Optimising the on-site experience for SOCKSHOP

SOCKSHOP partners with hundreds of retailers in more than 50 countries around the world and sells their socks through sockshop.co.uk. They like to “shake things up” and get people excited about their socks, working with compassion, creativity and purpose to achieve that goal.

Sockshop.co.uk generated a considerable amount of revenue, which accelerated during the pandemic, however when restrictions were lifted, they felt the tide turning and needed to rethink their current digital marketing strategy.

Challenges & Objectives

We used qualitative and quantitative research to identify areas of weakness throughout the on site experience. They had a healthy amount of traffic, but there was much more they could be doing to convert those users and drive the average order value (AOV) up.

- Bridging the gap between traffic generation and conversion

- Understanding behavioral metrics for the on-site experience

- Align with business objectives on product promotions

- Remove the friction for discoverability and purchases

By introducing an on-site optimisation strategy, we knew we could redesign and test new experiences to help them to achieve a more cohesive digital strategy, resulting in efficient use of media spending and revenue growth through the website. We aimed to focus on three areas:

- Increase conversion rates across all channels

- Increase average order value per transaction

- Reduce points of friction across user journeys

Optimisation Strategy & Tests

In the first 6 months we ran 13 AB. 6 of those experiments were declared winners with statistically significant results, 5 were marked for iteration due to being flat or showing a slight but insignificant uplift, and only 2 were marked for abandonment as there was no data to support iteration showcasing the success of the optimisation project.

- 13 Experiments run to completion

- 6 Experiments declared winners

- 5 Experiments marked for iteration

- 2 Experiments marked for abandonment

Winner 1: Categories Slider on Homepage (Mobile) - Increase in conversion

On the mobile homepage, only 20% of visitors scrolled down far enough to see all categories. This could be due to users not seeing what they expect above the fold and using the navigation to move through the site. We felt there was an opportunity to introduce new users to the full product catalogue by designing an intuitive scroller which included all the key categories and reduced tiles above the fold to bring them closer to the top of the page.

This ensures that the user gets to see more than one product or category when they land on the homepage, giving them more direction to progress to feature pages of the products they wish to find.

- User Reaches Order Confirmation: +3.70%

- Clicks on Scrolling Category Tiles: +17.52%

- User Visits Feature Page: +14.32%

- User Visits Brand Page: +6.97%

- User Visits PLP Page: +1.25%

- User Visits Product Page: +2.50%

- User Clicks Add to Basket CTA: +3.65%

- User Visits Basket Page/Checkout: +2.86%

Winner 2: Next Day Delivery Timer - Increase in conversion & average order value (AOV)

We discovered that the next day delivery feature was a strong USP for SOCKSHOP so by creating a next day delivery countdown timer on the basket page, shortly before the cut off period, we aimed to create a sense of urgency.

During the test we observed not only an increase in purchases, but also an increase in users converting with supplemented delivery methods. This also increased average order value (AOV) due to the increase in delivery charges imposed on the user.

- User Reaches Order Confirmation: +7.69%

- User Clicks Pay by Card CTA: +4.86%

- Increase Engagement: +1.94%

Winner 3: Increase Prominence of Search, Category Tiles Above Fold - Increase in conversion

From observing heat map data, we saw that users clicking on the search bar made up the majority of interaction on the homepage, however the search was not visibly clear for the majority of users. The search bar didn’t stand out in the header and unique selling point (USP) section, making it hard for all users to find. As well as this, we saw that only 50% of users scroll below the fold, meaning that they do not get to see all of the large category tiles which have a strong call to action (CTA) standout below.

By adding a clear search area in the hero space of the homepage, and presenting clear category tiles above the fold, we saw an increase in users progressing deeper into the site, resulting in more users finding the products they wanted and ultimately converting.

- User Reaches Order Confirmation: +8.03%

- User Visits Basket Page/Checkout: +5.80%

- User Clicks Add to Basket CTA: +6.55%

- User Visits Product Page: +3.20%

User Visits PLP Page: +2.17%

- User Visits Search Results Page: +19.11%

- User Visits Feature Page: +1.04%

Winner 4: Next Day Delivery Timer on PP - Increase in conversion & average order value

Following the success of the Next Day Delivery timer on the basket page we decided to add it to Product Detail Pages as well so that users see the message consistently highlighted to them throughout their journey. We saw a healthy increase in users progressing to the basket page, with more users progressing to checkout.

- User Reaches Order Confirmation: +5.25%

- User Visits Basket Page/Checkout: +1.61%

Winner 5: Navigation Update with Focus on Search/Reduced Links - Increase in conversion

This was the second iteration of testing the mobile navigation. Initially, we wanted to simplify the navigation by changing it to be displayed in a slide in stages, rather than a dropdown accordion. In our first level of testing, we saw a good increase in users interacting with the navigation, however, they never progressed further down the funnel.

We hypothesised that we were showing too many options to the user, with our experiment only emphasising the amount of routes the user could go down to find products. As part of our iteration, we simplified the second stage, reducing the different options, letting users only find products by style and colour, with individual categories having relevant options such as gift sets.

The results showed that by reducing these options, more users progressed to the product landing page (PLP), which naturally flowed into more users proceeding to engage with the conversion process. Sometimes less is more.

- User Reaches Order Confirmation: +11.68%

- User Visits Basket Page/Checkout: +7.94%

- User Clicks Add to Basket CTA: +7.42%

- User Visits Product Page: +0.73%

- User Visits PLP Page: +2.43%

- User Visits Search Results Page: +1.53%

- User Clicks First Level Navigation Item: +3.67%

Winner 6: USPs Below Header - Increase in conversion

This experiment was designed to gain insight for an upcoming experiment on the header. We proposed adding a USP banner to the header, and as that is a significant addition, we used this opportunity to learn if users respond positively to a USP message. Throughout the duration of the experiment, this was consistently up against the control, showing users responded positively to the banner, showing that this is safe to include in the header redesign experiment, and that we could possibly tweak the USP points in order to improve trust in users who land on the site.

-User Visits Search Results Page: +4.63%

- User Visits Product Page: +0.74%

- User Visits Basket Page: 0.67%

- User Reaches Order Confirmation: +1.01%

The Result

Over achieved conversion by +6.59% over 6 months (9.70% vs 8.94%).