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How Reserved works on conversion rate optimization

Let's say that you work in the ecommerce department of a large online shop or chain that wants to quickly become established on the Internet: Do you have a lot of time? Not likely. Working in an ecommerce department is a constant race of duties, problems, and projects galore-there's never enough time. Most likely you wish there were more hours in a day.

Summary

about

Reserved is the oldest and leading brand of the Polish company LPP S.A. Reserved is a clothing brand offering the most fashionable ladies’, men’s, and children’s wear. The website reserved.com was launched in 2013

Website: www.reserved.com
Industry: Clothing

challenge

To increase revenues by using a suitable conversion rate optimization process.

final results
  1. 4.6% conversion rate increase
  2. Time saved by achieving results without involving the client’s IT department
  3. Money saved by avoiding unnecessary involvement of the entire team and additional marketing investments.
testimonial

“Thanks to the tests carried out by Growcode, we learned a lot about our users. We also found things that improved and increased the revenues of the shop. We will certainly apply these discoveries in our other shops as well as our new websites”
– Piotr Piechocki
ECOMMERCE MANAGER, LPP S.A.

The bigger your company is, the more difficult it’s to add capabilities to the e-commerce department

On the other hand, every ecommerce manager would be proud of the website’s quick development and that it is generating higher revenues under his or her leadership. But there are so many other pressing issues to deal with.

Some of these problems were also encountered by one of the largest Polish clothing companies, LPP S.A.:

We are a large business and our priority is to grow even bigger. We want to increase our online sales and number of brands sold while expanding to more markets. This involves most of our developer and UX resources, and it takes our ecommerce department's time. Therefore, it's hard to find time to optimize our existing stores and improve them, even incrementally. This is important, because if we identify factors that accelerate sales, we can apply them in other shops and take advantage of the economy of scale.

Piotr Piechocki, eCommerce Manager at LPP S.A.

Pawel Ogonowski and the Growcode team, along with Marek Pelczynski and Aleksandra Charzynska from LPP, undertook the optimization of the Reserved website to find changes that would increase the conversion rate. In the project, Growcode used its proprietary technology for ecommerce optimization.

Growcode optimizes ecommerce and guarantees increased revenues without involving the IT department. Using their proprietary technology, Growcode follows a different pattern than the current development of ecommerce websites and ensures rapid growth of online stores based on data and a proven process, without undue involvement of the client’s team.

A single optimization cycle takes only four weeks. Coding the changes takes about a week and is done entirely by Growcode. We like it when, in such a large company as ours, things happen so quickly.

- says Aleksandra Charzynska of Reserved
Growcode ensures fast ecommerce optimization – from idea to design, implementation and testing of ideas in four weeks.

Data, data, and data once again. As always, Growcode started by collecting and analyzing data. Quantitative and qualitative analyses and usability tests were executed. The results supplied dozens of recommended changes which were then prioritized.

At the top of the list were the least time-consuming changes that had the highest potential for increasing conversion rates. Based on this conclusion, we formulated an initial hypothesis: What if instead of a radical, risky changes, the re-design was prepared by means of A/B and multi-dimensional tests, allowing us to handle the conversion rate at every transitional stage?

This is where the problems appeared. The changes made have to line up with the other priorities of the IT department, which is busy with a multitude of other projects – creating new web pages, overseeing mobile versions, or designing applications. In most companies, especially the big ones, it is hard to make time to optimize existing web pages in the already tight schedule.

Growcode helps bypass the traditional developmental roadmap and provides changes directly to users without interfering with the source code of the website or involving the IT department.

We just had to add a single line of script, which took us only a moment. The version for the A/B test was coded entirely by Growcode. This allowed us to significantly accelerate the process. In the first test there were two alternatives, and in the second test there were seven! With our current priorities, we would not have been able to find time for that.

- says Marek Pelczynski from Reserved

The team from Growcode coded the changes for Reserved in a week. Following those changes was the A/B test, which lasted two weeks. Upon completion, the team carried out in-depth analyses and verified its hypotheses.

Unfortunately, the initial results were not as good as expected.

The two key hypotheses that were chosen for the tests concerned USP (Unique Selling Proposition) communication and free delivery.

The changes chosen for the first test focused on the USP – or the answer to the user’s question: “Why should I buy from you and not your competition?”

Below are the hypotheses in detail:

HYPOTHESIS 1

Adding the USP on the home page, the categories page, and in the product descriptions would emphasize the advantage of Reserved and convince more users to buy on the website.

BEFORE: Only the categories page communicated the USP, and only partially. It was present neither on the home page, nor in the product descriptions.

AFTER: Throughout the home page, categories page, and the product descriptions we described why the users should buy Reserved.

Home page – USP elements were added at the top. Additional information was presented upon mousing over the elements.

Category pages – The partial USP was included on the first tile at the top.

Product descriptions – The USP was also repeated in the product descriptions (under the button). Additionally, for products more expensive than EUR 50, a notice about free delivery by courier was added.

HYPOTHESIS 2

Changing the USP communication in the shopping cart would raise the percentage of users who proceed to the next step in the checkout process.

BEFORE: The USP did not mention the unconditional free delivery to users and the fact that orders over EUR 50 would be delivered free of charge by courier. Additionally, all elements were presented only by means of keywords: They were not explained.

AFTER: The USP communication to the right of the shopping cart was changed. When the order value exceeded EUR 50, the information about free delivery changed.

All tested versions were prepared in resolutions suitable for a desktop, a tablet, and a smartphone to fulfill the requirements of today’s multi-channel world.

The results of the first test fell short of expectations: the average order value increased, but the expected conversion rate increase did not materialize

The results were quite surprising. The average order value increased by 2.19%, but none of the tested versions produced a statistically significant change in the conversion rate.

Each test should be a lesson for us. If test results surprise us, we should ask, “Why did the changes not work as we expected?”

After further analysis, it turned out that the conversion rate was affected by an increased rejection rate on the home and categories pages. The changes proposed on these pages were therefore suspicious.

The team from Growcode prepared alternative versions for the next test, including various combinations of the previously tested changes. In some versions, the changes to the home and categories pages were removed.

In the second test, we achieved the desired results: one version increased the conversion rate by 4.6%

Which previous change’s rejection allowed successful alterations in the USP and increased the conversion rate?

The winner of the next test was the version that included only the changes to the product descriptions and shopping cart. It turned out that the method of communication proposed on the home and categories pages disturbed users instead of encouraging them to buy.

What does this test teach us?

  • First: It’s beneficial to tell users why they should buy from us and not our competition.
  • Second: It’s worth using more than just keywords.
  • Third: It’s important to emphasize free delivery next to eligible products (in this case, products over EUR 50).
  • And finally: Even slight changes in communication may have a significant impact on conversion rate and are worth testing.

You may think that 4.6% is a tiny number. See how that converts to the revenues of the shop

If 4.6% seems insignificant, observe the effect on shop revenue. Imagine that the average revenue of your online shop is USD 1 million a month.

A conversion rate increase of 4.6% would mean your shop earns an additional USD 46,000 revenue every month.

  • Without involving the IT department.
  • Without additional marketing investments.
  • Without taking the time of the whole team.

Thanks to alterations that were invented, designed, coded, and tested in two cycles in eight weeks.

Thanks to the tests carried out by Growcode, we learned a lot about our users, and we also found other things that improved and increased the revenues of the shop. We will certainly apply these discoveries in our other shops as well as our new websites. Now we are using the Growcode technology and continue to provide our users with the most successful version, and our IT department does not have to code the changes the hard way. It makes things much simpler because after the test, changes are immediately visible to all users, and we profit from it.

- Piotr Piechocki from LPP S.A

Meanwhile, we are designing another test in which we will prove another set of hypotheses. In the next test, we will try eight alternative versions. It will be interesting, at the very least!

- remarks Pawel Ogonowski of Growcode