Mobile homepage rework with brands, free shipping, new CTA: +200% CR
Commentary byLiftArchiveOur analysis, not theirsA reworked mobile homepage for Elegant Steps, a UK wedding shoe retailer, tripled mobile conversion rate (+200%) and cut bounce rate by almost half.
Hit Search, the brand's digital marketing agency, ran the test, and it was published as a VWO case study.
Four changes shipped together, so the result can't be credited to any single one.
- Mobile conversion rate: +200%, roughly three times the original rate.
- Bounce rate: down almost 50%.
- Bundled: four changes went live together, so we can't tell which mattered most.
- Context: before the test, mobile converted at about 0.6% against 2% on desktop, so the starting point was low.
The change
Free shipping, brands, new CTA and readable hero brought to the top
Simplified mockup drawn by LiftArchive from the shared screenshots.
Control
On mobile, the Shop by Brand section sat far down the page and the free shipping message was below the fold. The hero button read "Shop Wedding Shoes" and the hero text was hard to read against its background.
Variant
Shop by Brand moved higher and Free Shipping appeared above the fold. The button changed to "Find my new wedding shoes" and the hero text color was changed so it stood out.
Why it likely won
Our reading of the result, not the practitioner's claim.
- Free shipping shown early answers a common cost worry before shoppers even start browsing.
- Well-known shoe brands near the top give brides-to-be familiar names to trust.
- Hero text that can actually be read, plus a more personal button, may simply make the first screen work.
Caveats: Four changes were bundled and the test was mobile only. It ran less than a month and Hit Search set VWO's Bayesian engine to high-certainty mode, but sample size was not shared; a lift this large from a low base deserves a retest.
Who ran it
Hit Search ran this test for Elegant Steps and published the results (VWO case study). The numbers are theirs; the summary and commentary on this page are ours.
Read the original case study on Hit Search →
How to run this test on your store
- Hypothesis
- If we show our key selling points and trusted brands on the first mobile screen and make the hero readable, then more mobile visitors will buy, because they see reasons to trust us before they scroll.
- Primary metric
- Mobile conversion rate
- Guardrails
- Mobile bounce rate
- Revenue per mobile visitor
- Desktop conversion rate (should be unaffected)
- Who should test it
- Stores whose mobile conversion lags well behind desktop and whose key selling points or stocked brands sit below the fold. To learn which change matters, test them one at a time; if your mobile homepage already leads with USPs, expect less.
Questions
Should free shipping be shown above the fold?
If you offer it, yes, it's worth testing.
Surprise shipping costs drive many shoppers away, and saying it early removes that doubt.
Does first-person CTA copy like 'Find my...' work better?
Sometimes. Here it was one of four bundled changes, so this test can't prove the copy alone made a difference.
Why does mobile convert worse than desktop?
Less of the page fits on screen, so key selling points often fall below the fold.
Check scroll maps to see what mobile visitors actually see.
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