Price removed from buy-now step: +16.1% purchases
Test run byConversion FanaticsCRO agency
Commentary byLiftArchiveOur analysis, not theirsRemoving the price from the buy-now step, so shoppers first saw it in the cart, lifted purchases by 16.1%.
Conversion Fanatics ran this test for a seller of a new-category consumer device with a 30-day trial.
Clicks to the cart rose 265.1%, but many of those extra visitors left at the cart.
- Purchases: up 16.1%.
- Click-through to the cart: up 265.1%. Many more shoppers moved forward, likely to find out the price.
- Cart abandonment rose. Most of the extra cart visitors did not buy, so the gain at the cart was much smaller than the gain in clicks.
The change
The variant removes the price from above the buy-now button.
Simplified mockup drawn by LiftArchive from the shared screenshots.
Control
After customizing the device, shoppers reached a buy-now step that showed the price above the call-to-action button.
Variant
The same step with the price removed. Shoppers saw the price for the first time in the cart.
Why it likely won
Our reading of the result, not the practitioner's claim.
- Shoppers had already made several small commitments by customizing the device, so moving ahead to see the price was an easy next step.
- Seeing the price in the cart, after the commitment of adding the item, may have made it feel less like a barrier for some buyers.
- Curiosity drove many clicks, but people who balked at the price still left, which explains the higher abandonment.
Caveats: No sample size, duration or confidence level was shared, and cart abandonment rose. Hiding prices may not suit every market. Data is from 2015.
Who ran it
Conversion Fanatics ran this test for a seller of a new-category consumer device with a 30-day trial and published the results (Conversion Fanatics blog case study). The numbers are theirs; the summary and commentary on this page are ours.
Read the original case study on Conversion Fanatics →
How to run this test on your store
- Hypothesis
- If we move the price from the buy-now step to the cart, then more shoppers will purchase because they reach the cart after more commitment before judging the price.
- Primary metric
- Purchases
- Guardrails
- Cart abandonment rate
- Refund and trial return rate
- Customer complaints about pricing
- Who should test it
- Sellers of a single, considered product with a guided flow and a trial or guarantee. It probably won't suit stores where shoppers compare prices across many items, and it may annoy shoppers if the price feels hidden.
Questions
Can hiding the price increase sales?
In this test, removing the price from one step raised purchases by 16.1%.
Cart abandonment also went up, so measure the whole funnel.
Is it risky to hide prices from shoppers?
It can feel evasive and frustrate people who leave once they see it.
It fits best when the price appears soon after, as it did here in the cart.
What should I do about higher cart abandonment?
Strengthen the cart with value reminders, the trial or guarantee and clear totals. The agency planned follow-up tests on this.
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