Increase conversion

Turn "conversion is 1.4%, make it higher" into a ranked backlog. This skill does not audit a checkout page and does not restate the task skills. Walk the levers below, note whether the setup already complies, and order the misses by measured effect × distance from the rule. Every number lives in the Depth skill; do not convert it into a forecast for the user's rate.

When to use

• The user names conversion, checkout rate, or "people don't buy" as the goal
• The user shares a store or product page and asks what to fix first

When not to use

• Cart, checkout, or payment-form drop-off → checkout-ux
• Basket size → increase-aov; second orders → increase-repeat-purchases
• A single element in depth (a photo brief, a price, a discount) → the Depth skill named in that step

Inputs

Collect, or state your assumption:

• The page or store: URL (fetch it), screenshot, or element-by-element description
• Whether drop-off is on the product page or at cart/payment (if payment, stop and use checkout-ux)
• Product, price, variants, sold-out share, review snapshot
• Company size; whether the product is high-tech; any real sustainability practice

Classify the product first. Hedonic = bought for enjoyment, pleasure, or the experience (chocolate, fashion, decor, travel, spa, perfume). Utilitarian = bought to do a job, judged on function and value (detergent, appliances, insect repellent, tools, accounting software). If it's mixed, decide by what the buyer is optimizing for at the moment of purchase.

Procedure

Walk each check. Include levers the user didn't mention if they apply; list the ones that don't apply in one line at the end.

1. Checkout and cart, if they have one. Guest vs forced account, field count, wallets, total/shipping surprise, coupon-field distraction. Often the largest conversion hole and out of scope for this router. Depth: checkout-ux.
2. Product-page mechanics. Price below the image; view or purchase counts; sold-out variants visible at 10–30%; quantity CTAs on multi-unit products; options in steps of 2–5. Depth: product-page.
3. Media. Hedonic → video/GIF, gaze away, first-person hand, shine, spacing. Utilitarian → stills are enough. Depth: product-visuals.
4. Copy. Three best claims, plain language, intuitive units. Depth: product-copy.
5. Trust. Cost breakdown; say you're small if low-tech; extraordinary warranty if the category is known but you aren't. Depth: store-audit.
6. Offer. "For $0" not "free"; wanted product framed as the gift; token fee for upgrades. Depth: promotions.
7. Price and discount. Quality-led or hedonic → rounded; price-led or promotion → just-below. Discounts ≤ 40%. Depth: pricing, discounts.
8. Urgency. Deadline with a reason and timezone; never a unit cap. Depth: discounts.
9. Reviews. 4.0–4.5 sells more than a perfect average; reply to every review. Depth: reviews.
10. Rank. Compare like with like: the studies report sales, conversion, intent, and willingness to pay. A WTP percentage is a weaker surrogate for conversion than a measured sales lift. Cheap, no-inventory fixes ahead of shoots and builds at equal effect. Each effect was measured on its own; don't add them up.

Output

Then: what already complies, and the caveat that effects are from the cited contexts, not predictions. Ship the top two or three, measure, then take the next.

Common mistakes

• Auditing the checkout page inside this skill — hand it to checkout-ux.
• Inventing a lift ("30–50% relative") — quote the study's number and its context only.
• Ranking price position last as cosmetic — it is one of the largest measured effects on the page.
• Treating a 4.9 as an asset to protect — 4.0–4.5 sells more.

Quick reference

† No primary citation on file for this rule — a practitioner tip, not a measured finding.

Evidence and effect sizes: see reference.md.