Key Takeaway
By requesting credit card information at the start of the free trial instead of at the end, Cooksmarts increased its trial-to-paid conversion rate by 86%. The shift reduced trial sign-ups, but significantly increased trial-to-paid conversion and overall ARPU.
Client Overview
Cooksmarts is a subscription-based meal planning platform that helps users streamline home cooking with weekly meal plans, shopping lists, and step-by-step recipes. Users select a plan and receive all the information they need to prepare their meals, saving time and reducing decision fatigue.
Opportunity Background
Cooksmarts offered a free trial with a credit card charge at the end of the trial period. While this process encouraged more users to start a trial, conversion from free to paid plans remained lower than expected. User analysis confirmed that trial users with higher engagement - more logins, more page views - were significantly more likely to convert. This insight led us to explore how engagement at the start of a trial could increase engagement and improve downstream conversion.
Solution
We introduced an updated user flow that required users to enter their credit card details at the start of the free trial, rather than at the end. The goal was to create a stronger sense of engagement from the start, encouraging users to actively explore the platform and build habits that would carry over into the paid experience.
Results
The new flow reduced visitor to free trial conversion by 63%, but increased free trial to paid plan conversion by 91%, resulting in an 86% increase in overall visitor to paid plan conversion. User engagement also improved, with a 19.5% increase in pages viewed per session and a 22% increase in average session length. These changes were statistically significant at the 95% confidence level.