Case Study C – 28% Increase in Sales

Summary

  • 8 week A/B split test study of Trust-Verified Seal on UK website
  • 28% more sales generated by Trust Seal during this 8 week period
  • 115% more sales generated by Trust Seal during the last 3 weeks of this test (when more positive customer feedback had been received)

 

Details

  • Barcodes UK performed an A/B split test on their website from 11 June 2013 to 6 August 2013. The Trust-Verified seal appeared on the site for half of the visitors, and the other half didn’t see the seal.
  • The results from this were watched for 8 weeks using google analytics. This tracked the number of visitors and the conversion rate – the % of visitors that purchased items on the website.
  • During this time, 4945 visitors saw the site without a trust seal, and 4721 visitors saw the site with the trust seal.
  • The conversion rate with the Trust Seal was 2.33% cf 1.82% without the seal. This is a 28% increase in conversions (sales). Using a statistical significance calculator, this is shown to be statistically significant with P=0.04 (ie 96% likely to have not happened by chance).
  • The conversion rate during the last 3 weeks of this trial increased significantly. The conversion rate with the seal was 3.12% (1699 visitors) cf 1.45% (1832 visitors) without the seal. Hence this 3 week period showed an amazing 115% increase in sales for the website displaying the Trust Seal vs the website without the Trust Seal. This is statistically significant with P=0.000 (ie less than 0.1% chance of it happening by chance). It is surmised that this increase in conversion rate in the last 3 weeks of the trial was due to an increase in the number of positive customer comments visible with the Trust Seal (Trust-Verified seals can display the number of comments and star rating, as well as linking through to the company information and feedback on the Trust-Verified website – see here for example).
  • The trial ended after 8 weeks, as the company, Barcodes UK, realised that continuing to run the split test was costing them in sales – and that the Trust-Verified Trust Seal should be showing to all visitors.

 

Conclusion

  •  The use of a good quality Trust Seal can increase website conversions or sales significantly – in this case by 28% during an 8 week trial.
  • Trust Seals are probably more effective if there is a good amount of high quality customer feedback behind them. Hence it might be worthwhile to collect customer feedback for several weeks before displaying the Trust Seal on your website. (Trust-Verified seals allow this option).
  • A/B split testing is a valuable way to see the benefits of website changes, including the use of a Trust Seal.

The statistical significance was tested using Visual Website Optimizer’s A/B Split Test Significance Calculator.

Further Information

The pictures below give more details of this test

 

The website with & without Trust Seal

Barcode1 UK homepage no sealBarcode1 UK homepage with trust seal
Barcode1 UK homepage without Trust SealBarcode1 UK homepage with Trust Seal

 

The images above show the 2 versions of the website used for the A/B split test – the website on the left has no Trust Seal, and the website on the right has a Trust Seal.

 

What the Trust Seal reveals

Trust Seal hover-over popup
Trust Seal hover-over popup

TV follow link
Clicking on the Trust Seal leads to this page

 

Hovering over the Trust Seal reveals some information about the company, including The Site Rating (out of 5) and verified contact information.
Clicking on the Trust Seal leads to an information page on the Trust-Verified site, which shows more details about the Site Rating, results of the customer satisfaction surveys, and customer comments.

 

Statistical Analysis

Google Analytics A/B Split Test Results
Google Analytics A/B Split Test Results

T-V Case Study Barcode 1 UK June-Aug 2013 statistical significance
A/B Split Test 8 weeks – 28% increase in sales!

T-V Case Study Barcode 1 UK July-Aug 2013 statistical significance
A/B Split Test 3 weeks – 115% increase in sales!

A/B Split Test 3 weeks - 115% increase in sales! (using a different statistical calculator)
A/B Split Test 3 weeks – 115% increase in sales!
(using a different statistical calculator)