Well, you’d be surprised… For consumer products, this is still important. Many users still like to receive something “physical” in the mail.

And this happens to be even more true for my collector-type audience. You know, the type of people that still buy real books, DVDs and CDs (remember those?).

So we decided to try and see if we could enhance that “package in the mail” moment, by designing a nicer shipping package for our Collectorz.com software.
(Of course, we were also hoping to sell some more )

The previous package “design”

In the early days, we regarded the “delivery on CD” as just that: a delivery method for people who, for some reason, did not want to download the software. So the package was just a CD-R in a generic paper sleeve. Okay, the CD-R did have a Collectorz.com logo, but it looked ugly because it had the white-border logo on a white background.

Note that there was just one generic Collectorz.com CD, containing all our 7 trial editions. People buying multiple programs only needed to order one CD.

The new DVD case design

For the new delivery packages, we decided to go for nice DVD cases, with a separate DVD case and CD face design for each of our 7 software products:

The DVD case also comes with a simple 2 page insert, containing installation instructions and the user’s personal license key:

BTW: these new cases and CDs are still created fully on-demand by our fulfillment partner CustomCD. So we don’t have to print the box inlays up-front, neither do we have to stock up on large quantities of pre-pressed CDs.
When we release a new build of our software, we just upload a new CD image to the CustomCD FTP server and the next day we’re shipping the new version.

The AutoRun CD installer

While we were improving the package design, we figured we’d also take another look at what’s on the CD. I mean the AutoRun CD installer, the first thing people see when they insert the CD in their Windows computer.

The old one was quite slick already. I mean, look at those 3D buttons!

But you’ll have to admit the new installer looks slightly better…

Yes, it was about time we gave that one a makeover…

The results

For comparision, with the old “CD in paper sleeve”, the average number of people opting for “Delivery on CD” was around 300.

So what happened after we switched to the new shipping boxes? Well, in the past 30 days, between November 15 and December 15, we sold 954 DVD cases.

Of course, we started pushing the boxes a bit harder, offering discounted bundle deals like “Pro-in-a-Box” and other bundles of boxed software with one of our barcode scanners. But on the other hand, we also doubled the price.
(previously Delivery on CD was $5 + $5 shipping costs. Now it’s $10 + $5 shipping.)

I am quite happy with these sales results (and I am sure CustomCD is too ).
But more importantly: our users now get something in the mail that is worth putting on the shelves, as opposed to a flimsy envelope with a CD-R, which should improve the “after sales” experience.

One thing we noticed now that we have a separated DVD case for each product:
Compared to our other users, Book Collector users are about twice as likely to opt for delivery on CD. Again, this shows that the effect of marketing changes like this will hugely differ depending on the product you’re selling.

Having my main call-to-actions (Try and Buy) on the top right of the landing page

Last year, I tried a design with big Try and Buy boxes in the central content only, but it didn’t work.

In another test, I put my Facebook fan-box top-right, moving the Sign Up for the Trial and Buy Movie Collector boxes down a bit (but right below the Facebook thingie). Not a good idea (though we did attract slightly more Facebook fans).

In the past couple of weeks, I tried something similar again: I removed the panel on the right altogether, going for a 2-column website design. And again, conversions to the trial sign-up dropped immediately. After reintroducing the try/buy boxes on the top right, and we were back in business.

For me, for my business and for my audience, top rights seems to be the place where my Try and Buy actions need to be. Have you tried this for your website?

But, as I will stress in my upcoming ESWC presentation, make sure to A/B split test it on your website, with your audience. Your results may very well be very different.

In May 2006, we started using RBS WorldPay (called “Bibit” at the time) for our online sales. That’s more than 4 years using the same payment processor, a record for us So… it’s about time we changed again.

Not that we have any problems with RBS. Expect for maybe their customer support, that kinda sucks. But we rarely need it. Their payment system is very reliable and problem-free.

But then why change? Well, as you know, I am always looking for ways to improve sales, conversion rates and ultimately, my profits. If a new payment processor can help with that, I’m all for it. I am confident that GlobalCollect can do just that.

So next week, we will switch all our sales to GlobalCollect, even our PayPal sales.

The main reasons for switching to GlobalCollect:

• More local payments, especially for Europe. I am hoping to increase european conversion rates by being able to offer local bank transfers and country-specific direct banking options in most european countries.
• Recurring payments. GlobalCollect provides a good system for handing recurring payments, via credit cards, Paypal and direct debit. Important for our online subscription services.
• Better rates. RBS rates were already low compared to the big software e-commerce systems (most of em owned by DR now). But I have been able to negotiate even better rates at GlobalCollect.
• More customization options. Payment pages can be styled using CSS and you can add your custom page headers and footers. I know, this is rather standard with most e-commerce providers, but RBS doesn’t have any of that.
• Continuous improvements. GlobalCollect seems to be more focussed on continuously improving their system, adding new features and payment products. As opposed to RBS, which has been the same for many years, there does not seem to be any development.
• Better Customer Support: Even during the weekends.
• Located in Hoofddorp, the Netherlands.. GlobalCollect is a big world wide player in payment processing, but their headquarters are located in the Netherlands, just 20 minutes from our office. They speak Dutch and they are in the same time zone as we are. Not crucial, but it helps.

In the past week, I have been implementing the integration with GlobalCollect. Yes, had to do it myself We have so many projects going on that none of my programmers had the time to do it. Oh well, I like doing some programming once in a while. Especially if it is directly related to improving conversion rates.

On Monday, I will be hitting the big switch.

The session is called “The Art of Testing” and will be about A/B split testing. The focus will be on testing website designs, and I will discuss:

• Introduction: Why you should be testing.
• The tech stuff: How you can do simple A/B split tests and multivariate tests.
• The fun stuff: What to test? What website changes should you focus on?

Two ten-year anniversaries

The conference in Vienna will be the 10th European Software Conference, but, as it happens, Collectorz.com is also celebrating its 10 year anniversary this November.

So we have decided to sponsor the “Pre-event meeting” on Friday night and all conference attendees are invited.

Drinks and finger food are on me

See you there!

We have been selling our software this way for a long time. Before we introduced these two pricing levels, we were selling our software for $29.95. Adding the more expensive Pro edition for $49.95 was a good way to increase the price without dropping the old price. After the change, about 80% of our customers started opting for the Pro edition, causing a nice jump in profits.

The presence of two editions also gives our visitors a choice. Price conscious customers can opt for the cheaper Standard edition. Buyers just looking for the best, regardless of price, can choose the Pro edition. The availability of choices helps to increase conversion rates.

As you can see in the image above, we have done something similar with our range of barcode scanners, a cheap CueCat for $19.95 as an entry level scanner, a deluxe laser scanner for $139.95, and a mid-level option for $79.95.

But offering multiple editions also has one drawback: it adds complexity.

Complexity

If you offer multiple editions of your software, at different prices, you will have to as clear as possible about the differences between them. Our solution for this is to include the little blue question mark thingies everywhere we mention the two editions. Clicking it pops up this feature comparsion chart:

But still, a large percentage of the support questions we get is about standard and pro editions. People still ask about the differences between them. And about how to upgrade from Standard to Pro. Or why feature X has suddenly disappeared after unlocking the trial edition (the trial edition has all Pro features, so unlocking to the Standard edition disables some features). Also, we get people complaining about feature X being a Pro feature, while they think “this is something every user needs” (yes, we also get this for advanced stuff like “Export to XML”).

Having two software editions also adds complexity to your shop page, especially if you offer multiple products. The page has to show list both editions, with their prices and again some way to find out more about the difference between them. The buyer must be able to to add either the Standard or the Pro edition to the cart, and preferably the shop page should allow switching between the two. In the Collectorz.com shop, it looks like this:

So I began wondering: is the availability of the two editions still increasing my profits? Or is the extra complexity hurting my conversion rates? Well… if you have been reading my posts for a while, you can probably guess what’s next…

The test

Here’s the A/B split test I have been running for the past 14 days:

• Version A: As described above, the product pages and shop offering two editions, Standard and Pro.
• Version B: Product page and shop listing just the $49.95 edition, just called “Movie Collector”, without the Pro postfix.

In the B version, the Buy-box on the product pages looked like this:

And the shop page could be reduced to:

Simpler, but less choice and looking more expensive.

The results

Well, let’s start with the good news:
In the B group the average purchase value was 31% higher.
But the number of sales (= conversion rate) dropped by 25%, causing an overall 2% drop in profits.
The conversion to trial sign-ups also dropped, by about 3%.

Interestingly, during the first few days of the test, the results looked promising. The B edition immediately showed the increase in purchase value, but the number of sales was higher too. The A version proved better in the end, but took more time to pick up steam.

What’s happening here? Well, I can’t be sure, but it looks like the more price-conscious customers are also taking more time to decide on their purchase, e.g. by seriously evaluating the trial edition. The kind of user who had no problem with the $50 price tag apparently also had no problem buying without trying. Hey, why not add a 2nd $50 program and the deluxe scanner too

Anyway, it seems like we shouldn’t get rid of the Standard edition (yet). The 2% decrease in profits is small, but a 25% drop in new customers being added to “the pool” is unacceptable and could cause a large drop in profits in the long run (less cross-sells, less up-sells, less upgrades, etc…).

But wouldn’t it be great to increase the average purchase value by 31%, without the drop in conversion rate? Back to the drawing board…

Interesting results, so I tried some experiments with the color of my own sign up buttons.

On the Collectorz.com website the main call-to-action buttons (Try and Buy) are a dark shade of blue (what we call “collectorz blue”). This results in a nice and quiet look. But if I can get more sign ups by introducing a noisy Sign Up button, I won’t complain.

The Red Button

I tried a red one first. It sure stands out
The results after about 400 sign ups:
The conversion rate dropped by 9%.
Not quite what I had expected. Maybe red is too much of a danger color? Are people scared to click a big red button? Or maybe it’s too red and will a softer shade of red do better?

The Green Button

Next attempt: a green sign up button. IMO it looks a bit nicer than the red one. But that’s not what counts, is it? Will it get more people to sign up for the trial? Ehm… no…
The results (400 sign ups counted):
13% less sign ups.
That’s even worse than the red one.

Back to Blue it is

Well, that didn’t work. So for now I am back to the blue buttons. I still think that making the free trial option stand out more is a good idea. But apparently not like this.
Maybe I should have tried Dan McGrady’s 3rd tip first: “Change the button text from “Signup for Free” to “Get Started Now”. Dan says:

“Get Started Now” is an easier sounding commitment than signing up. Signing up also has connotations with paying.

Make sense, so that’s what I am testing at the moment.

CD delivery companies (we have worked with SwiftCD and CustomCD) are always pushing us to have “Delivery on CD” pre-checked. Understandably, because this is bound to sell more CDs and thus bring them more business. And automatically adding a $10 Priority Support subscription is sure to result in more subscriptions to that service.

Sounds good, doesn’t it? Making more money on each sale, who can say no to that?

Unless…
… the sudden addition of extra costs is putting people off. Some customers may even feel cheated. Sure, one can easily (?) remove the extras from the cart, but that’s all extra steps in your checkout procedure. Overall, making people opt-out on your up-sells may cost you sales.

Of course, it’s all about the bottom line: Will the extra profits per sale compensate for the lost sales?
Now we can all have long discussions about what will happen. And I could easily write several articles about the expected effects.

As always, there’s only one way to find out for sure: An A/B split test.

The test: Cart A vs Cart B

The test is pretty simple. The big blue buy buttons on my product pages (see below), either take the customer to cart Version A or cart Version B.

Version A is the opt-in version. The initial cart only contains the software the user select, then he can optionally add extras like the Delivery on CD and Priority Support.

Version B is the opt-out version. The cart automatically contains both extras, but these can be easily removed using the little red “X” buttons.

The results

After one week of testing and 232 sales counted, these are the results:

• Sign Ups: -2.4%
• Sales: -17.8%
• Average First Purchase: +5.6%
• Total Profits: -12.8%

As you can see, it confirms the expectations: the Average First Purchase went up and Sales decreased. But the extra money made per sale is not nearly enough to compensate for the loss in sales quantity.

What does this mean?

So does this mean we should not automatically add or pre-check extras like CD-Delivery and Support subscriptions?
Well, not like I did it in the above test. But I have not given up yet. Here’s a couple of ideas I would like to test later:

• Test with just the CD or just Support auto-checked. Maybe one of them is causing the lost sales. Looking at last week’s sales I am seeing a lot of CD Delivery sales, but very little Priority Support subscriptions. So most people are removing the support option. Is there hope for a design that has just the CD Delivery auto-added to the cart?
• Make it even easier to opt-out, e.g. by making the “remove from cart” buttons clearer and bigger.
• Offer both options as pre-checked check boxes right in the big Buy box on the product page, so that users can uncheck them even before clicking my big blue buy button.
• Offer a “Premium Pack” option on the product home page, that has both extras included in a bundle, with a separate Buy button and the total price of $69.95 listed right there. We have used a similar solution before for a barcode scanner bundle and that was working well.