CRO Secrets for Large Catalog Stores

Hey I’m Harry, and this is CRO 1 2 3 where each week I break down:

👉 1 Winning A/B test that added 5 figures

👉 2 Incredible e-commerce funnels

👉 3 Actionable Tips based on over 1,000 A/B tests our team has run while building 8-figure e-commerce stores

Today’s theme is: Large Catalog Stores

Think clothing stores, online retailers.

CRO is wildly different for big stores. And today I’m going to give you some tips on how to get customers to convert more, spend more, and return to buy again.

If you’re not subscribed you can do so here:

Lets get into it!

1 Winning A/B Test 🧪

I. + $2.4M new annual revenue added.

This feature test for a giant online retailer added $2.16 in value for every single website visitor.

Can you guess the test?

The goal: increase the Average Order Value (AOV) in the cart with an irresistible incentive... FREE cash!

Earn store credit while you shop 👇

It’s a retail classic: Starbucks Rewards, Walmart Plus, Target Circle.

But surprisingly rare in direct-to-consumer.

For brands with repeat business, it boosts AOV and gives customers a reason to return.

Great for first time purchases and for retention.

It kills two birds with one stone.

Why it worked:

✅ Buy more, get credit
✅ Higher AOV for new & returning customers
✅ Shoppers return to redeem credit
✅ Email reminders for expiring credit creates urgency

Results:

$204k in new monthly revenue with the same traffic.

$2.4M annually 🚀

That’s based on a $2.16 increase in revenue per session. The highest we’ve ever measured in a single AB test.

Tips for a store credit program:

1. Set a minimum order to redeem credit

2. Make credit expire for urgency

3. Advertise it clearly to boost AOV!

Shopify is releasing this feature natively soon so keep an eye out for it.

(Note: demo store used for these images. Our client has asked for their store to remain anonymous).

2 Big Store Breakdowns 👨‍💻

I. True Classic

When we’re talking big stores we’re often talking apparel.

And you can’t mention apparel in DTC without True Classic’s name coming up.

That’s for a good reason - from a $3000 investment in 2019, now $150 million in revenue, True Classic has taken the DTC world by storm.

And one of the ways they’ve done that is through excellent on-site CRO, specifically merchandising.

It’s the trick to a high-converting, high-SKU store.

Merchandising is the art of taking 1000s of SKUs and helping the customer find the 1 or 2 that they’re going to buy.

Here’s how True classic nails it with their site layout, starting with their homepage:

It’s simple when you think about it - but it’s a testament to the quality of the merchandising that they’ve been able to grow so rapidly while constantly adding new product lines.

And when it comes to actual page design, there are two underrated locations that are essential to optimize for big stores…

​II. The Feed

DTC Pages client The Feed nails two of the most important web design elements needed for a well merchandized store:

Collections Pages:

Designed to make product discovery frictionless:

Site Search:

Designed to get hot traffic to their desired product in as few steps as possible:

3 Learnings from 1,000+ eCommerce experiments 🔬

I. Use empty collection tiles to improve trust and drive action.

​II. Don’t tell customers you’ll calculate their shipping costs at checkout if they’ve already qualified for free shipping.

III. Don’t have a permanent SALE tab in your site navigation.

We’ve tested this multiple times - it hurts store revenue per session. Meaning customers who would have bought at full price are buying sale items instead. Use them sparingly.

Want to chat about how we can help you scale your brand? Our team handles full-service CRO for brands like Jambys, Happy Mammoth, Laundry Sauce, and many more. If you’re running an 8 or 9 figure brand that could use a lift in website performance we want to chat with you.

If you only take away one thing from this post let it be this:

CRO for big stores is an entirely different beast than others. If you’re selling clothing don’t look for CRO strategy from a supplement brand.

It will not translate.

Likely you’re already sat on a mountain of analytics, heatmaps, and survey data that you’re not using that will quite literally tell you how to better merchandise your store and plug the gaps in your conversion funnel.

You just have to dig into the data!

If you know someone else in the DTC space who you think would be interested in tactical CRO advice then go ahead and forward them this email.

Until next time,

Harry Molyneux
​Founder of CRO Agency, DTC Pages​
Operator of Top Secret DTC Brand