# One-page accordion checkout vs three steps: -29% subscriptions

- Outcome: Lost
- Page type: Checkout (SaaS)
- Elements: Checkout steps, Page length
- Test run by: [MECLABS](https://liftarchive.com/practitioners/meclabs/)
- Commentary by: LiftArchive (our analysis, not theirs)
- Original source: https://marketingexperiments.com/conversion-marketing/drop-in-conversion-teach-friction
- Page: https://liftarchive.com/test/gap-meclabs-media-subscription-accordion-checkout/

Replacing a three-step subscription checkout with a one-page accordion checkout cut conversion by 29%. MECLABS ran the test for a large media publication and published it on MarketingExperiments in 2014. The accordion kept the same steps but put them on one page, with sections that expand as you go.

## Result

**-29% subscriptions**

- Subscription conversion: -29% for the accordion checkout. This is a loss.
- A second write-up of the same experiment describes it as a drop in order rate of nearly 30%.
- Sample size, duration and confidence level: not shared, though the source says the test validated.

## Control

A three-step checkout for buying a subscription, one step per page. It was the already-improved version from an earlier test.

## Variant

A single-page accordion checkout covering the same steps. Each section expanded in turn as the buyer filled in the one before.

## Why it likely lost (our reading)

- The team's reading is that the accordion made checkout look harder, even though it was shorter. Fewer pages is not the same as less effort.
- Expanding and collapsing sections may ask more of non-technical buyers, who have to work out how the page behaves.
- The control had already been cleaned up in an earlier test, so it was a strong page to beat.
- Accordion carts were seen as best practice at the time, but this audience didn't respond to them.

## Caveats

Sample size, duration and confidence are not shared. The test dates from 2014 and was on one publication's subscription checkout.

## How to run this test

- Hypothesis: If we put all checkout steps on one page, then more buyers will complete their subscription because the process looks shorter.
- Primary metric: Completed subscriptions per checkout start
- Guardrail: Drop-off at each checkout section
- Guardrail: Form error rate
- Guardrail: Mobile completion rate
- Who should test it: Subscription businesses and SaaS products with a multi-step checkout. Be careful if your buyers are not very technical, since this test suggests interactive one-page layouts can feel harder to them.

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Credit: MECLABS ran this test and owns the result. Summary and commentary by LiftArchive (https://liftarchive.com/test/gap-meclabs-media-subscription-accordion-checkout/).
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.