How One Shopify App Created a 182% Conversion Rate Lift for a Made-in-the-USA Brand 

E-commerce is changing every day as brands are having to pivot to accommodate logistical challenges, try new marketing strategies to retain site visitors, and navigate conversion rate hurdles that fluctuate throughout the year.

Several e-commerce brands are turning to domestic manufacturing, designing, creating and manufacturing products in the United States. One of those brands is Pistol Lake, an apparel brand focused on creating minimalistic styles for men. Its products are handmade from recycled materials, and focused on being sustainably and ethically manufactured in Los Angeles.

Challenge: Communicating Key Information

E-commerce brands are discovering that they’re not only vying for revenue, but consumers' attention. Pistol Lake was looking for a way to educate its site visitors on key information that was preventing them from moving through the purchase funnel.

By proactively answering any questions directly on the product detail page, e-commerce brands have the opportunity to acquire site visitors and convert them into customers more effectively than ever before. This is now made possible through top-rated Shopify app Because Intelligence (Because), an emerging technology startup that has a no-code rules engine for product pages, allowing e-commerce managers to update content across their site and dictate when and where to show key messaging based on product and site visitor data.

Because was implemented to help the Pistol Lake team overcome four roadblocks: communicating how its products were made to justify their price point, communicating how to unlock free shipping, driving a sense of urgency with window shoppers, and helping site visitors compare their savings on promotional items.

First, Pistol Lake’s site visitors didn’t fully understand the technical difference between its product materials (i.e., “one bag” vs. “minimalist”), which is a big selling point for the brand and a key justification for its pricing. This prompted site visitors to reach out to the customer service team with questions, which ultimately delayed a purchase, but the Pistol Lake team didn’t have a better way of communicating product differences than in its (often ignored) product description.

Another communication challenge the Pistol Lake team faced was messaging its free shipping threshold, and how much the customer needed to add based on how many items were already in their cart. This kind of project would have otherwise required hiring a developer to do custom code.

Scoring a discount was also important to its site visitors before completing a purchase, and the Pistol Lake team wanted an easy way to relay the percentage savings site visitors could realize for purchasing promotional items, but struggled to do so in its native Shopify theme without having to hire a developer.

Finally, Pistol Lake wanted to drive urgency with site visitors when inventory was low on certain products. It was impossible to add this message without having to code content in the backend or rely on non-customizable options in its theme.

Solution: An E-Commerce App for Product Page Conversion

Apparel brands need to keep visitors engaged throughout their sites for any questions to be answered and to continue moving through the consumer journey uninterrupted. The Pistol Lake team added Because to its e-commerce stack to create strategic text-based messages embedded into product detail pages that display dynamically based on product and site visitor data. Each of its campaigns communicated key information for Pistol Lake’s buying journey, leaving room for zero doubt in consumers' purchase decisions.

The Pistol Lake team created three campaigns that emphasized shipping thresholds, telling site visitors which products qualify for free shipping. The retailer was able to customize this based on each site visitor’s cart value. For example, Pistol Lake displayed “adding this product to your cart will qualify you for free shipping” when site visitors had $99 worth of goods in their cart.

Pistol Lake also used Because to display, “Get excited, your order qualifies for free shipping,” any time a site visitor hit the threshold of having the cart's total value at $150 or more. Similarly, for any cart totals that are valued at less than $150, a message would be displayed that lets site visitors know how much they need to add to qualify for free shipping (e.g., “Free shipping on orders over $150, add more to your cart to qualify.”

To communicate how its products are made, Pistol Lake created two linkable banner campaigns that lived below its add-to-cart buttons. It talked about the material of the product the site visitor was viewing and linked to the rest of the collection. Other strategic messages included which items are selling out fast, as well as messaging based on when inventory was low (only 20 or less product items remaining in stock). Because was able to pull this product data and dynamically display the message, “This is a popular item with only 6 [interchangable based on inventory] left. Grab yours now before it's too late!”

Results: Additional Revenue and a 182% Conversion Rate Lift

Pistol Lake created nine campaigns using the Because Shopify app that drove a staggering 182 percent conversion rate lift and a 96 percent add-to-cart rate lift. Because drove $33,000 in additional revenue for Pistol Lake in just one month, and projects that generated over $400,000 in the retailer's first year of platform use.

Because helped to optimize Pistol Lake’s full product page experience across its site by guiding site visitors to purchase and proactively answering non-intuitive questions, which reduced the need to engage Pistol Lake’s customer support team and opened the door for significant revenue growth.

Ashland Stansbury is the founder and CEO of Because Intelligence, a no-code automation platform that integrates into Shopify and helps over 1,100 growing ecommerce stores increase their conversion rate.