Bionic Gloves Used VWO To Address Cart Abandonment And Increase Its Revenue

Sq1 performed many tests on the Bionic Gloves website using the VWO platfom. Based on the test results, several elements of the website were changed. This case is focused on an interesting test that was performed on one of the most important pages of any eCommerce website, the shopping cart page.

One study by Surepayroll estimated that each year eCommerce websites lose a whopping $18 billion because of shopping cart abandonment. Clearly, cart abandonment is a major challenge for online retailers- Bionic Gloves included.

This is what the original shopping cart page looked like:

Sq1 believed that reducing cart abandonment would boost completed conversions and hence, sales. They hypothesized that removing the ‘special offer’ and ‘gift card’ code boxes from the shopping cart page would reduce cart abandonment. This was rather counter-intuitive, and A/B tests were the only way to establish the validity of their hypothesis.

They set up an A/B test on the VWO platform. The variation was tested on close to 1400 visitors for a duration of 48 days. The primary goal tracked was revenue. This is a screenshot of what the variation page (without the code fields) looked like:

The tests proved the hypothesis. The variation (without the “gift card” and “special offer”) actually increased total revenue by a whopping 24.7%. Revenue per visitor too went up by a substantial 17.1%.

Understanding what happened and why is perhaps the most fascinating and gratifying part of A/B testing and conversion optimization. Explaining the results, David from Sq1 said, “Anytime you leave the door open for a user to leave the conversion funnel – even if it seems like they’d come right back – you risk losing sales. By showing the Promo Code field on the cart, users were enticed to leave the site in search of a promo code. At that point, the conversion process is interrupted and you are more likely to lose potential customers. As such, hiding it was a very logical test.”

If you are an avid online shopper, chances are that you too have displayed similar behavior. Right in the middle of the purchasing process, you spot a box asking for a discount/coupon code and off you go trying to find one. As David pointed out, this tendency creates a number of risks for online stores:

• The sight of a coupon box triggers visitors to look for one on Google and other places. Here’s what a quick Google search of “Bionic Glove” revealed (in the auto-complete searches):

• eCommerce websites risk losing money to affiliates and websites offering deals, coupons etc. because visitors may end up finding a better deal on another online store.

A smart way of dealing with this challenge is to offer a discount and show the relevant codes right on the product page and also on the cart/payment page. Depending on how the store structures its discount schemes, this approach could even help increase average order value by encouraging buyers to buy more things (e.g. to get to the threshold at which coupons can be applied).

Myntra, a fashion eCommerce website based out of India, is a great example of this: