Countdown to local hunting season opening: +40.8% conversion
Test run byVisuallyTesting and CRO tool
Commentary byLiftArchiveOur analysis, not theirsA countdown to the opening of hunting season in each visitor's state lifted conversion rate by 40.8% when the timer used informational wording.
Visually ran this three-way test for Chêne Gear, a hunting apparel brand.
An action-oriented version of the timer also beat the control, but by less, and its lift was not shared.
- Informational timer: +40.8% conversion rate against no timer.
- Action-oriented timer: also beat the control, but the size of its lift was not shared.
- Sample size and confidence were not shared, and a lift this large deserves a retest.
The change
A site-wide countdown to the visitor's local hunting season opening.
Simplified mockup drawn by LiftArchive from the shared screenshots.
Control
Visitors saw no countdown timer.
Variant
Visitors saw a countdown to the hunting season opening date in their own state. One version used informational wording and another used action-oriented wording.
Why it likely won
Our reading of the result, not the practitioner's claim.
- The deadline is real and relevant: hunters need their gear before the season opens.
- Tailoring the date to the visitor's state makes the timer feel useful rather than a generic sales trick.
- Informational wording may have read as helpful, while action wording can feel like pressure.
Caveats: This was an A/B/C test, and the lift for the action-oriented version was not given. Visually published this as its own case study and did not share the sample size, test length or confidence level.
Who ran it
Visually ran this test for Chêne Gear and published the results (Visually case study). The numbers are theirs; the summary and commentary on this page are ours.
Read the original case study on Visually →
How to run this test on your store
- Hypothesis
- If we show a countdown to a real, local event our customers prepare for, then more visitors will buy now because the deadline is relevant to them.
- Primary metric
- Conversion rate
- Guardrails
- Return rate
- Average order value
- Conversion rate after the event date
- Who should test it
- Stores whose buyers face a real, dated deadline such as a season, an event or a holiday, and who can target it by location. A countdown to a made-up deadline is unlikely to work the same way and can cost trust.
Questions
Do countdown timers increase conversions?
They can when the deadline is real and matters to the shopper.
Here a countdown to the local hunting season opening lifted conversion rate by 40.8%.
Should timer copy be informational or pushy?
In this test the informational wording beat the action-oriented wording, though both beat having no timer.
It is worth testing both for your audience.
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