Subscription tests plus site rebuild: take rate 22% to 38%+
Test run bySplitBaseCRO agency
Commentary byLiftArchiveOur analysis, not theirsA year of product page tests followed by a full site rebuild raised Transparent Labs' subscription take rate from 22% to more than 38%, with conversion rate up over 12%.
SplitBase ran the testing program and the rebuild for the sports supplement brand.
Many changes were combined, so this is a program result rather than one test.
- Subscription take rate: from 22% to over 38%, a relative rise of about 73%.
- Average conversion rate: up by more than 12% across the program.
- Page speed: improved by over 40% after the rebuild.
- Individual test lifts, including for the lab-testing section and starter kit animation, were not shared.
The change
Variant adds a starter kit reward on subscribe and a lab-testing section.
Simplified mockup drawn by LiftArchive from the shared screenshots.
Control
Product pages buried the brand's third-party lab testing inside descriptions. The subscription option was a plain pricing choice.
Variant
Tests added a '3rd Party Testing' section to product pages and a 'Unlock a Free Starter Kit' animation when shoppers chose to subscribe. Winning ideas then fed into a rebuilt site on a new codebase.
Why it likely won
Our reading of the result, not the practitioner's claim.
- Lab testing is the core of the brand's promise, and supplement buyers often worry about what is really in the bottle. Moving the proof into view answers that worry at the moment of choice.
- The starter kit animation turns picking a subscription into an instant reward, which makes the ongoing commitment feel like a gain.
- The rebuild locked in winning patterns and cut app bloat, so faster pages may have helped too.
Caveats: Several changes shipped together: this result covers many subscription tests plus a full rebuild, and individual test lifts were not given. No sample sizes, durations or confidence levels were shared.
Who ran it
SplitBase ran this test for Transparent Labs and published the results (SplitBase case study). The numbers are theirs; the summary and commentary on this page are ours.
Read the original case study on SplitBase →
How to run this test on your store
- Hypothesis
- If we give shoppers an instant, visible reward when they select the subscription option, then subscription take rate will rise because the commitment feels like a win rather than a cost.
- Primary metric
- Subscription take rate
- Guardrails
- Overall conversion rate
- Subscription cancellation rate in the first 60 days
- Gross margin per order
- Who should test it
- Consumable brands with repeat-purchase products, such as supplements or coffee, that already offer subscriptions. It won't do much if your product is rarely reordered or your subscription saves buyers little.
Questions
How can I get more customers to choose subscribe and save?
Make the benefit of subscribing obvious and immediate, for example with a free gift that appears when the option is selected. Test the reward against a plain discount.
Will pushing subscriptions hurt my conversion rate?
It can if it adds friction. Transparent Labs tracked conversion alongside take rate, and both went up, but watch early cancellations as well.
Where should lab test results go on a supplement product page?
Near the buying decision, in a clearly labeled section, rather than inside a long description.
Link to the certificate of analysis for each product.
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