Win Report: How we increased orders by 9% without a discount code

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 three minutes, we’ll show you how adding two free services to a checkout page increased orders by 9% for a South American gift company.

Side-by-side comparison of the control and variation payment step in the checkout process. The control is a generic cart summary; the variation displays two free services

Our client delivers gifts internationally, serving visitors in several languages and currencies.

Research: The dropout came at the very last step

When we analyzed the client’s funnel, analytics showed a high proportion of visitors dropping out at the payment stage of the checkout. These were people who had already chosen a gift, entered their billing details, found and entered the recipient’s delivery address, and selected a delivery date. In other words, they had put in a lot of work only to leave without paying.

Why?

If you’ve read our article on the five golden questions, you may remember question four, which we ask visitors right after they convert.

What’s the one thing that nearly stopped you buying from us?

In this case, a high proportion of customers said that the final price almost stopped them. Many of them mentioned wanting a discount code to feel like they were getting value for money.

While discount codes or price reductions can make sense in some circumstances, they shouldn’t be the default answer. Price objections often signal that visitors are unclear about the value proposition.

When we looked at that final checkout page through the visitors’ eyes, we saw:

The gift and its price.
The sales tax.
The delivery fee.
And then finally, the total.

Every line on the checkout was for something that the customer was paying for. Was there a way to reassure visitors about the value of the products and protect our client’s margins?

The original page (or control)

Here’s a mockup of the original checkout page. The order table name-checked the gift, then listed the subtotal, sales tax, delivery cost, and total.

The control showcasing the generic cart summary table in the checkout process

The tested page (or variation)

For the variation, we added two rows to the order table, directly beneath the gift. Each one named a service the customer was already receiving and included the FREE price.

The Variation cart summary table with added two free services line

The two additional rows read:

Premium Service: Seasonal products and ingredients selected and hand-wrapped by our white-glove team.
100% Satisfaction Guarantee: Committed to making you and your loved ones happy!

And in the price column, both items were listed as FREE.

Neither service cost our client a cent beyond what they were already spending, because both were already included as standard. In the variation, we simply reminded the visitors of benefits that were part of their purchase.

Result: Orders increased by 9%

During the test, we observed a 9% increase in orders.

Keep in mind that the only thing that changed was the mental arithmetic the visitors did on that final page. A price is never judged on its own. It is judged against what the customer is getting for it. That is the framing effect at work, and the existing order summary was framing the final purchase as exclusively painful.

Our research showed that visitors were looking for an extra reason to feel good about the transaction, so we gave them two in the same table as the total.

The lesson generalizes across markets. As we’ve said before, reassurance that already exists is often worth far more at the moment of payment than anywhere else.

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 client’s 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?

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