Customer success story
From revenue decline to double-digit growth
✔ Overall conversions (desktop and mobile):
Average +50%
✔ Desktop conversions:
+126% (8.56% conversion rate)
✔ Mobile conversions:
+122% (3.67% conversion rate versus 2.89% industry average)
✔ Growth year-on-year:
+22%
✔ Performance turnaround:
+38%
Manufacturing and eCommerce are ever-evolving, and even well-established manufacturing businesses can come up against the unexpected.
Following strong growth, our client – a UK-based manufacturer – faced a year-on-year revenue decline.
Over the next few minutes, we’ll dig into how we turned a -16% revenue drop into +22% year-on-year growth in a matter of months.
Rapid growth, sudden slowdown and the urgent need for a new strategy.
Like many eCommerce businesses, our client saw significant growth during COVID-19 and the lockdowns that forced us all online. Over two years, they enjoyed a 30% revenue boost year-on-year. But in 2023, growth not only stalled but reversed, as the client saw sales drop out of nowhere.
“We had ridden the Covid wave very well and, on the back of that, invested in a platform upgrade. So when we found ourselves facing a downturn in sales, we knew we needed specialist support to understand what was happening and, more importantly, what we could do to turn the tide – and quickly! That’s when Sam and Comsim were recommended to us.” .
The power of a CRO-first mindset
Lockdown-driven digital acceleration took many manufacturing businesses by surprise, with the need to suddenly introduce a solid eCommerce strategy or supercharge their existing digital presence through conversion rate optimisation (CRO). Early adopters have been able to harness the opportunity. However, others have been left behind, scrambling to stay competitive.
A platform upgrade alone didn’t go far enough to sustain our client’s growth. Despite strong traffic, visitors weren’t making it through checkout, and our deep dive pointed to several barriers.
A clunky mobile experience, a longwinded checkout process, limited payment choices and outdated shipping options were just some of the issues leaving money on the table as visitors left the site empty-handed. While data accuracy issues made informed business decisions difficult.
Building on reliable foundations
Accurate reporting and compliance
Sustainable conversion rate optimisation depends on getting the fundamentals right, starting with accurate data capture and reporting.
Without a clear picture of performance, any changes risked being guesswork. And the client was struggling with inaccurate tracking that was over-reporting traffic and user behaviour metrics, making key data unreliable.
By re-integrating GA4 (Google Analytics 4), via Tag Manager, to capture, track, and analyse data about how users interact with the website, and adding a GDPR-compliant cookie banner, the client now has an accurate view of genuine potential customers. Not only that but ensuring cookie law compliance has removed the risk of hefty fines and helped build trust with visitors.
Unlocking new sales opportunities
Small changes, big results – fast
Once the data capture was accurate, we knew there were some quick wins.
Historically, orders below £125 weren’t financially feasible for our client, with the product being unwieldy and distributed via costly pallet networks. And for similar reasons, the company didn’t ship to Wales. Decisions made many years ago and not recently reviewed were now losing sales.
Recognising the missed opportunity (and sales!), we introduced a small order surcharge to make lower-value orders viable and open up shipping to Wales.
“Within just two months, we saw a 15% increase in conversion. It was a strong start and set the tone for what was to follow!”
Attracting the right audience – not just more visitors
Focussing on qualified leads over traffic volume
Effective CRO isn’t about visitor numbers; it’s about acquiring and converting the right visitors.
CRO isn’t just about converting more site visits, it’s also about acquisition. The client had been focused on quantity not quality in their outreach programs (a common mistake). We wanted to shift towards more qualified leads so we built acquisition changes into our conversion rate optimisation program.
Identification of the key target groups and adjustments to the client’s traffic acquisition programme were a strategic steps in building a higher-quality audience. So when visitor numbers dropped and conversions increased, we knew the refinements were doing the job.
Turning data into competitive advantage
From guesswork to business-critical insights
Our next priority was capturing business-critical insight to make sure the client could make strategic decisions confidently. In particular, we set KPIs and created easily accessible dashboard reporting around events and goals to understand where performance was strong and what might be leading to lost sales.
We also educated the senior internal team on which KPIs are important in evaluating business performance in this context, shifting the focus away from vanity metrics like visitor numbers – something we frequently encounter with clients.
With a clear, in-depth view at a glance, the client can now spot issues before it’s too late, identify trends and harness opportunities for growth.
Data-driven conversion rate optimisation
A mobile-first approach
However, having visibility is only part of the solution. Turning that insight into action is what shifts the needle.
Industry-wide, as few as 3% of eCommerce visitors make it to payment. One of the big factors is friction – like frustrating site navigation and complicated checkout. So, making that journey seamless is critical for conversion.
With mobile making up 70% of our client’s traffic and conversion underperforming against the industry benchmark, mobile-first CRO was a must.
Making the path to purchase seamless
Intuitive browsing, easier product discovery
To keep visitors engaged and moving smoothly through the site, we’ve made it easier and faster for them to find what they need by improving search functionality. While adding product recommendations is helping them discover new lines – supporting upselling/cross-selling across the site. But even with a more streamlined journey, moving visitors through checkout was still a sticking point. Payment forms provided off-site, too many required fields, multiple checkout pages and limited payment options all added barriers, leading to visitors abandoning their carts.
“The risk was that the checkout was undoing all we had done upstream to move them to this point.”
Removing barriers to checkout
Simplifying payment
So we turned our attention to the payment process, straightaway replacing the off-site checkout with an on-site embedded payment solution, stripping out confusing redirects and building trust.
This also opened up the option to streamline the process from multi-page to single-page checkout. This refinement generally sees a 13% rise in conversion, making it an easy decision for the client.
Following that same streamlining principle, we implemented one-click payment options through integrations with Apple Pay, Google Pay and PayPal – all familiar, fast and trusted ways to pay. Then we went one step further, adding fast payment options to product pages and the basket.
Returning customers or those who know the exact product they want now enjoy a significantly faster experience.
Winning back abandoned carts
Recovering lost sales and converting hesitant buyers
However, with around 70% of online shopping carts abandoned before payment, we needed to make sure all was not lost at the final hurdle.
Abandoned cart retrieval strategies, including an automated email reminder series with exclusive offers, now give hesitant customers a second chance to buy confidently.
The results: A +38% performance turnaround
“Just four months after Sam and the team got to work, revenue grew by 22% year-on-year. After experiencing a 16% decline the previous year, our goal was simply stabilising revenue. So, seeing a +38% turnaround was beyond our expectations.
And I’m confident it’s sustainable. Now I know we’re tracking accurate data and the right KPIs that will drive our business in the way we want. We can see critical shifts in the business and make decisions based on reliable data and solid insight.
I’m confident we’re no longer losing sales unnecessarily. Instead, we’re making it easier and faster than ever for customers to reach checkout and make it through payment – even on mobile.”
In numbers:
✔ Overall conversions (desktop and mobile):
Average +50%
✔ Desktop conversions:
+126% (8.56% conversion rate)
✔ Mobile conversions:
+122% (3.67% conversion rate versus 2.89% industry average)
✔ Growth year-on-year:
+22%
✔ Performance turnaround:
+38%