Posted in A/B Split Testing, Case Studies on November 8th, 2012
Blivakker.no is Norway´s leading online beauty shop with approximately 20,000 visits per day. In September 2012, they performed 
an A/B-test of the site registration form using the A/B testing software Visual Website Optimizer. They were aware that the site had an overly complicated registration process, but wanted to collect actual data to support the suspicion.
The goal
Their goal was to prove that a small change in a web form would lead to an increase in the form registration conversion rate. The hypothesis (supported by experts) was that by reducing the number of form fields, the conversion rate would increase. If they could show a significant increase in conversion rate by making small changes to a form, they would revise the entire purchasing process.
The A/B-test
The original form had 17 form fields. They reviewed the form fields and chose to remove 3 fields immediately; account number, phone number and phone number evening. The goal was to remove even more fields, but this was difficult due to technical limitations.
They set up 3 different versions of the registration form step in the process;
- Control – the original form
- Skjema-light – the original form minus 3 form fields (account number, phone number, evening phone number)
- Skjema-uberlight – a completely stripped down form with fewer fields and less navigational elements
Here are the results from the A/B-test:
The red marker shows which fields were removed:
The Conclusion
The tests showed that when you reduce the number of unnecessary fields in a form, you increase the number of registration. The test also shows that it´s not optimal to remove too much information from a form. The most important consequence of this small test is that the company now understands the importance of a fast registration process. Within a few months, more key processes will be analyzed and simplified to increase online sales.
Editor’s note: This case study was originally posted at Tribes.no. It’s been reproduced here with slight modifications.
Additional reading
- Three case studies where reducing form fields increased conversions – Marketing Experiemnts (Slideshare)
- Fewer fields in a contact form sharply increases conversions – Imaginary Landscape, LLC (PDF)
Karl Philip Lund
Karl Philip(KP) is a Norwegian interactive marketer that works out of his base in Oslo. KP frequently writes about online marketing in Norwegian marketing magazines and newspapers. He helps companies create success stories and he teaches online marketing at the Oslo school of management.
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7 Comments
November 8, 2012
Any thoughts on why it’s not optimal to remove more fields, as in the uberlight version? Is it more related to the type of the field than the quantity of the field? Do people not take the form seriously if it doesn’t request a certain amount of data?
Difficult questions, I know, but it would be very interesting to know more about the uberlight version.
November 8, 2012
Very good question.
I think the uberlight version performed worse because we removed “safety info” such as:
- You will guaranteed save money
- Fast shipping
- 100% Norwegian
November 11, 2012
Thanks for sharing your test results.
But it looks like this test is far from being finished.
I suggest that you run follow-up tests to get much more than the initial 11.
For example, I would split that very long signup page to three different pages (“Hei, hvem er du?”, “Kontoinformasjon”, “Hvor bor du?”).
And the “security information” from the sidebar calls for a multivariate test which you can easily run in VWO. Because you mixed 2 changes into one single variant, it is very difficult to draw conclusions whether a even shorter signup form would increase the conversion rate or not.
November 29, 2012
I would certainly add another A/B test segment called “Optimized fields” (i.e not removing/adding fields, but optimizing the existing ones).
Lets take each field one by one:
* STEP 1 *
Navn
Change to:
Fornavn
Etternavn
Keep as is.
Mobil
Change to:
Mobil (8 siffer) til å varsle når pakken kan hentes
Hentemelding
Remove.
Telefon
Remove.
Nyhetsbrev
Move to bottom.
Fødselsdato
NOT set as Required field
Kjønn
NOT set as Required field (remove? Is this really that useful in the checkout on this site)
* Step 2 *
Remove, and just have a checkbox (Do you want to create a customer account? (learn why))
* Step 3 *
Ship items to:
Street Address (field)
Postal Code (field)
Postal Name (automatically lookup in Bring’s Postal code db)
November 29, 2012
Roy,
Can you please provide English translations for your changes? Most of our readers won’t be able to get the full gist of your suggestions.
Thanks
November 29, 2012
Siddharth,
Sure. See below:
* STEP 1 *
Navn (eng: Name)
Change to:
Fornavn (First Name)
Etternavn
Keep as is (Sur Name).
Mobil (eng: Mobile)
Change to:
Mobil (8 siffer) til å varsle når pakken kan hentesHentemelding (eng: Mobile (8 digits) to send notification when package is ready to be picked up).
Telefon (eng: Phone)
Remove. (“nobody” has a secondary phone in 2012).
Nyhetsbrev (eng: Newsletter)
Move to bottom. (Nyhetsbrev is not part of “Who are you”).
Fødselsdato (eng: Birthdate)
NOT set as Required field
Kjønn (eng: Sex)
NOT set as Required field (remove? Is this really that useful in the checkout on this site)
* Step 2 *
Remove, and just have a checkbox (Do you want to create a customer account? (learn why here[link]))
* Step 3 *
Ship items to:
Street Address (field)
Postal Code (field)
Postal Name (automatically lookup in Bring’s Postal code db)
November 29, 2012
Forgot to mention that it is really important to not let the ecommerce system being used set limitations to the checkout process in terms of what fields shall be active etc.
The checkout process is one of the most vital part of the store and so letting the system set limitations here is really not good – although we see it too often that this is indeed the case (we only deliver Magento solutions though, where this is not an issue).
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