# Frequency pills instead of a dropdown: -7% conversion rate

- Outcome: Lost
- Page type: Product page (Ecommerce)
- Elements: Subscriptions & subscribe-and-save, Variant, size & option selectors
- Test run by: [Blend Commerce](https://liftarchive.com/practitioners/blend-commerce/)
- Commentary by: LiftArchive (our analysis, not theirs)
- Original source: https://blendcommerce.com/blogs/ab-tests-shopify/drive-subscription-conversions-with-different-frequency-selectors
- Page: https://liftarchive.com/test/coffee-brand-subscription-frequency-pills/

Replacing 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.

## Result

**-7% conversion rate**

- 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.

## 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)

- 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.

## How to run this test

- 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
- Guardrail: Mobile conversion rate
- Guardrail: Revenue per visitor
- Guardrail: 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.

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Credit: Blend Commerce ran this test and owns the result. Summary and commentary by LiftArchive (https://liftarchive.com/test/coffee-brand-subscription-frequency-pills/).
Usage: Free to use, quote and build on, with credit and a link: name the practitioner or organization that ran the test and link to its LiftArchive page. The results belong to the practitioners who ran and shared them; the summaries and commentary are LiftArchive's.