Dear Goorin Bros: Some Unsolicited Advice from a Conversion Rate Optimist
Recently, I was shopping online for a new flat cap at one of my favorite brands, Goorin Bros. I’ve bought a couple of hats at their Austin store and I’ve loved the buying experience there. The hats, the vibe, the friendly and knowledgeable staff: all good things. So yeah, I’m already a convert. Because of that, I tend to be a little more forgiving when shopping on their website. Plus, I’m a web designer, so I tend to be slightly more patient than your average user. And while my experience wasn’t a bad one, there were a few things I noticed during the process that could be improved to reduce some friction and improve conversion.
Optimize Images For Faster Page Load
This is the biggest one, so I’m putting it right up front. If Goorin Bros. were to do one single thing in an attempt to increase conversion, it should be this: increase page load speed by optimizing large images and serving up smaller versions for smaller screens.
The Goorin Bros. website has some fantastic product photos. As a designer, I love me some big, beautiful pictures. But I also know that larger images come with larger file sizes, which means longer download times. I noticed this while using the site on my laptop. I have a pretty fast internet connection at home, so experiencing slow page load times is something I’m not used to. And while I’m not a fan of broad generalizations, I’m guessing if this is an issue for me, it’s an issue for a majority of users. For the purposes of this article, though, I’m not going to focus on desktop performance, but rather the place where this is hurting most: mobile.
Here’s the biggest problem: as far as I can tell, the site uses the same huge images for desktop and mobile. The homepage alone weighs in at almost 12MB, over 10 of which consists of images. That’s a pretty heavy site, even with a wi-fi connection (I have pretty good wi-fi at home and it takes about 20 seconds to load the site on my phone). Without wi-fi, though, that’s enormous. According to Google’s developer tools, on a fast 3G connection, estimated load time is a little over a minute; on a slow 3G connection, over 4. That’s too long to ask users to wait.
According to research by Google, 53% of mobile users abandon sites that take longer than 3 seconds to load. Additionally, they found that mobile sites that loaded in 5 seconds earned almost double the revenue of sites that took 19 seconds to load.
If that’s true, then most people who try to view the site on a mobile device are probably abandoning the site before viewing any products. And while great photos definitely help sell products, they’re worthless if users abandon your site before the images even load.
Quick Shop Option
This one isn’t crucial for site performance, but could help increase conversion by making the shopping experience quicker and easier. And, at the end of the day, isn’t that why most of us buy stuff on the internet?
A quick shop option gives users some details about a product or allows them to add to their cart without having to go to the product page. There are a number of different ways you can implement this feature. You can go as simple as offering an “Add to Cart” button under an image on a product list page, or you can go for broke and pop a modal with product description, additional images, and other suggested items.
I would recommend adding a basic “Add to Cart” button with size selection as a hover state over each image on the product list page.
One good thing about this feature is that it enables users to add items to their cart without having to wait for a product page to load. It’s definitely no replacement for image optimization, but it could be implemented quickly to help reduce some of the friction caused by slow page loads.
Post-Purchase Experience
This is actually what spurred this post. I made my online purchase, received an order confirmation email, and noticed there was no call to action to bring me back to the site. I also received a shipping confirmation email, which was also devoid of links back to the Goorin Bros. website. The emails were polite and well composed, but didn’t do anything to invite me back. “Thanks so much, welcome to the family! … Welp, see ya later.”
It’s estimated that it costs five times as much to acquire a new customer as it does to retain an existing customer. Additionally, an existing customer is significantly more likely to make a purchase than a new one.
With that in mind, the post-purchase experience is a crucial part of making repeat customers. Making a quality product is half the battle, but the other half is getting people to come back to your site. Giving users an opportunity to return to the site to read reviews, track shipments, or browse related products is a good step towards making that next sale.
A few suggestions come to mind when looking at this email:
Make the product image and name an active link to the item’s description. People like to return to a site to read more about what they bought, post-purchase. This is low hanging fruit: the elements are already there, just make them clickable.
Suggest other products to compliment the purchase, such as accessories or care products. Take a cue from Amazon and offer items that will compliment their purchase. Personalizing and caring for your new possession is always in style.
Use a different tracking service which will bring users back to the site instead of taking them to a third party site. Everybody likes tracking their package, so you might as well capitalize on that. It may cost a little more, but it’s worth it to bring people back to your site instead of sending them to FedEx.com.
In Summary
I love Goorin Bros. They’re doing a lot of things right. They’re making great products. They have a beautiful website. And their newsletter isn’t too shabby, either. So when I offer my unsolicited opinions, I do it in love, because I don’t like seeing stellar brands leave money on the table.
