Growth Hacking in Trigger Emails of MrDom.ru Online Store: 40% Conversion growth

Retail Rocket Growth Hackers launch new A/B tests for our customers’ e-mail campaigns on a daily basis in order to check the effect of various hypotheses to increase revenues of online stores. Once again, we are ready to prove that there is no one true solution, each element of the email deserves special attention and a series of tests. Today we will share several successful cases on the example of the online store of home goods MrDom.

To test the hypothesis, Retail Rocket experts conducted A/B Test mechanics which means that all recipients of emails were randomly divided into 2 segments in real time:

Segment A: This group received the original email version

Segment B: receives the email with an alternative containing a hypothesis.

Case 1. Adding a username to the subject of the message

Appealing to users by name in the subject of the email is no longer surprising, this method is used by many companies. And what about personal treatment in the subject line? Our hypothesis was that from the point of view of psychology, addressing by name identifies a person as a unique personality and reduces the distance between the store and the client, creating a more positive attitude.

Segment A: a standard email version

Segment B: with the addition of the username in the subject of the email.

Results:

More than 180,000 people took part in the A/B test, and the following data were received:

	Open Rate (%)	Click-Through Rate (%)
Segment A	8.06	17.95
Segment B	8.8	19.55
Δ	+ 9.2%	+ 8.9%

According to the test results, the hypothesis was confirmed and affected not only the Open Rate, increasing it by 9.2%, but also at Click-Through Rate – its growth was 8.9%. The statistical significance of the results is 99.9% for OR and 99.5% for CTR.

Case 2. Updating the design of the product card – we focus on the product

The product card is the key element of an email, so it deserves special attention. It often acts as an object of testing, yielding to the popularity of the subject of the email. When practically all hypotheses are tried, it is worth turning to ideas that do not seem logical at first sight.

A call-to-action element is considered the most important detail of the product card because it contains a link to the product page on the site and forms a call to action for conversion. However, we assumed that in the case of home products, the visual component is important to the user, and the most important detail is the image of the product itself.

Hypothesis:

Removal of the CTA-element from the product card will lead to the growth of key performance indicators of the email due to the user’s full attention to the image of the product.

Segment A (without changes)	Segment B (an alternative option removing the CTA element)

Results:

	Click-To-Open Rate (%)	Click-Through Rate (%)
Segment A	33.3	16.9
Segment B	38	17.9
Δ	+ 14.1%	+ 5.9%

As a result of testing, removing the CTA-element from the product card increased CTOR by 14.1% and CTR by 5.9 %. The statistical significance of the results was 99.9%.

Case 3. The influence of the location of banners in an email to the key indicators

Not all users who opened your email view it entirely. We decided to check how the location of the blocks in the email affects the user’s decision to buy and tested the different layout of the banners.

In the original email, banners were in a footer, which reduces the likelihood of users viewing them. But if the decision to purchase home goods is affected primarily by their visual component, then the bright image of the items should arouse the interest of the potential buyer.

Hypothesis:

The location of banners above the product recommendations block should increase the key indicators of the email due to the increased interest in colourful images.

Segment A (without changes)	Segment B (an alternative email template)

Results:

	Click-To-Open Rate (%)	Click-Through Rate (%)
Segment A	39.7	17.6
Segment B	44.5	18.7
Δ	+ 12.1%	+ 6.25%

According to the test results, the transfer of banners from the footer increased the CTOR by 12.1% with a probability of 99.9%, and the CTR – by 6.25% with a probability of 99.4%.

Case 4. An alternative subject of the email in question form

The Growth Hackers team uses often behavioural patterns in their work based on approaches from various areas of psychology. Stimulus is one of the most important categories of behavioural psychology, and it is on it that the hypothesis of using the interrogative form in the subject is based.

The question in the subject affects the user’s motives to open the email and carefully read the content. We conducted a testing of the topic in question form for the scenario of  “Abandoned cart”.

Hypothesis:

The interrogative topic of the email encourages the user to open an e-mail and increases the key indicators.

Segment A (original subject of the email):

“You left the order in the cart. Finish it now! “

Segment B (alternative subject of the email in question form:

“You left the order in the cart. Do you want to finish it now? “

Results:

	Conversion Rate (%)
Segment A	11.1
Segment B	15.6
Δ	+ 40.5%

As a result of testing, we recorded an increase in the Conversion Rate by 40.5 %. The statistical significance of the results was 97%.

Case 5. Increase in the number of products in the recommendations block

Personal recommendations are the recognized strength of Retail Rocket by the market and in this case, we test their effectiveness.

Home products assume a very wide variety – in style, in purpose, in price categories, and we assumed that the user would like to have more choices within the email, so they decided to increase the number of products in the recommendations block of the scenario “Abandoned cart” – from 6 to 12 items.

Hypothesis:

Increasing the number of product cards in the email will increase the number of clicks.

Segment A (without changes)	Segment B (an alternative product recommendations block)

Results:

	Click-Through Rate (%)
Segment A	42.2
Segment B	50.5
Δ	+ 19.7%

According to the test results, an increase in the number of goods in the product recommendations block ensured an increase in the CTR of 19.7% with a statistical probability of 98.8%.

Case 6. The introduction of the number of items “purchased today” from the same product – we use the principle of social proof

Another example of the use of knowledge from the field of psychology is the principle of social proof. So, why not try the work of this principle online?

Hypothesis:

Adding the number of purchased goods today to the product card will increase the user’s interest given the interest already shown by other people in these products, that is, create a sense of relevance. The element was tested on the mailing lists of the “Abandoned Cart” scenario.

Segment A (without changes)	Segment B (an alternative option adding: “Bought today:…“)

Results:

	Conversion Rate (%)
Segment A	10.7
Segment B	14.7
Δ	+ 37.4%

According to the test results, the conversion rate increased by 37.4% with a statistical significance of 96.2%.

However, it should be noted that, depending on the scenario, this hypothesis manifests itself in different ways, so it can not be considered universal. A/B testing is the only objective method to find out the truth about the effectiveness of certain decisions. If you are interested in increasing the profitability of your business, do not miss the opportunity and test every single detail.

Some growth hacking processes are very expensive and complex to perform, mainly because it is a new discipline and requires deep knowledge and interpretation of the data. The application of these improvements in the emails becomes an exponential increase in conversion.

We explore all the possibilities offered by Big Data and our know-how and we offer free Layout coding services, technical support and Growth Hacking (A/B test unlimited).

Growth Hacking is one the most important free-of-charge services that Retail Rocket offers to its clients. Retail Rocket offers more than 20 unique personalization scenarios for every step in the customer journey. Each of these can have a different effect on the online shop’s key performance indicators. Tweaking the implementation of these mechanisms can make an important difference to the results, and Retail Rocket’s Growth Hacking team are world-leaders in that process.

MrDom’s comment:

“It’s rare when contractors themselves demonstrate the initiative, however, it’s hard to say about the RR team. Quite a lot of initiatives for conducting AB tests occur precisely from them. In our case, they replace the whole staff unit in the form of an e-mail marketer and the results suit us. For us, RR plays the role and engine for the recommendations and direct mail system, as well as the marketer who is doing it.“.

Anton Filchev, Development Director, MrDom.ru