Extra confirmation step for some regions lifted Nitro's conversion
Commentary byLiftArchiveOur analysis, not theirsNitro added an extra confirmation step and more security content to its in-app checkout for buyers in India, Europe and the Middle East, and conversion went up for those regions.
The exact lift was not shared. Nitro ran the tests with its ecommerce vendor, and they were published as a MarketingSherpa case study.
- Conversion: up for India, Europe and the Middle East despite the extra step. The size of the lift was not shared.
- North American buyers did better with fewer steps, so the change was kept to the other regions.
- With no figure, treat this as a direction to test, not a benchmark.
The change
Buyers in some regions get added security content and a confirmation step.
Simplified mockup drawn by LiftArchive from the shared screenshots.
Control
Every region saw the same minimal in-app checkout with as few steps as possible.
Variant
Buyers in India, Europe and the Middle East got an added confirmation step and more security and credibility content before buying.
Why it likely won
Our reading of the result, not the practitioner's claim.
- Nitro described these buyers as more cautious online, so reassurance may have mattered more than speed.
- The purchase was international for them, since Nitro is based in San Francisco, which can raise trust questions.
- A confirmation step gives a careful buyer a moment to check the order before paying.
Caveats: No conversion figures, sample sizes or test durations were shared. The data is from 2014.
Who ran it
Nitro ran this test and published the results (MarketingSherpa case study). The numbers are theirs; the summary and commentary on this page are ours.
Read the original case study on Nitro →
How to run this test on your site
- Hypothesis
- If we add a confirmation step and security content for buyers in more cautious regions, then their conversion will rise because they need more reassurance before paying a foreign seller.
- Primary metric
- Checkout conversion rate by region
- Guardrails
- Checkout completion time
- Conversion in regions that keep the short flow
- Payment failure rate
- Who should test it
- SaaS and software sellers with a large share of international self-serve buyers and the ability to target by region. It probably won't help if most buyers are domestic, where fewer steps tend to win.
Questions
Do fewer checkout steps always convert better?
No. Nitro found North American buyers converted better with fewer steps, but buyers in India, Europe and the Middle East converted better with an added confirmation step.
Should checkout differ by country?
It can be worth testing if your buyers are spread across regions with different habits.
Run the test per region rather than looking at the blended result.