‘Cut My Plastic’ came to us hoping to increase their online conversions. Let's take a look at their results.
CRO Delivers a 19% Increase in Checkout Conversions (a Case Study)
By Luke Frake
Background
‘Cut My Plastic’ came to Space Between hoping to increase their online conversions. As a new business, their online presence was vital to their growth. Their audience and their users also needed to build trust and more of an association with their brand. Despite rapid growth overall, their online sales were running below their projections and goals. This was their first dabble into the world of Conversion Rate Optimisation (or CRO) and therefore, were understandably reserved about how much of an impact it could make to their site.
The Challenge
Cut My Plastic wanted to take more orders online. They wanted to make it easier to purchase both stock and bespoke plastic sheeting through their website. There were a large number of potential customisations that could be made on each product, and their checkout page also needed to serve both a B2B and B2C audience.
The main KPIs were identified as being:
The Analysis
Using both qualitative and quantitative research techniques, we were able to prioritise areas of their website that would deliver the greatest value to the client in the shortest amount of time.
Using Analytics, User Experience (UX), User Interface (UI) and Stage Conversion Analysis, we discovered that their checkout page was as an area that was causing problems with their customers. This was an area identified as being full of potential for delivering significant return to Cut My Plastic. We discussed the opportunities with the client, and agreed to deliver the project.
Using the insights from the analysis, we developed our hypothesis to address the problems found. We designed an alternate checkout for purposes of testing our methods, and how users interacted with the changes that we made. The result, was that the test was statistically significant even from an early stage in the testing, and continued to improve as the test progressed.
Our Hypothesis
We hypothesised that by reducing the visual complexity of the clients ‘Cart Page’ we would expect to see an increase in user click-through to the Checkout Page. This involved adding / updating payment method icons, as well as adding a customer star rating and testimonial area.
The Solution
After looking at a number of options based on ease of implementation and impact, we made the following changes to the Checkout Page, including:
The Result
The primary metric for assessing stage conversions from the Product Detail Page (PDP) to Checkout, showed a 13% increase with a Confidence Rating of 88%.
The secondary metric was focused on increasing completed purchases. This test had higher than expected results than forecast - achieving a 19% improvement with a Confidence Rating of 87%, exceeding all expectations.
We attributed this to two factors;
Next Steps
Following a successful test, we’re not stopping there. Our next proposal is to increase conversions from the homepage to the PDP. Cut My Plastic currently offer any customisation of any plastic to their users. However, the vast majority of their sales are polycarbonate sheets. As a result, we wanted to make it easier for users to find their way to that particular product page.
Our Second Hypothesis
We were ready to expand on our test, and define a new hypothesis. We hypothesised that by engaging the user as soon as they land on the homepage it would provide users with faster access to the sales funnel. This in turn, would further increase stage and sales conversions.
The Solution
After some initial competitor analysis and a review of the relevant analytics, we decided to add a ‘Quick Quote’ tool onto the Cut My Plastic homepage. This included:
The Result
At the time of publishing, this test is still running. Current indications show a 17% increase in Stage Conversions to the PDP, as well as an increase in checkout conversions.
The Conclusion
Every business can afford to increase their online purchases by 19%, and with Cut My Plastic, their business growth goals became a reality. The added beauty of it was, that is took minimal time and effort on their part. Working with our recommendations, changes were made to their website that not only removed barriers for their users, but made their UX far more intuitive. The thing with UX and CRO is that for a lot of businesses, they don’t know what they don’t know. So for the purposes of education, we have shared the results of this case study to inspire others to explore the world of Conversion Rate Optimisation for their website.Making your website intuitive and enjoyable breeds potential for turning visitors into customers. This affects all areas of your site from UX and UI, to Information Architecture (IA), Page Hierarchy, and Tone of Voice.
About the Author
Luke Frake is a CRO Specialist, Keynote Speaker and Director at Space Between.
Follow Luke on Twitter @LukeFrake