Does a horizontal 3-step homepage form lift desktop conversion?

Our desktop homepage form stacked its fields in a vertical list. We tested a horizontal form split into Step 1, Step 2 and Step 3. Over 14 days, conversion fell 7.3%, a result that did not reach our confidence bar.

Not significant Desktop 14 days Not called

SURFACE

Homepage

DEVICE

Desktop

VERTICAL

Ecommerce (B2C)

PRIMARY METRIC

Conversion rate

VARIATIONS

1

The hypothesis

By turning the vertical desktop form into a horizontal form with clear numbered steps, we will make it easier to understand, resulting in a higher conversion rate.

We ran this alongside a step-by-step form on mobile. A wide desktop screen has room to lay the steps out side by side, so visitors could see the whole path at once.

What we changed

The desktop form laid out horizontally as 3 numbered steps

We rebuilt the vertical homepage form on desktop as a horizontal form, with the fields grouped under Step 1, Step 2 and Step 3.

VAR A: HORIZONTAL FORM

Form laid out horizontally
Fields grouped into 3 numbered steps

The result

Conversion fell 7.3%, short of our confidence bar

CONVERSION RATE

-7.3%

Over 14 days, the horizontal form converted 7.3% worse than the original, but the gap did not reach our confidence bar. It did not show the lift we saw from the step-by-step form on mobile, so we paused it and moved to a desktop layout closer to the mobile version.

What we would do next

Desktop visitors needed less guidance than mobile visitors

With more room on screen, desktop visitors could already see the whole form, so numbered steps added little. The next test stacked the steps vertically, closer to the mobile version.