App case study: How we increased conversion by 300%
In this article, I am focusing on a core feature of the app, and how we managed to increase its conversion.
A little bit about the product
ZenOwn is an app that keeps all your products in one place, safe, always accessible. Simply upload or send us your receipt and we do the rest. We save all your essential product information, so you can never lose the receipt or miss the warranty again (warranty alarm makes sure of that). Then, we deliver the product tips, personalized to the products you own.
That’s the user journey at a glance. More stuff coming very soon.
From the very beginning, we’ve been focusing on getting people to add their products to the app. That’s the core of what we do. Only if people add their products, they will experience the value. No products means no value for the user.
Simple, right?
Well, you can pretty quickly create a scenario where users download the app but they don’t add any product. So, we were thinking about how to speed this up. What to do in order for the user to add their very first product to ZenOwn?
The idea was born
We knew it has to be something during the onboarding process before we let users enter the main part of the app. Why? Because the onboardings are very to-the-point, focusing on one thing at a time, whereas in the main part of the app there is more content, calls to action, etc.
Anyway, there was a brilliant idea. Why don’t we help them add a product we know for sure they own? Hmm, what would that product be? Well, the only product we can be completely sure they own is the one they are checking our app on. Yep, you guessed it right, it’s a smartphone, more specifically an iPhone (we were building this for iOS only)!
You see, the good thing about adding an iPhone is that we can pre-populate some fields so that the user gets a feeling of completion without investing an effort in it. We know the exact iPhone model the user is using and we can pre-set the iPhone product photo for that specific model (there are not so many iPhone models out there). With that said, the user just needs to tap a button to add their iPhone without filling out or uploading anything.
Sure, it would be more valuable if they provide their product receipt, but that was not the goal here. The goal was to get people through the first cycle of adding their product so that they can experience the process and realize that it’s not really a hustle to do that.
In the image above, there is a big call to action to add an iPhone on the first screen, to make sure the user won’t miss it. Once they tap on it, they land on the second screen where they can actually add it. The product name and photo are already automatically provided which gives the user a feeling of speed and completion. Also, the “Add now” button is enabled, so all the user has to do is just tap it.
Plus, we took the experience to the next level
We didn’t just want users to realize that it takes almost no time to add a product. We wanted to take their experience to the next level and give them something valuable right away, in this very second while we have their attention.
You remember in the beginning I mentioned that we deliver the product tips throughout the user journey, right? Well, what we did is we created a simple tip for their iPhone, accessible immediately after they add it. We needed something that not a lot of iPhone users are aware of. So, we decided to show them how to take a photo with their iPhone just by saying ‘Cheese’, meaning there’s no need to use the finger to take a photo. Pretty cool tip, right?
In the image above, you can see that we designed a story-view flow, making it super intuitive and easy to go through the tip instructions. We also had a teammate shooting a quick video as an intro to the tip, making it more personal.
The result: These two things increased the conversion of the first added product by 300%!
Let’s quickly sum up the two things I just talked about.
- First, we enabled users to add the product they have in their hands. The objective was to help them realize that the adding process takes almost no time. Yes, the ‘normal’ adding process is different (after onboarding), but it also takes only a few seconds to add the product. Therefore, the duration is very similar. It’s not like we tricked the users into the wrong assumption.
- Second, we delivered a valuable product tip right away. The objective was to help users experience one of the benefits of adding the product, which is getting useful tips. This helps to change their perception of the app, going from the “Ok” to “Oh, that’s cool” mental state (hopefully, in the Travolta style).
Anyway, this is only one part of the user journey. The real magic begins with getting people to add products constantly. It’s a never-ending process, but it’s essential to do the testings and analyze the behavioral data all the time.
Feel free to download our iOS app to experience the onboarding process by yourself, or learn more about ZenOwn at www.zenown.com.
Hey, I’m Bojan, a product designer and content creator. For more useful design tips and tricks, follow me on Instagram.
I also published 2 digital design workbooks where I designed the app and explained design decisions I made along the way: www.uxbuddy.pro.
