Last week Kevin Hillstrom wrote about optimizing for the wrong measurement. He was implying optimizing for orders received or total sales on Cyber Monday when in-fact the business should be measuring profitability. This optimization happens all the time and it’s an easy trap to fall into. Traffic is one of the big trapping metrics. You …
Tag: conversion optimization
The good iceberg that growing stores forget about
I usually recommend that you have a few experiments active at once. testing out a new channel to acquire customers testing out an idea in one of your existing channels testing out optimizations in your area of focus for the month/quarter/year All three are new ideas or new things. You’re trying to see if they …
Imperfect optimizations can yield benefits for your Shopify store
One side of our house has a good-sized garden. During spring and summer, it gets a ton of sunlight and heat which helps everything grow well. In winter though, the sun drops to a low angle and basically goes away behind the neighbor’s house. This makes growing anything during the winter really difficult in that …
The expensive call to inaction
A few minutes ago I was reading through one of my most popular articles on Customer Purchase Latency. At the bottom of it I noticed that the call to action was out-dated… and not by a little bit, by a lot. It mentioned a service that I haven’t offered for years now. Something that Repeat …
A-then-B conversion optimization for smaller traffic Shopify stores
I did a lot of A/B testing in the past, especially with paid advertising and clicks. But it’s difficult to do that with lower traffic and a major conversion (e.g. purchase). Instead I started doing what I call: A-then-B testing. In A-then-B testing, you measure your results right now (your A, the control). Then you make …
Conversion rate optimization dogma
This week I was reading a conversation from a self-described “conversion expert”. They were claiming that some optimizations made to a Shopify store were invalid because the store didn’t run an A/B test and wait for statistical significance. What a line of BS. Statistical significance is jargon for, the result is valid and probably not …
Are you throwing away buyers because of a missed setting?
I learned last week that a few email marketing systems will automatically unsubscribe your customers if they place an order in Shopify and don’t check the Accept Marketing checkbox in checkout. It’s commonly listed in checkout as “Keep me up to date on news and offers” or “Email me with news and offers” but each …
Take care of deferred maintenance before the busy season
I’ve been wheelbarrowing loads of wood chips to our garden. On the first trip I noticed the wheelbarrow bouncing around oddly and being difficult to steer. I checked the tire and it wasn’t punctured but there was almost no air in it. Five minutes and a bike pump later, it was back up to 25 …
Cutting down problems to make room for growth
Yesterday I cut down two yew trees that were causing problems. They were too close to the house, blocked the view of the front door (confusing visitors), and the branches were starting to separate making them look like a 90’s mohawk. I hate cutting down trees but since we have two spare native shrubs coming …
Homepage Slip ‘N Slider tips
A lot of Shopify stores use sliders on their homepage in order to have more space for offers. Many conversion and accessibility folks hate sliders, with good reason. But they are still popular and you might like them for the aesthetics. If you do decide to use a slider, there are things you can add …