlines and copy conveying the value proposition on the top portion landing page. We wanted it to be easily visible and clear to potential customers so that they know what we have to offer them once they land on the page.

Friction

Skincare Guide

As earlier mentioned, the use of image sliders can be distracting to visitors and they can draw attention away from your main value proposition, and cause friction.

To attempt to counter the friction and the attention problems on the site, we changed the the banner to a static clickable image which leads to a “skin care guide” which is an inspirational shopping path.

Control Slider Banner

Treatment Skincare Guide Banner

The inspirational shopping path helps visitors identify skincare products best suited for them based on their skin type or product type. This enables them to source for products that are most effective for them easily. The copy and graphics on the page further reinforces the value proposition.

Call to Action and Newsletter Feature

We reduced friction by increasing the clarity of the call-to-action (CTA) button by adjusting the placement of the checkout button to a position more visible on the top and made it the primary action. We also changed the color of the checkout button.

We also removed the newsletter subscription feature as it might distract the potential customers from the main conversion goal of getting the sale.

Anxiety

To reduce anxiety due to shipping concerns, we added a shipping icon at the right column. The icon shows that the website ships to Canada and US with free shipping above $75. This serves to ensure customers that shipping is available in their region and that there will be no hidden delivery cost if they hit a minimum spending of $75.

Treatment Shipping Icon

Running the Test

We used Optimizely as the A/B split test platform for this website, and conducted the A/B split testing on several template elements throughout the site clustered as a single variable.

Test Results

Increase in Revenue Per Visitor (Click to Enlarge)

Increase in Number of Checkouts (Click to Enlarge)

The treatment did not increase the conversion rate, but rather the revenue per visitor which is an even more important goal. This is interesting, as this means that people are purchasing more, driving up the RPV. There was no statistically significant change in the conversion rate.

The Revenue Per Visitor for the treatment was improved by 19.2% in comparison to the control at a 95% level of confidence.

The treatment increased the number of checkouts started by 22.4% at 99% level of confidence.

The post 19.2% Increase in Revenue from an eCommerce Radical Redesign (Success Story) appeared first on Bluelambda.

Client: Supplements Brand (Anonymized for Privacy)
Split-Testing Platform: Optimizely
Site Type: E-commerce (Single-Product)
Test Approach: Variable Cluster A/B Split Test (1 Page)
Objectives: Increase in sales conversions and revenue per unique visitor

All confidential information has been redacted in order to protect our client’s privacy.

Background

With the success of the previous two tests in increasing the conversion rate significantly for this client (see case studies for Test 1 and Test 2), we continued to try and improve the conversion rate of their website through our strategic testing approach.

For this 3rd test, we decided to test a change on the pricing and purchasing options page.

Control and Treatment

The control page and treatment page is presented next to each other below.

Control Page (Click to View Larger)

Treatment Page (Click to View Larger)

We made 3 main changes to the pricing and purchasing options page, and these will be discussed in detail below:

Change in Copy for Headline and Buttons

We changed the copy for the headline into a call for action to continue guiding the customer towards the final goal of purchasing the supplement product.

Control Headline

Treatment Headline

Besides this, the call to action buttons were also updated to communicate more value to the customer and let them be absolutely sure of how many bottles of product they were purchasing. This reduced the potential friction that could have resulted from customers being unsure of exactly how many bottles of product they were purchasing because of the ongoing promotion that our client was having.

Control Call To Action Button

Treatment Call To Action Button

Emphasizing the Middle Option and the Rearrangement of Prices

One major change that you can observe almost immediately upon comparing the control page and treatment page is that we also emphasized the middle option by making the graphic seemingly pop out. This is to continue guiding the potential customer towards a particular choice after he/she has read the headline. This again helps in reducing friction by outrightly offering them a recommended option.

Next, we also rearranged the pricing options. Previously, on the control page, they were arranged from the cheapest option to the most expensive option. However, on the treatment page, we decided to reverse this order to see if this would change the conversion rate.

No changes to the actual prices of the product or the offer was made for this test, all that was changed was the presentation of the pricing.

The theory behind this particular part of the test is a cognitive bias known as the price anchoring effect. It says that all of us tend to rely heavily on the first piece of information that we are presented with, using it as an “anchor”. Presenting potential customers with the most expensive option first will in theory anchor the decision on the first (more expensive) option, and in comparison, the subsequent options would seem to be much cheaper, and generate higher sales.

Repositioning of Guarantees

Visitors are often concerned with the security and credibility of a website. Placing guarantees to reduce this form of anxiety is hence crucial in increasing conversion rates. It is important that these guarantees are placed exactly where anxiety is felt. This is the reason we moved the 100% Satisfaction Money-Back Guarantee logo right below the Add to Cart options where it is most visible when making the crucial decision of whether to click on the call-to-action button. This reinforces the guarantee that customers will get their money back in the event that they are unsatisfied with the product, and help reduce any potential anxiety.

Treatment Guarantee Logo

Treatment Security Logo

We also added another anxiety reducer in the form of a security logo, as shown above. This helps to assure customers that the site is secure and their personal details will not be at risk.

Test Results

Increase in Revenue (Click to View Larger)

Increase in Sales (Click to View Larger)

These 3 changes to just the pricing and purchasing options page managed to lead to a 61.5% increase in revenue by and 49.5% increase in sales, at a statistical confidence level of 95%.

Lessons Learnt

As we made several changes to the page at once, it’s not possible to isolate one particular factor that contributed to the conversion rate increase in this case. It’s the combination and presentation of the various factors that led to the conversion rate increase.

Here are some quick takeaways:

1. Not much was changed on this page. Even minor changes to your website can result in a disproportionate increase in sales and revenue.
2. Even though the change on the page was quite simple, the change in the mind of the prospect was significant. The aim of Conversion Optimization (and marketing) is not to trick or deceive your customers, but to reduce unsupervised thinking and help your customers make the right decisions for themselves by offering them value.
3. The emphasis of a product level value proposition on a call-to-action button can provide additional clarity to the question “what happens or what do I get when I click this button?”.
4. Reinforce the guarantee policy or any other reassurances, especially near to the point of a critical conversion decision.

The Compound Returns of Continued Testing and CRO

Many people run a few A/B tests and then they stop testing after getting some results. Or some businesses hire a CRO practitioner and stop after they have achieved a certain improvement in their conversion rate. While there are diminishing returns from testing just one page (which you will likely not hit so soon), a continuous testing program on all parts of your sales funnel can have a significant and compound returns on your revenue and your profits.

With the exclusion of the first test (where we did not track revenue and sales, only click-through-rate), we calculated that we managed to help our client achieve a staggering 378.69% increase in mean revenue per visitor, and 252.10% increase in conversions when the results are taken together with the 2nd test for this site.

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The post 61.5% Increase in Revenue from a Simple Pricing Presentation Change (Success Story) appeared first on Bluelambda.

Client: Supplements Brand
Split-Testing Platform: Optimizely
Site Type: E-commerce (Single-Product)
Test Approach: Website Radical Redesign A/B Split using a Multi-Page Test
Objectives: Increase in sales and revenue per unique visitor

All screenshots have been redacted in order to protect our client’s privacy.

Second Test

Control Page (Click to View Larger)

The initial test we conducted for this website resulted in a 26.2% increase in number of people clicking the “Add to Cart” option. This positive result prompted us to conduct a second test on this website to further boost the conversion rate and increase the company’s revenue.

We decided in a radical redesign of the entire website to improve the results from the first test. In this test, we used a variation of our treatment page from the first optimization as the new control.

Treatment

For this radical redesign, we decided to utilize long-form direct marketing copy. The image we have attached is a cropped version of the treatment page. The utilization of a long-form copy was based on the hypothesis that potential customers require more information regarding this supplement product before they are convinced to purchase it, as it is a product that is consumed.

The benefits of the product need to be communicated clearly to the potential customer so as to put their mind at ease and assure them that they are buying a supplement product that is of no danger to their health.

Treatment Page (Click to View Larger)

The main changes we made are highlighted below:

Initial Experience

The new landing page of the website is designed around long-form direct marketing style copy. Visitors are presented with information about the supplement that are segmented distinctly so as to enable easy comprehension of the copy. The headings and the segments on the were carefully picked so as to make scanning of the long-form marketing copy easy.

The purchase option is presented only after they have digested the information about the supplement. This goes against conventional marketing “best practice” where the call-to-action should be always above the fold.

Value Proposition

We tested a new core value proposition of having a supplement product that is scientifically demonstrated to bring about positive effects. We used scientific results that were available to increase the legitimacy of the supplement product before listing clearly the uniqueness of our client’s product that differentiated them from other similar products sold by other companies.

The 100% money back guarantee and free shipping are also constantly displayed throughout the long copy to increase the credibility of the value proposition.

Scientific Results (Click to View Larger)

Treatment Guarantees

All these changes complemented each other in conveying the legitimacy and exclusivity of this particular supplement product, thereby reinforcing the value proposition.

Friction

Previously, our client provided two versions of the supplement product which differed in strengths. However, we decided to test focusing on the 1:100 version as it was bringing in more sales. The principle is to provide the customer with a limited set of options in a bid to reduce confusion and hopefully increase conversions.

The purchase options were simplified with only one strength of the product available for sale. This lessens the initial confusion caused by the different purchase options, and effectively guide the potential customer into the buying process.

The purchase options are also displayed prominently in a clearly defined box, and presented several times throughout the long-form copy. The major call to action button, the “View Pricing and Purchase” button, is in a big and bright yellow box, inviting potential customers to click on it to find out more regarding the purchasing options.

We also created a separate purchase page for the website, where the prices are stated clearly in big fonts and the exclusive discounts are also highlighted. We also calculated the total number of bottles and capsules they will be receiving for each option so as to reduce uncertainty on the customer’s part and minimize friction in the buying process.

Treatment Purchase Option (Click to View Larger)

Treatment Purchase Page (Click to View Larger)

Finally, there used to be a “sign up for mailing list” option in the control page. We removed this in this test, in a bid to not distract customers with multiple actions. We instead provided only one prominent conversion path, which was to purchase the product.

Anxiety

To reassure potential customers and alleviate their anxiety about the product further, we included common ripoffs about the product into the long-form copy and pointed out other scams that were out there so as to further highlight the unique value proposition of the client’s product.

Treatment Ripoffs (Click to View Larger)

Scientific results regarding this supplement also help to boost their confidence in the product, and information regarding the source and extraction process of the supplement are also provided so as to convey transparency and exclusivity of the supplement. An actual picture of the product is also included so that customers know exactly what they are getting.

The free shipping logo has also been enlarged even further as compared to the first optimization to address customers’ concern about the price and assure them that there are absolutely no hidden charges.

Many more testimonials by various satisfied customers we also included in the copy.

All these corrective measures work by being very specific and trying to address address precisely the source of customer anxiety and work to counteract it.

Corrective measures were also placed at close proximity to where anxiety might be possibly felt by the prospective customer. An example is the 100% Money Back Guarantee Logo, which is placed inside the purchase options box as a pledge to customers that their money will be fully refunded if they are not satisfied with the product.

Running the Test

Platform

Optimizely was used as the split test platform for this test.

Technical Challenges

We found that a lot of the sales were not tracking properly in Optimizely. After some investigation, we found that this a limitation of the current checkout process. Some customers were not redirected properly to the “thank you” confirmation page after their purchase. These customers had a successful purchase but since they did not view the “thank you” page, the confirmation was not tracked in Optimizely.

As we tracked which sales came from both the control and the treatment, we were still able to take the conversion and traffic numbers and calculate in a spreadsheet the test results and the error ranges using a 2-tailed z-test (the same test Optimizely uses).

Test Results

Increase in Sales and Revenue (Click to View Larger)

This radical redesign resulted in a 134.48% increase in revenue and 68.63% increase in sales, at a statistical confidence level of 95%.

Lessons Learnt

As with all radical redesigns, it’s impossible to breakdown the conversion changes to the exact “contribution” of each factor. Moreover, the variables and elements in a webpage are most certainly not independent.

We can only say that the combination of the new presentation and copy lead to the changes in conversion.

The testing of a new value proposition that communicates directly to customers regarding the positive effects of the supplement has worked. We initially hypothesized that customers will require more information about this complex product, hence the adoption of a long form copy to present this information. This hypothesis is very likely to be true, judging by the positive results of this optimization test.

The better design also increased the credibility and legitimacy of the website, reducing anxiety. Addressing the various points of possible friction also enabled us to navigate a visitor through the entire buying process and successfully convert them into customers.

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The post 134.48% Increase in Revenue from an eCommerce Radical Redesign (Success Story) appeared first on Bluelambda.

Client: A Supplements Brand
Split-Testing Platform: Optimizely
Site Type: E-commerce (Single-Product)
Test Approach: Variable Cluster A/B Split Test on 1 Page
Objectives: Increase in Click Through Rate (CTR) on Add to Cart Button

Certain elements of this case study have been redacted to protect the client’s privacy.

Commentary and Critique on Original Site (Control)

This supplement company is an eCommerce site that offers a premium supplement product for sale. As such products are supposed to be consumed, it is important to convey the legitimacy of the product to potential customers through the website.

This is the first of 3 tests that we ran for this client. You can find the details of test 2 here and test 3 here.

Original Homepage (Click to View Larger)

Initial Experience

Visitors to the website were immediately confronted with several buying options when they landed at the control homepage before they even knew what the website was selling. This is another case of “putting the call to action above the fold”. It’s more important to put the call-to-action at the right part of the prospect’s thought sequence.

In essence, you should present the offer at the right time and not try to force the sale down the throat of the customer. This is especially important in a high friction and high anxiety process such as making an online purchase.

We decided to test informing the visitors about the product before presenting them with the buying options.

Value Proposition

It is important to clearly communicate a value proposition on a webpage that is asking for the sale. On the internet, your closest competitor is just a click away. If you don’t effectively differentiate your product or service from your competitor, and give them a reason to buy from you, they might just buy from your competitor.

On the control page, that there could be improvements in the communicating the quality and legitimacy of the product. We hypothesized that if these attributes were better emphasized, the company will have more people adding the product to the cart..

Original Buying Options (Click to View Larger)

Friction

As mentioned previously, buying options were presented to a visitor of the website even before enough information regarding the product was conveyed to this potential customer.

We hypothesized that this creates friction in the mind of the visitor, and will discourage him from continuing to read more about the product, leading to the visitor not purchasing.

Other than that, the website also offered two variations of their supplement, which differed in strength. This resulted in a total of 5 available options, which can confuse the potential customer.

The placement of these 5 options were also disorganized, creating further confusion for the potential customer. Such confusion leads to difficulty on the customer’s part and hinders the buying process.

Anxiety

Given that this is a supplement product to be consumed, it is natural that potential customers are concerned about the quality of the product. However, the original homepage failed to highlight sufficiently the authenticity of their product and the uniqueness of their extraction method. There will be anxiety here on the customer’s part as they will be wary of the product.

Treatment Page (Click to View Larger)

Treatment

Based on this preliminary analysis, we moved on to execute certain changes in order to achieve our initial objective of increasing the number of people clicking the “Add to Cart” option.

Value Proposition

To convey the website’s value proposition in a more effective manner, we edited the copy on the website in such a way that demonstrated the product’s authenticity and legitimacy clearly. To achieve this, we edited the copy regarding the extraction process into a copy that explained to customers why the supplement product is different from others out there in the market.

Original Value Proposition (Click to View Larger)

Treatment Value Proposition (Click to View Larger)

Friction

The first step we took to try to reduce friction was to swop rearrange elements of the page. This way, visitors of the website were presented with product information instead of the buying options. This will improve the initial experience of a visitor to the website as well.

Bullet points that promoted the product were also created in order to allow potential customers to absorb the information quickly.

Treatment Bullet Points

Pricing options were also changed in order to better reflect the savings that potential customers were entitled to if they bought a larger quantity of the supplement. “Add to Cart” buttons were also edited in order to make them more obvious to the potential customer.

Original Pricing Options

Treatment Pricing Options

All these changes were made to try to minimize the confusion experienced by potential customers that was highlighted in our preliminary analysis, guiding them towards the intended conversion goal (clicking the “Add to Cart” option).

Anxiety

We further emphasized the generous 100% money-back guarantee and the free worldwide shipping policy on all products. Having a generous guarantee is a common risk-reversal technique that reduces anxiety.

Having a free shipping policy in place helps to reduce the anxiety by letting the potential customer know that there will be no additional charges for shipping. This was even more important in this case as the client sells to a worldwide audience and shipping charges can get quite prohibitive internationally.

Treatment Guarantees

Treatment Guarantees

We also further emphasized the free shipping policy in the form of a icon, to further emphasize in a very visible manner that there would be no additional or hidden delivery charges. The whole “credit card information” graphic was also updated to look more professional.

Original Shipping Logo

Treatment Shipping Logo

Running the Test

We used Optimizely as the A/B split test platform for this website, and conducted the A/B split testing on one page.

Test Results

Increase in Click-Through Rate (Click to View Larger)

This initial optimization resulted in a 26.2% increase in number of people clicking the “Add to Cart” option, at a statistical confidence level of 95%.

With such a positive conversion rate resulting from minor tweaks on the website, we decided to take it one step further and radically redesign the entire website. Learn how we conducted a second test on this website which led to an astounding overall 134.48% increase in revenue and 68.63% increase in sales.

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The post 26.2% Increase in CTR with a Few Simple Changes for an eCommerce Site (Success Story) appeared first on Bluelambda.

Client: Top Condoms Canada
Split-Testing Platform: Optimizely
Site Type: Hosted E-commerce (Multi-Product)
Test Approach: Radical Redesign A/B Split on entire conversion funnel (desktop only traffic)
Objective: Increase in sales and revenue

Commentary and Critique on Original Site (Control)

Original Homepage (Click to View Larger)

The conversion rate of Top Condoms Canada has historically been healthy, so the co-owners believed the conversion rate could not be improved by much. In addition, the site is selling a range of commoditized products which are widely available.

We identified some possible areas of improvement for conversion testing, based on 4 main areas: initial experience, value proposition, friction and anxiety. Below we highlight some of the major issues we looked at.

Initial Experience

While a visitor to the website can probably tell that Top Condoms Canada is an online e-commerce shop retailing condoms in Canada from the name, we wanted to make it even more obvious. You usually only have the first 3–7 seconds to catch the attention of the visitor, and in those short few seconds we want to ensure that we communicate what the website is about and what they can do here.

Value Proposition

There was no clear value proposition identified and communicated on the website. Having a clear value proposition is important for all businesses. This was even more important for Top Condoms Canada as they are mainly selling condoms, which are widely available.

There needs to be a good reason why a customer should buy from this site as opposed to buying from a competitor’s e-commerce site, or a regular brick and mortar shop.

Friction

There wasn’t a clear path to the main conversion goal of a purchase. A good number of the visitors land on the homepage, and it isn’t particularly clear what action should be taken.

Control Shopping Cart Links (Click to View Larger)

Original Product Page (Click to View Larger)

On the product page, the add to cart button is the same color as the heading. The checkout and view cart features after the potential customer has added a product to the cart just consists of 2 simple text links which are the same color as the rest of the sidebar navigation.

The lack of an obvious navigation path to the conversion goal is a further cause of friction.

Anxiety

Based on customer feedback, it was determined that having discreet shipping for all the products on the site was a feature they liked, as it protected their privacy. This is a feature that has been standard for all items shipped since Top Condoms Canada was started.

However, the fact that discreet shipping is standard across all orders is not immediately obvious to the potential customer.

In addition, there is potential for some anxiety for the potential customer when purchasing from a smaller niche-shop as compared to purchasing from a bigger e-retail shop such as Amazon. First time customers might be thinking that this relatively unknown shop might be a fly-by-night operation.

Treatment

Based on the above analysis, we came up with a hypothesis that the conversion rate of the site (as defined by the number of unique visitors who purchased a product), and also the revenue-per-visitor would increase if we addressed the above issues.

Note that these are not the only things we changed. As the radical redesign consists of many changes throughout the conversion funnel and would be too lengthy to list, we just highlight the main points here for Conversions Guaranteed readers.

Here are the specifics:

Value Proposition

Treatment Homepage (Click to View Larger)

We decided to test a core value proposition of having a strong money-back guarantee. This guarantee policy has always been in place at Top Condoms Canada, however it was not immediately obvious.

Our new treatment variation expressed this core value proposition at all stages of the conversion funnel as well as on each individual page on the sidebar for increased congruence and continuity.

Significant traffic was going directly to the homepage, so we replaced the default banner graphic which didn’t express much value with a newly designed banner with a call to action button to the most popular condom products.

Control Banner (Click to View Larger)

Treatment Banner (Click to View Larger)

Supporting the core value proposition, we also made it clear that products from the shop are premium quality brands. The process level value proposition (on call to action buttons for example), was also reinforced where possible.

Initial Experience

We redesigned the header to be even more explicit about what the site is about: providing premium quality condoms in Canada online, and included the main value proposition statement.

Control Header (Click to View Larger)

Treatment Header (Click to View Larger)

Friction

We created a default clear path for users landing on the homepage in the form of a visually appealing call-to-action button to quickly to go to a page where they can see a list of the most popular products on the site. Visitors who already know what they want have the option of shopping by brand or type of product via the navigation on the sidebars.

On this popular products, the copy on the control page was replaced with copy that further reinforced the value proposition and reduced the anxiety and friction for the visitor.

Control Featured Page (Click to View Larger)

Treatment Featured Page (Click to View Larger)

Having this new conversion flow reduces friction and helps guide the visitor towards the intended conversion goal (a purchase) instead of leaving the visitor to wonder “what should I do now?”.

Control Sidebar Cart Preview Links (Click to View Larger)

Treatment Sidebar Cart Preview (Click to View Larger)

Original Product Page (Click to View Larger)

Treatment Product Page (Click to View Larger)

The buttons representing the core conversion actions were also made bigger and more obvious by using a different color (orange). The order on the sidebar cart preview was also switched around to emphasize our preferred conversion action (proceed to check out).

Running the Test

Segmentation

We ran the test solely on desktop (non-mobile) traffic, as the BigCommerce checkout process differed for mobile browsers.

Technical Challenges

Treatment AJAX Lightbox Popover (Click to View Larger)

We used Optimizely as the split test platform for this test. This test was done before Optimizely launched their multi-page testing feature, so testing one funnel against another was more challenging as we had to use their custom variation code.

We now use their multi-page experiments feature for our funnel test and this has cut down our implementation time significantly.

Another technical challenge was the BigCommerce hosted e-commerce platform used by Top Condoms Canada. The site used AJAX extensively in their checkout process, so parts of the experiment had to be custom coded by using the Optimizely API.

Validity Threats

The test was initially started in end-December. We found that there were wild fluctuations in the conversion patterns in the final week of December, around the New Year holiday in Canada.

Although the sales pattern of the site historically does not show a seasonal effect on conversions, we decided to restart the test after the holiday season to try to reduce the probability of a validity threat to the data.

Test Results

Increase in Sales (Click to View Larger)

Increase in Revenue (Click to View Larger)

The radical redesign resulted in a 53.7% increase in number of sales and a 63.7% increase in revenue, both at 95% statistical confidence.

Note: Parts of the screenshots have been redacted to protect private client information.

Lessons Learnt

Addressing the combination of initial visitor experience, value proposition, friction and anxiety was very effective in increasing the conversion rate of the website significantly. This was in spite of condoms being a product which is commonly available rather than being completely unique.

This good conversion rate increase was possible even though the pre-optimization conversion rate was already pretty high.

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