The Playbook

In the pursuit of increasing the life time value (LTV) of your customers, and lowering the cost to acquire customers (CAC), you have determined the weakest point in your sales funnel is the transition from Product page to Cart page. AKA you want to increase your Add To Cart Rate (ATCR)

This playbook covers:

1. Pre-requisites
2. Applications and tools
3. Establish baseline metrics
4. Set a goal worth achieving
5. Choose what to change
6. Implement split test
7. Results reviews
8. Next Steps

Pre-requisites

Working to improve your ATCR can make huge impact on LTV and CAC, but don't skip the below steps.

• Active Shopify Site with an active products and checkout
  • A fully functional template (even if basic)
  • You are not on a ".myshopify.com" domain
  • You can complete a purchase of a product
• Consistent traffic to the product pages in question
  • 100+ product page visits per day (can be across multiple products)
  • Can be a blend of organic and paid, but keep consistent during testing
• Clean Shopify and Google Analytics tracking of traffic, conversions and revenue
  • You need the active site and traffic flowing to it to confirm
    
• Competitive Offer (retailers and brands)
  • Confirm you are selling at a competitive price
  • Confirm you are selling at a competitive value

Applications And Tools

There are many apps that can provide qualitative and quantitative analysis, the fact is none are perfect, but Hotjar will provide enough understanding of user behavior to A/B testing to a better result and that is all you need. It also has a native app for Shopify which makes for an easy setup.

1. Hotjar

Pre-requisites

There are no shortage of ways to increase LTV and Lower CAC. Prioritization is what matters most. The following should be in place before considering this playbook.

• Active Shopify Site with an active product
• Clean Shopify and Google Analytics tracking of traffic, conversions and revenue
• Consistent traffic to the product pages in question
  • Changing advertising tactics, could shift your audience and mislead results
  • You can still increase or decrease ad traffic by 10%, but more or less can change the quality of the audiences as well
• Ideally you have existing conversion math: Example:
  • 1000 visitors to product page X (or product pages in general) result in 75 ATCs, and 5 order are placed with an average order value (AOV) of $99
    • AddTo Cart Rate: 7.5%
    • Add To Cart To Purchase Rate: 6.67%
  • If your average order value is $99, this results in $495 in revenue
  • Increasing your ATC rate by 50%: 7.5% --> 11.25% results in $742 revenue ($247 increase)

In short, if you have conversion math you know the value of outcome if you succeed. If you don't have a converting site, low traffic, or low AOV, product page optimization might not need to focus on yet.

Execution Steps

Step 1: Define Goals and Key Behaviors

• Set a time period
• Record your primary metric baseline and goal
• Record your secondary metrics baseline and goalsSet your goal which should which should be ATC will increase from X% to X% and will result in $X in additional revenue (and run the math) to make sure winning is actually winning.
  • 25% increase ATC will result in $2,500 in additional revenue over the next 2 weeks.
• Use the last 30 days a baseline

Don't get too hung up on seasonality. If your Google Analytics is setup correctly, you will be able to compare Last 14 - 30 Days this year, last year and while you run the test

Step 2: Hotjar Setup and Integration

• Create a Hotjar account (hotjar.com).

• Install the Hotjar tracking code on your Shopify store through theme customization or via Google Tag Manager.

• Activate heatmaps, session recordings, and feedback polls for targeted pages.

Step 3: Collect Behavioral Data

• Allow Hotjar to collect data over a meaningful duration (minimum 1-2 weeks).

• Ensure sufficient interactions are captured for actionable insights.

Step 4: Analyze Hotjar Data

• Use heatmaps to identify hotspots and ignored areas.

• Watch session recordings to observe real user behaviors and pain points.

• Review feedback polls and surveys to understand visitor perspectives and frustrations.

Step 5: Develop Data-Driven Hypotheses

• Identify behavioral patterns from heatmaps and recordings (e.g., overlooked buttons, confusing product descriptions).

• Clearly articulate specific hypotheses for improvements based on user insights.

Step 6: Prioritize Optimization Opportunities

• Rank identified issues based on potential impact and ease of execution.

• Plan your first optimization tests based on top priority hypotheses.

Recommended Specialists

• UX Analyst: Specializes in interpreting Hotjar data to extract actionable insights.

• CRO Specialist: Crafts targeted hypotheses and optimizes based on observed user behaviors.

• Shopify Developer: Supports technical implementation and customization on your Shopify store.

Hotjar Tool Summary

• Heatmaps: Visual representation of user clicks, scrolling, and attention areas.

• Session Recordings: Real-time playback of user sessions to identify friction and confusion.

• Feedback Polls and Surveys: Direct insights from visitors for immediate qualitative understanding.

Continuous Improvement

• Regularly analyze user behavior with Hotjar for ongoing optimization.

• Maintain a prioritized improvement roadmap based on user insights.

• Clearly document findings and learnings for future reference and strategic planning.