Whole Bean preselected as default grind: +4.54% conversion rate
Test run byBlend CommerceCRO agency
Commentary byLiftArchiveOur analysis, not theirsPreselecting Whole Bean as the default grind on Stone Creek Coffee's product pages lifted conversion rate by 4.54%.
Blend Commerce ran this A/B test for the coffee roaster.
Subscription orders per visitor rose 25.74%, while average order value dipped 2.78%.
- Conversion rate: +4.54%.
- Revenue per visitor: +1.63%, a smaller gain than conversion because orders got slightly smaller.
- Reached-checkout rate: +7.99%.
- Subscription orders per visitor: +25.74%, and subscription revenue per visitor: +45.07%.
- Average order value: -2.78%, a small negative to watch.
The change
The grind picker starts on Whole Bean instead of an empty placeholder.
Simplified mockup drawn by LiftArchive from the shared screenshots.
Control
The grind option showed an unselected placeholder. Shoppers had to choose a grind before they could buy.
Variant
Whole Bean was selected by default. Shoppers who wanted a different grind could still change it.
Why it likely won
Our reading of the result, not the practitioner's claim.
- A required choice with nothing selected is an extra step. A sensible default removes it for shoppers who want the common option.
- Subscription buyers may be the most likely to want whole beans, which could explain the large subscription lift.
- The option stayed easy to change, so shoppers who grind differently were not blocked.
Caveats: Sample size, test length and statistical confidence were not shared. The default only helps if most buyers actually want Whole Bean; wrong-grind orders and returns were not reported.
Who ran it
Blend Commerce ran this test for Stone Creek Coffee and published the results (Blend Commerce case study). The numbers are theirs; the summary and commentary on this page are ours.
Read the original case study on Blend Commerce →
How to run this test on your store
- Hypothesis
- If we preselect the most popular option on a required product choice, then conversion will rise because shoppers who want that option skip a step.
- Primary metric
- Conversion rate
- Guardrails
- Average order value
- Wrong-variant returns or support tickets
- Revenue per visitor
- Who should test it
- Stores with a required option where one choice clearly dominates sales, such as grind, size or flavour. Avoid it when choices are split evenly or a wrong pick is costly, like clothing sizes or parts fitment.
Questions
Should product options be preselected?
Preselecting the most popular option can cut friction, as it did here with a 4.54% conversion lift.
Only do it when one option clearly leads and changing it is easy.
Why did order value drop?
The source did not explain the 2.78% dip.
One possibility is that more first-time or single-bag buyers completed orders, which pulls the average down.
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