Small Changes Can Have Big Results - Skype
Another interesting optimization OTTO Digital ran for Skype UK focused on their top navigation bar. As Skype is extends its focus from free downloads to e-commerce, the company wants to drive more purchases (calls to landlines, voicemail, ringtones, accessories, etc.). The original navigation bar did not use words that properly conveyed the breadth of Skype’s new e-commerce offering.
In particular, “Call phones” did not seem to translate well the fact that Skype users could buy credit to use their Skype software to call landlines or cell phones. And “Shop” did not make you feel that Skype has a full-fledged accessories store. Finally, “Share” meant that a user could invite friends or family to join the Skype network.
We decided to try just three different wordings in a simple A/B test performed by Offermatica to try to increase Revenue per Visitor (RPV). So, we changed “Call phones” to “Skype Credit”, “Shop” to “Accessories” and “Share” to “Invite friends”. The test ran for 10 days and the results were dramatic! The new variation of the top navigation bar showed an increase in RPV of 18.75% with a 99.9% confidence level.
Three small changes within a test that took half a day to implement resulted in a dramatic increase in sales. These results were totally unexpected by Skype. They were aware that their choice of words in the navigation bar was perhaps not the best, but they had no idea how much it was impacting their bottom line. At OTTO, we knew that having more direct call-to-actions and a better adequacy between link names and their click-through pages (especially for products and features that are not strongly promoted throughout the site) can translate into big results.
Posted by Andre Prevot
