How a pop-up decreased user conversion and how did we recover.

Observation is the Key. Observe . Learn . Change . Observe Again .

We all know that an appearance of a website contributes a huge amount in user conversion. A large part of unit metrics can be improved with proper UI of a website or app. After that comes UX.

Landing page makes the first impression encouraging users to sign up or to do some specific action on the website. Encouragement works always better than Direct pushing. Silent pushing is okay and also a much needed one.

Direct Pushing

With Direct pushing I meant to say that when we feel pressed while we visit a Shopping mall and salesperson starts interrogating or starts over with today’s special sale. Imagine you went to a restaurant and within a minute waiter asking “Madam, what do you want to order?” , you didn't get enough time to feel the ambiance or an opportunity to go through the menu at least on your own.

Silent Pushing

Will it not be better if it happens in the following way:

1. You walked into a shopping mall hearing greetings. You went to the specific section where you would like to purchase something. After a little browsing through the collection, salesperson approaches you if he/she can help you with something or what you are looking for. If today’s offer matches your selection then you get notified about it or after you pick your collection you were informed about today’s offer.
2. You went to a restaurant sat, and felt the ambiance, you were asked if you liked any drink or bring you water. You get enough time to browse through the menu or today’s special items mentioned to you by the waiter first time helping you to decide better in the mean time.

I tell this silent pushing; leading to better opting of the product or service. Not just selling. Solving the visitors problem and truly helping them by your product or service and providing information at right time.

Learning User Behavior

We at Basketapp always kept an keen eye on user behavior. We used analytics and also tracked how are users using our site. We saw the video playback of the users to ensure users are are getting it right.

Using an Auto Pop-up

At Basket Homepage we stated clearly in short that what Basket is about and kept a video just after it to provide visitors a brief knowledge about Basketapp. After that we kept descriptive section describing how Basket can help users achieving most out of there bookmarks.

Now after the video section that is when the descriptive section starts on scroll we forcefully opened a pop-up prompting users to request early access on our site.

It was fine from our perspective as Users were coming to our site knowing about Basket from some other website like Yourstory, so it was fine as after landing to our homepage they already saw what we are offering in short and also saw our video ( Yes, the click through rate was high on the video).

So we used a auto pop-up to make the conversion higher. If people wants to read more they had option to close it and carry on. BUT WE ASSUMED WRONG, as it interrupted their flow. Many visitors got it right but also many wanted to read on and signup at the end (Yes we kept another action button there too!! and it helped).

Using a Fixed Header Before Instead

We was sure about the problem once we got another large volume of user from Betalist and before a huge wave hit our homepage we used a fixed header with ‘Request Early Access” message which came down in the same section where we used the auto pop-up earlier.

It changed the visitor conversion dramatically. We saw more % of visitors are subscribing for early access in Basketapp.

Let me know your thoughts over Twitter @ronnhere

Thanks. ☺ Have a great day.