The Approach
We established a structured Shopify CRO programme built around a recurring cycle of research, prioritisation, experimentation and implementation.
Setting up Stone Creek’s A/B-testing capability meant decisions no longer had to rely solely on preference or assumed ecommerce best practice. Each month, we could review customer behaviour, identify an area of friction, form a hypothesis and measure whether the proposed change improved the journey.
The roadmap was prioritised according to the strength of the evidence, the potential commercial impact and the effort involved. This allowed the team to balance larger structural opportunities with focused tests that could answer specific questions about how Stone Creek’s customers behaved.
Over the 12-month period, the programme developed beyond the foundational discovery and reassurance work completed earlier in the engagement. The next phase placed greater emphasis on:
- Making product recommendations more relevant
- Helping returning visitors resume interrupted shopping journeys
- Giving mobile customers more information before opening a product page
- Strengthening social proof around product decisions
- Connecting educational content with appropriate shopping routes
- Rolling out experiences selectively when device results differed
This allowed Stone Creek to build on earlier wins rather than repeatedly revisiting the same areas of the store.
What The Data Revealed
The audit showed that high traffic did not automatically translate into efficient ecommerce growth.
A large proportion of visitors arrived with café, brand or educational intent. The website needed to serve that interest without leaving commercially relevant customers at a dead end.
Product relevance was another important opportunity. Recommendations were present in parts of the journey, but their value depended on the products being genuinely useful to the individual shopper. Simply displaying a recommendation module was not enough.
The data also showed that mobile and desktop visitors could respond very differently to the same interface. Mobile shoppers often benefited from more immediate visual information and clearer selection cues. On desktop, the same additions could create unnecessary complexity.
This reinforced a central principle of the programme: average results were not always enough to guide implementation. We needed to understand which customers benefited, on which device and at which point in the journey.
Testing Recommendation Relevance on Product Pages
Product recommendations are intended to help shoppers discover relevant alternatives or complementary products. However, their effectiveness depends on more than where the module appears.
We tested Stone Creek’s native Shopify product recommendations against a Rebuy-powered recommendation experience.
The hypothesis was that a stronger recommendation data source would surface products that were more relevant to each visitor, helping customers continue exploring without needing to restart their search.
The Rebuy experience increased:
- Conversion rate by 23%
- Revenue per visitor by 25%
- Add-to-cart rate by 12%
- Average order value by 2%
- Subscription revenue per visitor by 84%
Abandoned checkout also decreased by 34%.
The results indicated that recommendation quality had an effect across more than product discovery. Customers exposed to the more relevant experience were more likely to add products, convert and generate greater value per visit.
The winning Rebuy experience was retained permanently.
This test also demonstrated why technology decisions should be evaluated through customer performance rather than feature lists alone. The question was not whether one platform offered more functionality. It was whether the resulting recommendations helped Stone Creek’s customers make better purchase decisions.
Helping Returning Visitors Resume Their Journey
Coffee purchases are not always completed within a single session. Customers may compare roast profiles, consider subscriptions or leave the site before deciding which product is right for them.
Without a clear return route, these visitors had to find the same products again.
We tested adding a Recently Viewed section to the homepage, giving returning and undecided shoppers a direct route back to products they had already considered.
The experience increased:
- Conversion rate by 13%
- Revenue per visitor by 13%
- Subscription orders per visitor by 2%
The winning experience was recommended for permanent implementation.
This was a relatively simple form of behavioural personalisation, but it solved a specific customer problem. Rather than asking visitors to remember where they had been, the store maintained continuity between sessions and made it easier to resume the decision process.
Giving Mobile Shoppers More Context on Collection Pages
Stone Creek’s collection pages played an important role in helping customers compare coffees. However, a single product image offered limited information before a shopper opened the product page.
We tested multi-image product cards to determine whether additional visual context would help customers make a more confident selection from the collection page.
On mobile, the experience increased:
- Conversion rate by 20%
- Revenue per visitor by 11%
- Add-to-cart rate by 11%
- Product-page views by 3%
On desktop, conversion rate and revenue per visitor declined.
Rather than treating the overall result as a universal win or loss, we implemented the experience on mobile only.
This protected desktop performance while capturing the benefit for the audience that needed more visual support. It also reinforced why Shopify CRO decisions should not be based solely on blended averages. The same experience can reduce friction for one group while adding it for another.
Bringing Customer Proof Into the Product Decision
Stone Creek had an established and loyal customer base, but product-page social proof was not sufficiently prominent around the point of choice.
We tested featuring an individual customer review more visibly on the product page.
The treatment increased:
- Conversion rate by 9%
- Revenue per visitor by 6%
- Add-to-cart rate by 5%
The successful review treatment was rolled out permanently.
The test showed that customer proof was most useful when it helped answer a product-level concern. Rather than treating reviews as a separate section customers had to seek out, the revised experience brought a credible customer perspective into the active purchase decision.
The programme also identified an opportunity to continue increasing the volume of useful reviews, giving future shoppers more product-specific evidence when comparing coffees.
Removing Configuration Friction With a Default Grind Selection
Choosing a grind type is essential when purchasing coffee, but requiring an explicit selection can interrupt customers who already want the most common option.
We tested preselecting Whole Bean rather than presenting shoppers with an unselected placeholder.
The revised experience increased:
- Conversion rate by 4.54%
- Revenue per visitor by 1.63%
- Reached-checkout rate by 7.99%
- Subscription revenue per visitor by 45.07%
- Subscription orders per visitor by 25.74%
Average order value decreased by 2.78%.
The test indicated that removing a required decision supported progression, particularly for subscription customers. Customers who needed another grind type could still change the selection, while shoppers choosing Whole Bean no longer had to complete an avoidable step.
The learning was not that product options should be hidden. It was that sensible defaults can reduce effort when they reflect common customer behaviour and remain easy to change.
Turning Educational Content Into a Shopping Pathway
Stone Creek’s educational content attracts visitors interested in coffee, preparation and the brand’s expertise. However, the calls to action on these pages did not always align with ecommerce intent.
One prominent blog call to action directed visitors to “Visit a Cafe”. We tested replacing it with “Shop All Coffee” to see whether readers already engaging with coffee content would respond better to a direct product-discovery route.
The shopping-focused call to action increased:
- Conversion rate by 17%
- Revenue per visitor by 8%
- Collection views by 34%
- Add-to-cart rate by 32%
- Reached-checkout rate by 15%
Average order value decreased by 8%, while the wider progression metrics improved.
The successful call to action was rolled out across relevant blog pages.
This did not mean every content visitor should be pushed immediately towards a transaction. The test showed that where the subject already demonstrated coffee interest, a relevant shopping route gave commercially motivated readers a clearer next step.
It helped Stone Creek connect educational intent with product discovery without changing the purpose of the content itself.
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