+13%
CVR
Reading time: 8 min
Increase e-commerce conversion rates with strategically timed, relevant pop-ups
Key takeaway
Even when you factor in retargeting and cart abandonment emails, close to 52 out of
100 shoppers will leave their cart behind and never return to your store. In real terms, if you could slice that number down to 40 out of 100 shoppers, you’d increase your total
revenue by over 20%. How can this be achieved? By anticipating cart abandonment and utilizing UX
and Copy Changes that are designed to refocus customer attention so that you can keep them immersed in the
checkout experience until they complete their order.
Summary
Opportunity:
Research Journals estimate that roughly $18 billion in sales revenue is lost
to cart abandonment each year. Baynard Institute’s data suggests that 69.57% of the
time, your customers will exit your virtual store and leave their shopping cart behind. Of that 69.57%, only about 26% will be recoverable through retargeting campaigns.
For the average store?
52 out of 100 shoppers will browse, fill their cart, and act like they’re about to checkout, only to turn
around at the last minute and waltz out of your virtual store – never to return again. But imagine the
revenue increase you could generate if you were to keep even a few of those customers from leaving…
Risks:
As with any change to the checkout experience, the risk is that you introduce UX, Copy, and Design changes
that decrease user satisfaction and cripple your conversation rate.
Method:
A scroll-sensitive and time-sensitive and behavior-sensitive pop-up that triggers to prevent users
abandoning their cart. It leaves your normal funnel experience unaffected (mitigating risks), and instead
only targets those who are likely to abandon.
Result:
Two pop-ups were tested, and one was a clear winner that increased CVR by +13%.
The Client
Gaiam was struggling to fight the goliath that is cart abandonment. They’re a leading lifestyle brand
dedicated to making yoga, fitness and wellness accessible to everyone.
However, their diverse product line that includes yoga essentials, fitness gear, and wellness products was
being abandoned by customers left right and center.
That’s why we came in, we were going to help Gaiam find the strategies they needed to reduce their abandon
cart rate and increase their overall CVR by +13%.
Insights
As expected, a significant number of users abandoned their Gaiam cart during the final
stages of the
checkout process. But why was this happening? A deep dive into the user journey revealed several potential
causes:
Key reasons for Abandoned Cart:
- Comparison Shopping: Some Gaiam customers would add products to their cart
and then venture to other wellness and fitness sites to compare prices and product features. By the time
they were done, they had either decided to not buy at all, or would instead be captured by a competitor’s
rival offer. - Unclear shipping costs: Some users were turned off by unexpected shipping
costs that only became apparent in the final stages of checkout. - Lack of immediate incentives: Unlike other eCommerce platforms that offer
instant discounts or incentives, Gaiam’s checkout process lacked such instant gratification elements. - Mobile Experience: A significant portion of cart abandonment occurred on
mobile devices, suggesting potential issues with the mobile checkout experience or distractions faced by
mobile users.
Hypothesis
Based on the insights gathered, we concluded that if we created a pop-up, we would be able to re-focus user
attention towards the checkout experience – reducing abandoned cart rate, especially for mobile devices.
We attached the timing of this pop-up to four different triggers:
- User behavior: The pop-up would be triggered when a user added at least one
product to the cart during their current session. - Cart interaction: When a user closes the cart but continues shopping,
indicating potential indecision or distraction. - Product Page Engagement: The pop-up would appear when a user scrolled to a
certain point on a product page, indicating interest but hesitation. - Browser Interaction: Another trigger was when the user scrolled sharply
upward, activating the browser menu. This action often indicates the user’s intent to leave the page.
Control
Alternative
What made Variant 2 stand out?
Key reasons for Abandoned Cart:
- Visual hierarchy: The design and layout of the pop-up was clear and
compelling, directing the user’s eye to the most important elements. - User Behavior Focus: Rather than using generic triggers, Variation B’s pop-up
was fine-tuned to respond to specific user behaviors, making it more relevant and timely. - Real Scarcity: The pop-up effectively communicated the scarcity of the
product, encouraging users to complete their purchase before missing out.
Results
Implementation of the cart exit intent pop-up resulted in
- A 13% increase in eCommerce CVR.
- The A/B test results achieved 95% statistical significance, indicating that
the results were not due to
chance, but were a real improvement.
Conclusion
Through a user-centric approach using behavioral pop-ups, we successfully helped
Gaiam reduce shopping cart abandonment and increase their e-commerce conversion rate (CVR) by 13%. This case study illustrates the significant revenue potential that can
be unlocked by understanding user behavior and implementing the right targeted strategies.
