Increased conversion rate by 8.02%
Perlego - An Online Subscription-Based Academic Book Library
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Summary
Perlego is an online subscription-based (without free trial) academic library that offers readers unlimited access to over 1 million academic, professional eBooks. Users include graduate, undergraduate students, and individual learners.
Hypothesis:
Communicating product value proposition is essential for customer decision-making about whether to subscribe. The majority of Perlego's traffic (95%) originates from users seeking book PDFs and arrive at Perlego's book pages from search engines. As the current book page and sign-up flow don't clearly highlight the values of Perlego, incorporating product value propositions into the sign-up flow could significantly increase conversions.
Result:
Presenting 5 of the most frequently used features of Perlego during the sign-up flow significantly increased the monthly subscription rate by 8.02%. This is worth an additional £3108,000 in annualised revenue.
Role
Growth Product Designer
Tools
Figma, Miro, Notion, OptimizelyTeam
- Product Designer (Me)
- Product manager (Claudia)
- Software Engineers
- Marketing (Julia)
Agenda, click to jump...
Overview of Perlego
Overview of Perlego
Perlego is an online subscription-based academic book library that offers unlimited access to over 1 million academic books. It offers monthly, semesterly, and yearly plans.
The entire process of the product is this:
Search for "book title + PDF" on a search engine, land on Perlego's book page, click on the "Read this book now" button, create an account, pay for a plan, go through the onboarding survey, land on logged-in home page with recommended books, open a book to read on the reader, do assignments, cite references, create notes and highlights, create a workspace and share with friends, refer friends
Context: Typical conversion journey, from book page
Context: Typical conversion journey, from book page
Overview of traffic sources and journey:
95% of traffic via search engines comes to Perlego’s book pages.
Visitors who land on Perlego’s book pages typically go directly to the sign-up flow and convert to paid users.
Perlego's sign-up flow has 2 parts. Account creation Subscription and checkout.
95% of the traffic coming from search engines to Perlego, lands on book pages
Identify drop-off in the sign-up flow
Identify drop-off in the sign-up flow
Analysis of the acquisition data revealed a significant drop-off in sign-up flow.
There was a drop-off in sign-up flow: Customers were leaving right after creating an account with an email and password but before selecting a pricing plan and completing checkout.
Reducing this drop-off became a key focus for improving conversions. We had several assumptions about why this was happening and were continuously exploring hypotheses to test to address the issue and boost the conversion rate.
Sign-up flow has 2 parts: Account creation, subscription / checkout
Users don't grasp Perlego's value during conversion funnel
Users don't grasp Perlego's value during conversion funnel
I started having a conversation with those visitors who had created accounts but had not yet subscribed to find opportunities to boost conversion. I found that many potential customers did not fully understand the value of Perlego because they were unaware of the tools and features providing the greatest value to our users.
I also learned this through analysing the conversion funnel:
95% of Perlego's traffic comes from users searching for book PDFs landing on the book page and going directly to sign-up and checkout flow where we don't convey Perlego's unique value proposition. Only the home page communicates the value propositions and few potential users see the home page before subscription.
No value proposition is communicated during conversion funnel.
Visitors can only discover Perlego's value propositions and features on the homepage, which is not part of the typical conversion funnel.
Convey Perlego's value proposition to raise conversion
Convey Perlego's value proposition to raise conversion
Hypothesis:
We can significantly improve conversions by educating users about Perlego's value during the sign-up flow where we saw a drop-off because this will increase user confidence and encourage more users to subscribe.
Since we have insights that increase our confidence level in this hypothesis. We chose to prioritise this approach over other conversion rate optimization (CRO) experiments. We aimed to validate the idea that effectively communicating the product's value during the sign-up and checkout flow would lead to increased conversions.
Measure experiment success
Measure experiment success
To assess the impact of our experiments, we ran them for 28 days across two groups: Control and Variant. By tracking specific metrics, we were able to determine the success of our hypothesis and gain valuable insights.
Highlight multiple key features
Highlight multiple key features
To effectively communicate Perlego's values, I must determine which specific values resonate most with users.
Here are some reasons why I decided to start by showing multiple values in the experiment compared to a single one:
Limited user base: Given our current user base is not enough to split between multiple variants simultaneously, I decided to begin by highlighting all key Perlego values in the first experiment. Based on the results, we can then refine our approach.
Reduced bias: Focusing on a single value proposition might introduce bias into our experiment. By presenting multiple values, we can minimise the risk of overlooking potentially effective value propositions.
Leverage existing knowledge: We have prior knowledge about which features are frequently used by the users, so I included those values in the initial experiment to maximise their effectiveness.
Iterative approach: I am not afraid of failing fast as ideas can be iterated upon. Starting with multiple values allows us to gather data and insights that can inform future iterations. Then we can narrow down the focus based on the results of this initial experiment.
See below the frequently used feature on Reader
Optimise design for mobile
Optimise design for mobile
I conducted simultaneous experiments on both website and mobile web to ensure optimal user experience across all devices. This approach allows us to observe how mobile users respond to changes and make informed decisions about rollout.
Due to the limited screen space on mobile devices, presenting all features effectively was a challenge. After comparing various designs, I selected the right-side option because
It maximises visibility of features without excessive scrolling.
It eliminates the need for feature prioritisation.
It shows more features at one glance.
Experiment design and implementation
Experiment design and implementation
You can see the control in the left-side image, and in the right-side image you can see the variant.
New sign-up flow in website
New sign-up flow in mobile web
Achieve 8.02% increase in conversion rate
Achieve 8.02% increase in conversion rate
Results
After 14 days of running this experiment, it turned out successful.
We increased Perlego's conversion rate by 8.02%, adding £108,000 in annual revenue and driving more users from account creation to subscription.
This shows that educating users about Perlego's values through visuals is a strong motivator for engagement.
User engagement: Insights/opportunities
User engagement: Insights/opportunities
I prepared a research presentation and shared back the summary of the experiment and the next steps with stakeholders.
Whilst we are now content serving this experiment to 100% of users, I believe that there is still an opportunity to capture the user’s attention and create an impact even earlier in the journey by implementing these features on the logged-out book pages. This will encourage even more users through the funnel to subscribe.
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