How One Homepage Change (and Thousands of Surveys) Boosted Conversions by 33%

We then met with Figgy’s leadership to determine where we wanted to go next.

The Brief

Figgy (the brand) is literally synonymous with its most famous product: The Figgy (the play couch). Therein lay the problem: Buyers would come to Figgy’s website, purchase a Figgy, and disappear, without investigating other products. Even worse: They wouldn’t come back. 

Our challenge was to increase purchase frequency and customer lifetime value along with average order value, with a sharpened focus on multiple products per order. 

The Research Method

To better understand our situation, we prioritized direct customer feedback from previous purchasers, followed by A/B testing to validate our hypothesis. In collaboration with the marketing firm Point Blank, we were able to survey more than 20,000 people who had either (a) purchased a Figgy within the previous 6 to 12 months or (b) engaged with their email campaign during the previous 30-60 days. We aimed for a survey response goal of .5-2%. 

Questions we asked included:

• How were they using their Figgy? 
• What would they miss most if they could no longer use it? 
• What daily problems did it solve? 
• What could make them use their Figgys more often? 
• What could make them purchase again from Figgy? 
• Which emotions did their purchase trigger? 

We knew that by better understanding and contending with these emotions, we could communicate more effectively with new visitors.

The Hypothesis

Thanks to an aggressive incentive offer — $10 off their next purchase, with no minimum order — our survey earned a response rate of .5%, along with a wealth of information. What we found was a semantic gap: Customers actually wanted exactly what Figgy was offering, but the two parties were speaking different languages. Respondents wanted to expand their Figgys with additional products: “Expansion Packs” to make their builds bigger, or to offer additional pillows and covers.

Of course, Figgy already offered those products — but it didn’t call them Expansion Packs. Figgy offered Add-ons. They make perfect sense: When you buy a Figgy play couch, you get the option to add on to it, with additional pillows to expand your set-up. The problem, however, was that no one was looking for Add-ons. They were looking for Expansion Packs. 

The survey also helped us better understand buyers’ emotional landscapes. Figgy had gone to great lengths to communicate the sturdiness and high quality of its foam — but this is a feature, and it didn’t reflect how buyers experienced it. Instead, they viewed the foam in emotional terms: They described its quality in detail — it was good enough, in fact, that parents could stow one next to a sick child’s bed, allowing them to rest while staying as close as possible to their kid. This told a much bigger story about how Figgys were transforming their customers’ lives. 

That survey provided insights we could use into the next decade. The most important lesson was to build on those product specs to tell the bigger, better, truer story of Figgy and how it emotionally impacted those who brought one into their homes. 

The Strategy

We took a fresh look at Figgy’s homepage.