A popular e-commerce auto body parts and supplies client didn’t feel their conversion rates reflected the current stage of their business. Their prices and stocked products were comparable to their competitors, however, their conversion rate remained well below the industry benchmark.
Stuck In First Gear
Although achieving small improvements on their own using an A/B testing program, they were unable to pinpoint the exact cause of their lackluster sales. After hearing about Elite SEM through word-of-mouth, they enlisted the help of Elite’s CRO team to help shift their conversion rate into top gear.
Troubleshooting and Tune-Up
After doing a thorough audit of their analytics, competitor sites, and the client’s unique site challenges, the CRO team hypothesized that improving the Checkout page presented the greatest opportunity to improve the conversion rate.
On the Checkout page, the team noticed there were too many elements vying for the user’s attention. However, one, in particular, caught their attention. Hidden among other callouts and features towards the bottom of the page was a Shipping Estimator.
The team hypothesized that this “user-centric” tool could help more users check out by lowering their anxiety about shipping prices. So, in order to boost usage with the tool, the team moved it higher up the page so it would sit right beneath the cart.
After testing this new location of the Shipping Estimator, they were excited to see that engagement with the tool increased substantially. However, they were also surprised to find that it actually decreased paid conversions significantly at 6%.
Though not the result they expected, this insight did bring the CRO team closer to discovering what really needed to be fixed on the Checkout page.
Initial testing of the Shipping Estimator tool placement showed increased engagement, but decreased sales conversions. Further testing confirmed the optimal placement at a later stage in the purchasing process, after the initial checkout page.
Iterating on this insight, the team decided that removing the Shipping Estimator from the initial checkout process and placing it further down the purchase funnel might actually increase conversions. By keeping the customer focused on the products and checking out, rather than the cost of shipping, the team hypothesized that purchase intent would be high enough toward the end of the process to outweigh shipping cost concerns.
Turns out, they were right.
From Idle To Full Throttle
A/B testing software concluded that hiding the Shipping Estimator on the Checkout page produced a 15% increase in checkouts at 99% confidence, and increased overall purchases by 6% at 97% confidence.
After implementing this change, the team continued to make a few other key improvements, such as making the Checkout button more prominent and changing its color from red to green. With testing and a little tune-up, the Elite CRO team had the Checkout page running at top speeds in no time, reporting not only improved conversion rate but a revenue increase of 14.37%, as well.
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