Does a same-day shipping cutoff lift product page conversion?
The product page said free shipping but not when an order would ship. We tested a 24-hour shipping promise and a ships today cutoff with an order-by window. With the cutoff, conversion rose 7.5% and revenue per visitor 12.8% over 20 days.
Won Responsive 20 days Called at 90% Reviewed
The hypothesis
By showing when an order will ship next to the add to cart button, we will remove doubt about delivery timing, resulting in a higher conversion rate.
Fast shipping was a priority for the business, and we wanted to know if it mattered to shoppers at the moment they decide to buy. Orders placed before the daily cutoff shipped the same day. Orders placed after it shipped the next day.
That gave us 2 ways to say it: a general promise that covers every order, or a specific deadline that changes with the time of day.
What we changed
We added a shipping message and stock status near the add to cart button.
Both variations added 2 lines near the add to cart button: a truck icon with a shipping message, and a green dot with "In stock, ready to ship." Variation A said the order ships within 24 hours. Variation B said it ships today and gave a window to order within, such as 2 hours. After the daily cutoff, Variation B's message moved to the next day.
- Truck icon: Ships within 24 hours
- Green dot: In stock, ready to ship
- Placed near the add to cart button
- Truck icon: Ships today, order within 2 hours
- Message updated with the daily cutoff time
- Green dot: In stock, ready to ship
- Placed near the add to cart button
The result
The same-day cutoff lifted conversion 7.5% and revenue per visitor 12.8%.
Variation B, the same-day cutoff, won. Conversion rose 7.5%, revenue per visitor rose 12.8%, and average order value rose about 5%. Desktop drove most of the gain, with conversion up 24.7% and revenue per visitor up 30.7%. On mobile, conversion rose 5.6% and revenue per visitor 10.6%.
Variation A, the 24-hour promise, did about half as well: conversion rose 3.0% and revenue per visitor 6.8%. On desktop, its revenue per visitor fell 5.6%.
What we took from it
A ships today deadline beat a general 24-hour promise.
Shoppers already knew shipping was free, and both variations added the same stock status, so the timing line made the difference. "Ships within 24 hours" sounds the same at any hour. "Ships today, order within 2 hours" is a deadline tied to the moment the visitor is looking. It said when the order leaves in the plainest terms and gave visitors a reason to buy now.