# Search field instead of 450-gym dropdown at sign-up: +3.4% conversion

- Outcome: Won
- Page type: Signup page (Lead-gen)
- Elements: Form fields, Search
- Date shared: 2025
- Test run by: [PureGym](https://liftarchive.com/practitioners/puregym/)
- Commentary by: LiftArchive (our analysis, not theirs)
- Original source: https://wingify.com/success-stories/puregym-case-study/
- Page: https://liftarchive.com/test/puregym-join-gym-search-field/

Replacing a dropdown of more than 450 gyms with a search field on the first join step lifted membership sign-up conversion by 3.4%. PureGym, a UK gym chain, ran this test with Wingify, and it was published as an AB Tasty case study. Users could type a location and the gym list filtered as they typed.

## Result

**+3.4% conversion**

- Membership sign-up conversion: up 3.4%.
- Time spent on the gym selection step dropped, according to the source.
- More users completed gym selection and moved on in the join flow.
- Sample size, duration and confidence level were not shared.

## Control

Visitors who started joining without coming from a local gym page saw a long dropdown of over 450 locations, with no map or search.

## Variant

A search field let visitors type a location and filter the gym options straight away.

## Why it likely won (our reading)

- Scrolling through hundreds of names is slow, and typing a town is fast.
- People who did not know where PureGym's sites were could find their nearest one without guessing names.
- Removing a stall at the first step lets more people reach the steps where they commit.

## Caveats

Sample size, duration and significance were not shared. Details come from the AB Tasty PDF linked on the case study page.

## How to run this test

- Hypothesis: If we replace the long location dropdown with a search field, then more visitors will finish sign-up because finding their location will be quicker.
- Primary metric: Sign-up completion rate
- Guardrail: Location selection step completion
- Guardrail: Wrong-location sign-ups or later changes
- Guardrail: Mobile vs desktop conversion
- Who should test it: Multi-location businesses such as gyms, clinics, schools or franchises that ask users to pick a site in a form. It will matter little if you have only a few locations or most visitors arrive from a location page with it already chosen.

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Credit: PureGym ran this test and owns the result. Summary and commentary by LiftArchive (https://liftarchive.com/test/puregym-join-gym-search-field/).
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.