How to write a conversion study that gives you actionable insights

Learn how CRO & UX experts think.

Why do conversion studies matter?

What are conversion studies?

A conversion study helps you understand how real people interact with your e-commerce website. By watching users navigate your store, you can pinpoint what’s confusing, frustrating, or stopping them from buying.

This matters because if you’re not gathering or using any kind of real-life customer data, you’re missing out opportunities to reach, convert, and help more people.

Not only that, many of Conversion Crimes’ customers first learned the hard way that becoming customer-led doesn’t need to cost an arm and a leg, or require that you dedicate your next 6 months to researching or endless A/B testing.

Why you should start with a Conversion Study before you run a long A/B test:

A/B testing requires high traffic to get statistically significant results.
It’s expensive and slow.
A conversion study gives you immediate, real-world feedback without needing big data, long contracts and expensive experts price tag.

We’re going to dive into how you can write a thoughtful Conversion Study, so you can avoid common mistakes like:

Asking yes/no questions instead of open-ended ones (e.g., “Do you like this page?” instead of “What’s your first impression of this page?”).
Overloading reviewers with too many tasks at once.
Jumping to conclusions based on one person’s feedback instead of looking for patterns.
Or any other misstep that doesn’t provide you with data you can trust.

Step 1: Define Your Study Goal (Time: 5 min)

How to Choose What to Study

First, ask yourself:

Where do customers get stuck or drop off on my site? (Check analytics!)
What complaints or issues do I see in customer support?
Which part of my site directly impacts revenue? (Product pages? Checkout? Navigation?)
What specific customer shopping behavior do I want to understand better?

These should help fuel a high-priority question to answer. Your study can help answer multiple questions, but you should choose the highest priority one to revolve your study around.

Follow the “Closest to the Money” Approach

Focus on areas that directly affect sales and conversions, such as:

✅ Product page usability
✅ Checkout experience
✅ Mobile navigation issues
✅ Ad landing page performance

Next, Define The Customer Journey You Want to Analyze

Decide where the test should start:

Ad → Product Page (Testing landing page effectiveness)
Homepage → Checkout (Evaluating site flow)
Search → Product Selection (Testing navigation ease)

Anywhere in the customer journey where you want answers to your questions.

Step 2: Structure Your Conversion Study (Time: 10 min)

How Many Tasks Should You Include?

✅ Ideal study length: 5-7 tasks
❌ Too many tasks = Overwhelmed reviewers, rushed feedback

Focus is the name of the game here, and when you’re intentional about the questions you ask, you don’t need many to get insightful data.

Exploratory vs. Structured Tasks

Exploratory tasks let testers browse naturally (e.g., “Find a backpack you’d want to buy.”)

Structured tasks guide them through specific steps (e.g., “Add this item to your cart and proceed to checkout.”)

If you ever want help developing an intentional and thoughtful study, you can always contact us (we can build the Study for you, too).

Step 3: Write Effective Study Questions (Time: 10 min)

Match Questions to Natural Browsing Flow

Make sure tasks follow a natural browsing experience.

For example:

First impressions of homepage (before clicking anything)
Product page experience
Adding to cart and selecting size/options
Checkout and shipping info clarity

If you put your tester in an unnatural browsing flow like having them navigate to the cart first, or some other out-of-order task structure, you’re more likely to get data fueled by that confusion than anything else.

Open-ended vs. closed-ended questions

✅ Open-ended: “What stands out to you about this product page?”
❌ Closed-ended: “Do you like this page?”
✅ Open-ended: “What do you expect to happen when you click this button?”
❌ Closed-ended: “Does this button work well?”

Avoiding biased and leading questions

❌ “Do you find the checkout process frustrating?” (Assumes frustration.)
✅ “Walk us through your experience checking out. Did anything stand out?”

Sample Questions for Different Study Types

Product Page Optimization

Take a look at this product page. What’s your first impression?
What information do you look for before making a purchase?
Is there anything missing that would help you decide?

Checkout Experience

Go through the checkout process. Walk us through your thought process.
Did anything slow you down or make you hesitate?
What information do you wish was clearer?

Homepage & Navigation

Imagine you’re looking for a shirt. Where would you go first?
How easy or difficult is it to find what you’re looking for?

Copy-Paste Template for Your Study

Conversion Study Title: [Example: Checkout Experience on Mobile]

Goal: [Example: Find out why people abandon checkout on mobile]

Start: [Example: Product listing page]

Task 1: Take a look at the different products available on this page. What’s your first impression?

Task 2: Now imagine that you have a budget of $X to spend on [product]. As you navigate through the different options, explain your thought process and why you chose a certain product and why didn’t choose other options. Once you have done that add to cart and move on to the next task.

Task 3: Continue through the checkout process, choose your shipping, and use VISA card 4111 1111 1111 1111, any expiration, any CVV. When you receive an error consider this task complete.

Task 4: What did you think about the checkout process? Is there anything that would have made you more confident in completing your purchase?

Step 4: Select the Right Participants

Who Should review your site?

Describe your ideal customer (e.g., “Golfers aged 30-55” or “People shopping for pet supplements”).

Match reviewers to your audience to get relevant feedback.

The more specific here the better. And, if you’re unsure, consider this a great opportunity to gain clarity in this arena.

Step 5: Run & Analyze Your Conversion Study (Time: 10 min)

Read our official How to Analyze Your Study Like an Expert Guide. Here’s a summary:

What to Look for in Responses

Patterns (Did multiple reviewers mention the same problem?)
Friction points (Where do users get naturally confused?)
Unmet needs (What information are users searching for but not finding?)

As difficult as it can be, don’t fixate on one user’s response. Look for common trends across multiple reviewers. With that said, you can always take something away from strong emotion.

How to Prioritize Insights: The “Severity vs. Effort” Framework

Step 6: Implement Findings & Next Steps

Quick Wins vs. Long-Term Fixes

It’s helpful to categorize your next steps into quick wins and long-term fixes. Often you’ll notice opportunities for both. Get the quick wins fixed as soon as possible, and make a plan for your longer-term fixes.

✅ Quick wins: Small tweaks like making CTA buttons clearer.
✅ Long-term fixes: Bigger changes like improving site navigation.

When to Run Another Study

After major site updates
If conversions suddenly drop
Regularly to continuously improve UX
Or… if you ever want a question answered using market data. If you know the question you want to answer, you can build a study around it.

Avoid “Paralysis by Analysis”

Don’t overthink. Start with the easiest, most impactful fixes first.

Keep testing and improving over time!

Final Steps: Your “No-Excuses” Checklist

✅ Pick one critical part of your store to test.
✅ Use the template to write 5–7 questions.
✅ Find 2–3 people to review your site.
✅ Watch the patterns in their responses.
✅ Make 1–2 small fixes right away.

By following this guide, you’ll be able to run conversion studies that uncover valuable insights and help you make smart, data-driven decisions for your e-commerce store.