Do star ratings or a timer at checkout lift desktop sales?
Our desktop checkout showed no ratings or urgency cues. We tested star ratings next to each item and a cart timer. Conversion moved 6.0% in 15 days, short of our confidence bar.
Not significant Desktop 15 days Not called Reviewed
The hypothesis
By adding product star ratings or a countdown timer to the final checkout step, we will build confidence or urgency, resulting in more shoppers completing their order on desktop.
Shoppers see star ratings and reviews on the product page, but they disappear at checkout. Bringing the ratings back next to each item in the order could carry that trust through to the last step. Retail checkouts that do this have seen strong gains.
The other idea was urgency. A timer showing how long the cart is held gives shoppers a reason to finish now instead of later.
What we changed
We added star ratings to checkout items, or a cart timer.
The control showed the desktop checkout with the order summary and no ratings or timer. Var A added the product star ratings and review count next to each item in the order summary. Var B added a countdown timer showing how long the cart was reserved. Tracking dropped out on 3 days during the run.
- Star ratings next to each item in the order
- Review count shown with the stars
- Countdown timer showing the cart hold time
The result
Conversion moved 6.0% in 15 days, not enough to call a winner.
Conversion was up 6.0% and revenue per visitor up 4.8%, but the lift did not reach our confidence bar. Average order value was about flat.
The timer in Var B showed the most steady lift through the run. Star ratings in Var A did not move behavior as much. Tracking gaps on 3 days also cut into the data, so we paused the test rather than keep spending traffic on it.
What we would do next
Test the cart timer on mobile checkout next.
The timer looked promising but never cleared our bar on desktop, where traffic was lower. The next step was to run the timer on mobile, where checkout traffic is higher, or to test the ratings and timer together. Star ratings alone did not give shoppers a strong enough push at this step.