Bulk discount offer, redesigned and retested: +16.85% revenue
Commentary byLiftArchiveOur analysis, not theirsBulk discounts on select popular products, shown in a more visible redesigned display, lifted revenue by 16.85% and average order value by 18.94%.
Paperstone, a UK online office supplies retailer, ran this site-wide test on its own site, and it was published as a VWO case study.
It was a second try after the same offer, shown in a sidebar ribbon, made no difference.
- Average order value: +18.94%, even though only some products carried bulk discounts.
- Revenue: +16.85% net, which matters because margins were thin and discounts had to pay for themselves.
- Order value on the bulk-discount offers themselves rose 5%, according to the source.
- Each version had more than 10,000 visitors.
Control
The site offered no bulk-purchase discounts.
Variant
Select popular products got bulk discounts, presented in a redesigned way that was more visible than the first test's sidebar ribbon. The exact display isn't described in the source text.
Why it likely won
Our reading of the result, not the practitioner's claim.
- The offer was now hard to miss, so the discount could actually influence what people bought.
- Office supply buyers often restock in quantity, and Paperstone's survey showed they expected bulk discounts.
- A visible saving on larger quantities gives buyers a reason to add more units to the same order.
Caveats: This was a second attempt at the same idea after a flat first test. The source doesn't describe the winning display in text, and no test length or significance level was given.
Who ran it
Paperstone ran this test for Paperstone 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 Paperstone →
How to run this test on your store
- Hypothesis
- If we offer bulk discounts on popular products and show them clearly where shoppers choose quantity, then revenue will rise because larger orders outweigh the discount.
- Primary metric
- Revenue per visitor
- Guardrails
- Gross margin per order
- Conversion rate
- Average order value
- Who should test it
- Price-competitive stores selling items bought in quantity, such as office supplies or consumables. If margins can't absorb a discount, or customers rarely buy more than one, it's less likely to pay off.
Questions
Do bulk discounts increase average order value?
They did for Paperstone, raising average order value by 18.94% once the offer was clearly visible.
The effect depends on whether your buyers naturally purchase in quantity.
How do I make sure a discount doesn't hurt margins?
Track revenue and margin, not just conversions. Paperstone judged the test on revenue because extra discounted orders alone would not cover the lost margin.
Is it worth retesting a failed idea?
Yes, if you can find a likely reason it failed.
Paperstone's first test was flat because the offer went unnoticed; fixing the display turned it into a win.
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