Win Report: How reversing the funnel increased orders by 22%

Win Reports help you grow your business by showing our methodology at work. Each Win Report showcases a real-world test, sharing the research, insights, and techniques that led to the win.

In the next two minutes, we’ll show you how altering a checkout flow increased orders by 22% for one online retailer.

The control and variation checkout flows for this test.

Our client is a major flower and gift delivery company, serving customers across multiple countries and languages.

Research: It’s been emotional

Sending flowers or other gifts differs from most ecommerce journeys in one particular way. Somewhere in the flow, the customer will move from shopping to “creating”. They’ll take a moment to write the personal message that will travel with the gift.

That’s the kind of difference that we pay attention to, because psychology has interesting things to say about action and creation. For example, the Ikea Effect has shown that we place significantly more importance on things we have “made” ourselves… even if the “making” is fairly minimal. Similarly, taking action represents a commitment of sorts, and as the persuasion principle of consistency shows, we’re more likely to finish the things that we’ve started. Finally, the act of writing a personal message can’t help but connect us to the reaction that it will create, future pacing the final step.

What would happen if we brought that moment of personal investment higher up the funnel?

The original checkout (or control)

The original flow proceeded in a logical sequence: browse > select a bouquet > enter details > write your message > pay.

The original checkout flow. — The control: Customers didn’t reach the card message until step 4, after delivery details.

The tested page (or variation)

For the variation, we moved the card message step to immediately after product selection.

The variation checkout flow. — The variation: The card message now appears right after the customer chooses their flowers.

Result: Orders increased by 22%

During the test, we observed a 22% increase in orders. Moving the card message to the front of the funnel, before we asked anyone to pay, turned more browsers into buyers.

A customer who has written their message has already made something personal, invested some effort, and pictured the reaction it will bring. These are each psychological nudges, and by the time the payment step appeared, fewer people hesitated.

The lesson reaches well beyond gifting. We’ve had similar wins for fintech clients who allowed customers to personalize their credit cards. Many purchase journeys contain a “yes” moment of personal investment. If yours does, find it and test bringing it forward. A customer who has started to create is a customer who wants to finish.

What next?

As usual, we added the test to our proprietary Wins Database, then looked for ways to apply its lessons to other parts of the business, and then to other clients.

If you want us to grow your profits—quickly and efficiently—check if you qualify for a free one-on-one strategy session with one of our CRO consultants.

We’ll only work with you if we believe we can get amazing results together. Our success has come entirely from positive word of mouth, and we plan to keep it that way.

How much did you like this article?

Where to spend your AI budget? Google has just given you the answer

What’s your goal today?

1. Hire us to grow your company

We’ve generated hundreds of millions for our clients, using our unique CRE Methodology™. To discover how we can help grow your business:

Read our case studies, client success stories, and video testimonials.
Learn about us, and our unique values, beliefs and quirks.
Visit our “Services” page to see the process by which we assess whether we’re a good fit for each other.
Schedule your FREE website strategy session with one of our renowned experts.

Schedule your FREE strategy session

2. Learn how to do conversion

Download a free copy of our Amazon #1 best-selling book, Making Websites Win, recommended by Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Moz, Econsultancy, and many more industry leaders. You’ll also be subscribed to our email newsletter and notified whenever we publish new articles or have something interesting to share.

Browse hundreds of articles, containing an amazing number of useful tools and techniques. Many readers tell us they have doubled their sales by following the advice in these articles.

Download a free copy of our best-selling book

3. Join our team

If you want to join our team—or discover why our team members love working with us—then see our “Careers” page.

4. Contact us

We help businesses worldwide, so get in touch!

The most successful enterprises use us. (And the fastest-growing startups too.)

…and helped to grow many of the web’s most sophisticated companies (including Amazon, Apple, Google, Facebook, and Dropbox). Plus, we’ve grown many smaller companies in 41 countries in 11 languages. How can we help you?