Frequency pills instead of a dropdown: -7% conversion rate
Test run byBlend CommerceCRO agency
Commentary byLiftArchiveOur analysis, not theirsReplacing a delivery-frequency dropdown with pill buttons cut conversion rate by 7% and subscription orders per visitor by 27% overall for a direct-to-consumer coffee brand.
Blend Commerce ran the test. Desktop did well, with conversion up 31%, so the change shipped on desktop only.
- All devices, a loss: conversion rate -7%, revenue per visitor -13%, add-to-cart rate -5%.
- Subscription orders per visitor: -27%, and subscription revenue per visitor: -45%. Also negative.
- Desktop, a win: conversion rate +31%, revenue per visitor +19%, add-to-cart rate +14%.
- With desktop up and the total down, mobile likely lost, but the source gives no mobile figures.
The change
Delivery-frequency dropdown replaced with pill buttons and a 'More' menu
Simplified mockup drawn by LiftArchive from the shared screenshots.
Control
Shoppers picked how often their subscription would arrive from a standard dropdown menu on the product page.
Variant
Four pill buttons offered 2, 4, 6 and 8 weeks, with a 'More' dropdown for any interval from 1 to 10 weeks.
Why it likely lost
Our reading of the result, not the practitioner's claim.
- On desktop there is room for four pills, so the options are visible at a glance.
- On mobile, an extra row of buttons plus a second dropdown may add clutter and push the Add to Cart button down.
- Showing 2 weeks as the first pill may make the subscription look like a big commitment for some buyers. This is our guess; the source does not test it.
Caveats: The test lost overall and was shipped on desktop only. Duration, sample size and statistical confidence were not shared, and mobile results were not broken out.
Who ran it
Blend Commerce ran this test for a direct-to-consumer coffee brand and published the results (Blend Commerce A/B test). The numbers are theirs; the summary and commentary on this page are ours.
Read the original case study on Blend Commerce →
How to run this test on your store
- Hypothesis
- If we show common delivery intervals as tappable pills instead of a dropdown, then more visitors will subscribe because the options are visible without an extra click.
- Primary metric
- Subscription orders per visitor, reported by device
- Guardrails
- Mobile conversion rate
- Revenue per visitor
- Add-to-cart rate
- Who should test it
- Subscription stores with meaningful desktop traffic. Run it with device-level reporting from the start. If most of your buyers are on mobile, expect this design to hurt unless the pills are compact.
Questions
Are pill buttons better than a dropdown for subscription frequency?
Not overall in this test: conversion fell 7%.
They did win on desktop, so the answer may depend on device.
Why would a change win on desktop but lose on mobile?
Layouts behave differently on small screens. Extra buttons can crowd the page and push key actions out of view.
How many frequency options should I show?
This test showed four plus a 'More' menu, and it lost overall. Fewer, well-chosen options may be worth testing.
Similar tests
@oliverkenyon@oliverkenyon@oliverkenyon
Convertibles
@DaveDiederen