Car Computer Exchange

The problem

Carcomputerexchange.com is a great business run by great people with a great value proposition. Most traffic comes from PPC and things were getting competative (expensive!).

They knew they could convert better, but weren't sure what changes to make. Should their site look more polished? Should they add different payment options? Should they describe their products differently? Why were people chosing to buy from competitors and not them?

The solution

Enter Conversion Industries (CI).

We described to CCE how we could get inside the heads of its visitors. And we reassured CCE we could do it in a measured, methodical manner—which wouldn’t turn the business upside down or jeopardize its existing revenues.

What happened?

Site wide conversion rates increased by as much as 50%.

Here’s how we did it. It’s important to note that “we” refers to a team effort between CI (with our proven system) and CCE (with its valuable, well-positioned service and highly effective team).

Understanding CarComputerExchange’s value proposition

CCE had an amazing value proposition. The offer really was a "no brainer" for someone in the market for a replacement car computer.

1. Great return policy.
2. 5 star customer reviews.
3. Huge selection in inventory.

However, I felt there were probably "hidden" value props that weren't being talked about, or value props we could easily add. It's not uncommon for businesses to be "too close" and not see that some of the work they do is amazing and should be communicated to the customer.

The question is, what value props do customers care about?

Phase 1: Questions, questions

As with any Conversion Industries (CI) assignment, our first priority was to get authoritative answers to some important questions. This groundwork is an absolute pre-requisite for any successful conversion programme.

(i) Find out why people decide to “walk away”

It’s always useful to talk to your customers. But it can be even more useful to understand the near-misses (people who could have been customers but ultimately walked away). So we used the survey tool to quiz the people who visited CCE.com but didn’t buy.

The feedback came flooding in:

• Some people didn't trust the site. They didn't know if it was a real business.
• Some complained that the prices were lower on competitor's sites
• Other's didn't feel comfortable that the part work work in their vehicle.

(ii) Find out what people are thinking and feeling in the moment as they view your site.

I used multiple survey and polling tools on the site. I ran them for months collecting data. We asked 20-30 different questions. All of them designed to understand who the customer was, what was influencing their buying decisions, and to follow lines of questioning that previous questions and uncovered.

(iii) Dig into the business to fully understand what customer's get

After talking to the owner several times, I discovered they were doing things to provide a level of quality that their competitors were not matching. They also had the ability to easily change some things to provide a free lifetime warranty and a stronger guarantee.

Phase 2: Establishing the experimentation platform

By this stage, we had some really clear ideas about what would work. But, no matter how strong our instincts may be, we never run any risks with a client’s business. Before releasing any changes into the wild, we test them scientifically.

There are many great platforms for carrying out split-testing. We’ve taken a critical look under the hood of almost all of them. And, because we’re completely vendor-neutral, we’re always free to specify the right tool for each job. On this project, we chose to use VWO.

Three messages we needed to get across loudly and clearly

Message #1: “CCE is a little more expensive but has the highest quality parts”

People were not understanding why these parts were more expensive than what they could find at a competitor's site. The answer was simple. CCE was doing a lot more work to ensure quality. Most competitors were selling painted over used parts that were not tested. We tested several sections on the product page to address this issue.

Message #2: “CCE is highly rated by customers”

Reviews are everything these days. If you have them, flaunt them. I tested several configurations to find the best way to present this info for maximum impact.

Message #3: “CCE is safe to buy from”

This goes hand in hand with messages #1 & #2. However, we also made sure the customer fully understood the lifetime warranty and the generous return policy. I spent time testing wording to find the most impactful statements. It's always amazing how changing a few words around can drastically impact perception and conversion rates.

Message #4: “Answer important questions most customer's were having”

I found there were a few key question's people needed answered before they felt comfortable buying. It took a while to figure these out (people don't always come out and say it), but once we did figure it out and prominately answer them on the homepage and product pages, conversions shot through the roof.

And, the results are…

A 70% lift in overall site-wide conversion rates. The conversion rate for the product pages went up 400% alone. This increase in conversion rate allowed them to increase ad spend and double revenue in just a few short months. All this was done in the first 6 months!

This growth was so substantial, CCE.com posted it's strongest earnings in company history. Below is a copy of the press release the published to announce their success.