Greeting card pricing and add-on flow changes: +24% paid card sales
Test run byOptimizelyTesting and CRO tool
Commentary byLiftArchiveOur analysis, not theirsChanging greeting card pricing and the checkout add-on flow lifted paid card purchases by 24% and average order value by 8.4%.
Optimizely ran this test for an online greeting card retailer and published it as an Optimizely Field Notes use case.
Several changes were tested together using a multi-armed bandit, so the result can't be credited to any single change.
- +24% paid card purchases. More shoppers paid for a card rather than skipping it.
- +8.4% average order value. Orders got bigger on average.
- Both lifts come from a bundle of pricing and flow changes, and the winning details are only loosely described.
The change
The variant changes card pricing and the add-on step together.
Simplified mockup drawn by LiftArchive from the shared screenshots.
Control
The existing checkout flow and the current greeting card pricing.
Variant
Several variations of greeting card pricing and the checkout flow. A multi-armed bandit sent more traffic to the best performers over time.
Why it likely won
Our reading of the result, not the practitioner's claim.
- Pricing changes may have made a paid card feel like an easy add-on at checkout.
- A smoother add-on step may have put the card offer in front of shoppers at the right moment.
- A bandit moves traffic toward stronger variants as the test runs, which captures gains sooner.
Caveats: Bundled changes across several variants in a multi-armed bandit, so no single element can take credit. Vendor-reported, with no sample size, duration or confidence level shared.
Who ran it
Optimizely ran this test for an online greeting card retailer (Optimizely customer) and published the results (Optimizely Field Notes use case). The numbers are theirs; the summary and commentary on this page are ours.
Read the original case study on Optimizely →
How to run this test on your store
- Hypothesis
- If we adjust card pricing and offer the card as a simple checkout add-on, then more shoppers will buy a paid card because the offer is cheaper to accept and easy to add.
- Primary metric
- Paid add-on purchases per order
- Guardrails
- Checkout completion rate
- Average order value
- Margin per order
- Who should test it
- Gift and occasion stores with a natural add-on, such as cards, gift wrap or notes. A bandit suits short-lived offers where earning more during the test matters more than a clean read on each change.
Questions
What is a multi-armed bandit test?
It is a test that shifts traffic toward better-performing variants while it runs.
You lose less revenue to weak variants, but you get a less clean comparison than a fixed split.
Should I offer a gift card or greeting card add-on at checkout?
If your products are often bought as gifts, it is worth testing.
Watch checkout completion so the extra step doesn't cost you orders.
Does lowering add-on prices raise order value?
It can, if many more shoppers take the add-on.
Here order value rose 8.4%, but pricing was bundled with flow changes.
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