Live Bearded: How seemingly small CRO tests can lead to big improvements

After building the website, we have continued our partnership with Live Bearded to further optimize their store for higher conversion rates. 

One test we recently ran with them was comparing three different versions of their cart. We were planning to change their /cart page to a slide-out drawer cart since this is quickly becoming best practice on ecommerce sites, but we wanted to make sure the change wouldn’t hurt their conversions. 

In the test, we ran two versions of the slide-out cart against the existing /cart page. So, really, think of this test as an A/B/C test. 

The first version of the slide-out cart included additional iconography and information to help build trust with the customers. The second version was more simplified. For all three versions, we reviewed conversion rate as a primary metric and revenue per session as a secondary metric.

At the end of the test, it was clear that the slide-out cart with iconography and trust-building information was the winner. It had a modeled improvement over the baseline of up to 18%. 

When we reviewed Live Bearded’s checkout completion rate, we also saw that this slide-out cart had an improvement over the baseline of up to 40%! 

Anthony Mink, Live Bearded’s CEO, said he found himself surprised by these results: “This test is a beautiful reminder of why we must always test and retest critical steps in our funnel. We tested a slide-out cart a few years ago and it was a huge loser for us, so I was a bit hesitant to test it again. But buyers' behaviors change over time, especially as the industry as a whole changes. As a brand, we need to always be questioning assumptions and iterating at the important steps of the funnel.”

As you can see, even small CRO changes can have a big impact.