Add More Customizations To Increase Conversions

A general rule of thumb in optimization is if you add more options it leads to friction in the visitor flow.  In many cases this will lead to lower conversion rates.  Today I want to share a scenario where adding more options can actually increase your conversion rates.

Here we have a company that sells custom meal boxes each month in a specific category.  To keep them anonymous we are leaving out some specific information.

The goal here was to highlight each of the steps in the process to not only give the visitor more information about each selection but to also increase average order value.

They had a simple process.  Select what you want for ingredients, select how often you want it and checkout.


What we did was added a “More Info” link to the first step in the process.  We didn’t want to add the full description directly on this page as it could lead to clutter and confusion.

The “more” link took the visitor to a popup as shown below.


On the popup we also added a call to action button to relieve any friction with having to close the popup and then make the selection. This is where we gave the visitor the details of their selection.

The next step was to select the quantity of their order.


This page gives them the option to get 24 meals delivered every 30 or 60 days and also gives them an option to double their order.


Finally before checkout the visitors had the option of adding to their box each month.  They got the choice between three and have the option to select the quantity.

Notice that each option is simple to select and their isn’t much to really think about when making the selection.
Again the main goal was to make it easy to figure out what they were ordering, what the selection options were and give them the opportunity to add on to their order or double their order.

The results?


Completed orders increased by 8% and revenue increased by 8% as well. We showed a 16% increase in standard box selections and visits to the checkout page increased by 117%. Finally we saw an increase of 22% of those that chose to double up their order.

All in all, by adding a couple steps actually increased the majority of the metrics measured.
What areas of your visitor flow can you add clarification and options that not only simplify but lead to more revenue?