CRO, or conversion rate optimization, is one of the most misrepresented disciplines in the eCom world.
Before we get into it, I want to thank this week's sponsor: Proppel. Proppel helps your marketing and operations team source exceptional remote talent from LATAM, so you can grow faster and reduce costs up to 80%.
If you submit a hiring request to Proppel by June 10th, you'll receive 10% off the placement fee. Click here to get started.
You’ll see a lot of CRO agencies and consultants push the message that you should “always be testing”, and that you’re only one A/B test away from “10x-ing your conversion rate”. Like most claims that are too good to be true, this is mostly bunk.
But that doesn’t mean you should disregard usability and CRO testing/optimization altogether. There are tangible benefits to reducing friction and ambiguity, especially if you’re running the “See it, like it, buy it” Meta ads playbook.
I’m going to outline how to leverage CRO at every stage of growth, then share a list of site experience optimizations that have been validated by testing in prior projects. If you’re looking to optimize your website, this list is a good place to start.
CRO Is Not One Size Fits All
If your “winning” A/B test wasn’t set up to be statistically valid, and the result does not have enough data to reach statistical significance, it’s not actually a winner.
Why does statistical significance (“stat sig”) matter? Because, without it, your “win” might simply be a fluke. This is counterintuitive. To make it feel real, run an A/A test–a split test where both variants are the same. You’ll often find that one variant “wins” anyway.
This is a barrier to entry for smaller brands, because you typically need a large volume of data to reach stat sig. The more subtle the lift that your test variant creates, the more data you’ll need to reach stat sig.
For example: a test variant that lifts conversion rates by 10% (this rarely happens!) will require less data to reach stat sig vs a test variant that lifts rates by 0.5%.
And, zooming out for a minute, a 0.5% lift in any metric really isn’t that meaningful for a brand doing $5M/year in revenue. CRO is more powerful, and more scalable, for bigger brands. Even a $25M/year brand can only really run 3-6 stat sig tests per year.
If you want a thorough breakdown of this issue from a true subject matter expert, listen to this interview with Shane Rostad.
Smaller brands are going to see more meaningful benefits from doing UX right the first time, then holistically evaluating the site experience two to three times per year.
At this stage, meaningful CRO is a response to shifting business conditions; your best sellers, your customers and your value prop are going to shift more rapidly in your brands first few years.
Instead of trying to optimize discrete elements on your website, focus on reducing friction and improving clarity in your path to purchase. This is going to be the path from landing page to checkout for your best selling product(s).
Once your business hits $50M/year you’ll typically have enough traffic and sales volume to run one statistically significant test per month. This is where it might make sense to invest in a CRO agency. At $100M+/year, you can consider bringing the function in-house.
***
What is the difference between $1M brands and $100M brands? Ruthless prioritization.
Tactics don't deliver consistent growth. Instead, it's knowing which tactics to prioritize for your brand's customers and growth goals.
This is why some of the fastest growing brands I've worked with build out their teams in Latin America. It's a simple way to scale output or test new marketing initiatives at a lower cost, without compromising on talent.
Proppel can help you find the perfect fit for your brand's needs. They have a vetted roster of graphic designers, video editors, email marketers, marketing assistants and more.
Your hiring dollars will go further, but you'll still enjoy the benefit of a lower language barrier and a bigger overlap in time zone and culture.
If you submit a hiring request to Proppel by June 10th, you'll receive 10% off the placement fee. Click here to get started.
***
Data-Backed Optimizations For Fashion Brands
Optimize Above The Fold Space On Mobile
The “above the fold” space is the top portion of your page that is visible before the user scrolls. If your visitor doesn’t see what they’re looking for here, or the experience is confusing, it’s going to increase the odds of a bounce.
There are two common mistakes I see here:
First, category pages where 80% of the above the fold space is taken up by the header navigation and some kind of ~aesthetic~ banner image. Make sure that one row of product, including names and prices, are visible above the fold.
Second, PDP pages where the only thing visible above the fold is the image carousel. Get the product name and price above the fold, too. If there is a disconnect between the image in the ad and the image in the carousel, this causes user confusion.
Turn The PDP Into A Landing Page
Instead of building out separate landing pages for key products (almost impossible for fashion brands with big catalogs), borrow landing page strategies and apply them to your PDP:
- Add social proof elements, like an “as seen in (publication)” interstitial bar, awards from notable sources, review counts, etc.
- Make sure that the variant selector design is not confusing.
- If the product lends itself to features/benefits, include an interstitial outlining those.
- Highlight reviews that are especially impactful.
- Integrate user reviews, UGC and testimonials, even if they’re from influencers.
Check out this page and this page from two different supplements brands to get an understanding of how these elements can look.
Put Important Info In The Image Carousel
If your product has features that are important to your audience, put them in the image carousel. A lot of people won’t read through all the information on your PDP. Put make or break info in the 2nd and 3rd images (or even the 1st, if your design will accommodate it).
Examples of make or break info:
- For shoes, how high the heel is + any comfort features.
- For bags, how much and what type of items can fit in it (ex. a Macbook, an iPad, etc).
- For many women’s bottoms and dresses, does it have pockets?
- If the brand has any unique fit features that make the product slimming, comfortable, easy to get on and off, etc.
- If the fabric has sweat wicking, stain resistant or wrinkle resistant features.
- For furniture and decor items, how big is it in relation to commonly understood items. Apple devices work well here, as do coins/bills.
- For furniture and decor items, the dimensions of each side. People don’t know what you mean by width, length and height. Which side is the “width”?
“Click To…” & Emoji In CTAs
This one was the product of a lot of CTA testing. People are more likely to click if you write it out: “Click To (Do Action)”. For example, “Click To Claim Your Offer”.
If emojis resonate with your audience, a subtle emoji (like a smiley face “:-)”) in your add to cart button can boost click rates and conversion rates. Weird but true, and very brand-specific.
Boomers Don’t Understand Nested Elements
Many boomers don’t know how to use a hamburger menu. They don’t know what it is. They don’t know that you need to click on it. This is doubly true if the menu and its background are tonal (not contrast) colors.
If you don’t believe me, do a website walk through with your mom.
Many boomers also won’t understand nested dropdowns on your PDPs. If you have discreet sections of the PDP set up so that only the header is visible and you must click to reveal info, most boomers will never see it.
You can kind of counteract this with design. Net-A-Porter does a pretty good job of “signaling” the nested elements on their PDP by making the first one open and putting the arrow right next to the header title.
Tailor Your Landing Page Experience To Your Traffic Source
Basically, for cold traffic, you want to provide as many relevant alternatives as possible to the product the person clicked on.
This is challenging on feed-based ads that default to the PDP, because the additional products are typically all the way at the bottom of the page in a “you may also like” module (if they exist at all).
To get around this, larger brands create a feed ads-specific PDP where the main product information is condensed and a large grid of related products sits directly above or below it.
See an example from Crate & Barrel here and from LL Bean here.
Popups Can Kill Conversion Rates
And it’s not just your email Welcome popups! It’s your GDPR cookie opt-in, your PITA floating SMS opt-in, your customer service chat bot, etc.
If you’re going to A/B test one thing, test removing as many of these annoying popups as possible, especially from landing pages for high cost channels like Meta.
My Thoughts On “Spin To Win”
Apparently, this does drive email opt-in and conversions. But does it bring in email subscribers who convert, or customers who repeat purchase at high margin? I doubt it, but no one ever tests this stuff.
I would not do this unless a gamified promo strategy is a pillar of your brand, or you’re desperate.
Promos Always Convert Better (Use With Caution)
If you A/B test your homepage hero banner, the version featuring a sale or promo message is always going to convert better. This is true across your site. It almost isn’t worth testing.
That said, there are downstream effects. You can shift customers who had full price purchase intent into sale purchases. If you lean on this strategy, it will become harder to sell at full price over time.
Additional tip: if you’re messaging a promo, use the deepest discount that is accurate, and make it the first/biggest thing in the copy.
Pressure Tactics Do Work (Use With Caution)
Countdown timers work to boost conversion rates, but they can also make you the target of a class action lawsuit unless they represent something real. Click that link if you don’t believe me–brands are getting sued over this.
The RealReal has a legal/accurate countdown timer. They only reserve the contents of your cart for 15 minutes. This is meaningful because the inventory quantity of every item is one. If you drop your cart, someone else might steal it from you.
If you’re going to use these timers, make sure it reflects a real thing that is happening. This tactic works better during clearance sales or drops, where stock is limited and demand exceeds supply.