Formtoro.com - Zero Party Data Ecommerce Strategy

I run a software company called Formtoro which is purpose built to collect and analyze customer data in combination with ad and sales data for ecommerce brands.

I also run marketing and strategy for Krakatoa Underwear, a mid-7 figure ecommerce Direct to Consumer high end men’s underwear company.

Prior to Formtoro and Krakatoa Underwear I ran marketing and customer support for LIFX leading to acquisition.

I’ve been involved in marketing for 20+ years.

My motto is work smarter, not harder, and let data lead.

Always up for a chat about the industry: calendly.com/jonivanco

I've open sourced my entire strategy at ecomwithjon.com

I love zero party data and data analytics and a good debate around them.

🏌🏼‍♂️Jon Ivanco

Founder - Customers Who Click | CRO for eCom brands - turning traffic into customers using "The U.A.M Method"

Most DTC brands want to scale their paid media. But few focus enough on converting that traffic.  

Customer acquisition costs are rising, and while brands invest heavily in driving traffic, too many are wasting thousands of dollars sending traffic to friction-heavy, confusing websites with poor user experiences.  

The brands that win are not just the ones with the best ads. 

They are the ones that ensure every click leads to a seamless, high-converting customer journey from the first visit through to repeat purchases.  

Yet, many brands still rely on best practices, gut instinct, or copying competitors instead of using real customer insights to optimise their websites and landing pages.  

This is where CRO comes in.  

Through data-driven research, behavioural psychology, and rigorous testing, we help brands remove friction, increase conversion rates, and maximise revenue from their paid traffic.  

Giving them room to scale comfortably, and profitably.

At Customers Who Click, we specialise in turning more visitors into buyers, helping ambitious e-commerce brands scale profitably and sustainably.  

We’ve helped businesses see real improvements, like:

🚀 MOD Lighting added $3,300,000 in additional annual revenue.
🚀 Ozarke saw an increase in Revenue Per User of 37.8%.
🚀 Groove increased conversion by 53% and AOV by 23% in 6 months.
🚀 D.Louise added $372,000 in revenue from their existing traffic.
🚀 neat. Doubled AOV and increased revenue by 102.3% with bespoke landing pages.

If you want to get the most from your paid media and scale efficiently, let’s talk.  

👉 Book a free conversion discovery session at www.customerswhoclick.com/apply

Or, if you’re not quite ready, follow along as I share practical tips and insights on optimising your website’s performance.

Will Laurenson

Most brands could add 10–15% revenue without a single new visitor.

Yet ecommerce teams still try to grow by pushing harder on traffic or conversion rate.

More ads. More tests. More pressure.

But one of the cleanest revenue levers is usually underused: AOV.

When AOV works, everything compounds:

- Paid media gets more efficient
- CRO wins get bigger
- Revenue grows without more traffic

The problem? Most AOV tactics are bolted on and feel salesy.

What actually works is relevance, timing, and low effort.

Here’s a practical AOV playbook we use with clients 👇

👉 Default to multi-unit packs if customers naturally buy more than one

👉 Build bundles that complete a job, not bundles you want to sell

👉 Add upgrades between PDP and cart that remove future problems

👉 Use cart upsells to nudge people over shipping or promo thresholds

👉 Keep checkout upsells simple, priority shipping, order protection, no thinking required

👉 Add post-purchase upsells, zero risk once the order is placed

👉 Follow up post-order with a plain text email offering to add relevant items to the same shipment

If an upsell makes someone stop and think, it’s already hurting conversion.

Good AOV doesn’t feel like selling more.

It feels like helping better.

We’ve got room for 2 brands to properly optimise AOV. Our average client sees a 12% lift within a couple of months.

If AOV is a concern for you, is it worth a conversation?

$50m+ Generated for DTC Brands With CRO | Host of Customers Who Click 🎙️ (500,000+ downloads)

Most comparison pages fail for one reason:

They try to do too much.

We rebuilt a comparison page for a mattress brand that was getting traffic, but generating almost zero revenue.

The page wasn’t “bad.”
It was just doing too much.

- Long
- Dense
- Pushing for a purchase too early
- Too focused on features instead of benefits

So we changed the goal.

Not more persuasion, better direction.

Here’s what we did instead:

– Stripped it back to a clean, collection-style layout
– Removed anything that didn’t help a next-step decision
– Repositioned the page as a gateway, not a checkout replacement

The result?

- The page now actively converts, and at a higher rate than any actual mattress page

- It’s the 4th highest-value page on the site by revenue per session (for pages above 1000 sessions)

- Clicks to product pages come with higher intent

Less content.
Clearer purpose.
Revenue followed.

P.S. If you’re not tracking revenue per session on comparison pages, you’re probably flying blind.

Shoutout to heatmap for helping with the analytics on this!

This funnel turned Trinny London into a $100M beauty empire…

and it’s sent my girlfriend’s skincare budget out of control.

She goes in for one product. Comes out with a cartful.

Their funnel?

A masterclass in persuasion.

It’s not just clever ads.

It’s a full system designed to make you feel like the products were made for you, and make sure you come back for more.

We broke it down into 4 core pillars:

1. Traffic & Ads
- UGC
- Static creatives
- Direct response angles

2. Conversion Flow
- Their unique quiz funnel
- Landing pages built for persuasion
- Sales copy that taps into identity & desire

3. AOV Boosters
- Smart bundles
- Urgency nudges
- Friction-free UX

4. Post-Click Tactics
- Cart psychology
- Checkout flow
- Seamless repeat purchase flow

They’re playing the long game:

→ Building trust
→ Hyper-personalisation
→ Cultivating loyalty

Nativ Yanko and I spent hours breaking down their entire funnel.

Click by click. Step by step.

Want the full teardown?

Drop FUNNEL in the comments + connect with me, and I’ll send you the full breakdown.

It’s packed with ideas you can swipe and test.

PS: If your skincare budget is safe, maybe don’t look, this funnel is dangerously persuasive. 😅

Most brands guess their free shipping threshold.

They pick £50 because…well, it sounds nice.

But that kind of guesswork usually kills your margins or tanks conversions.

Here’s a better way:

Start with your modal order value, not your average.

(Modal = the amount most customers actually spend.)

Then: Add 15–20%

That’s your free shipping threshold.

Why?

It nudges customers to spend just a bit more without feeling like a stretch.

Small increase in order size = big lift in total revenue.

But the threshold is only half the equation.

To make it work:

- Add a free shipping progress bar in the cart
- Offer upsells that are 15–20% of the product price
- Make sure those upsells are relevant to what’s already in the cart

That combo drives higher AOV, no heavy decisions, and a better customer experience.

P.S. Want me to review your cart and checkout UX?

Drop a quick comment below or DM me

Most A/B tests don’t fail in the tool.

They fail before they start.

Because the idea was weak.

Testing doesn’t create insight, it magnifies it.

If your hypothesis is vague, the test just proves that faster.

“Let’s try a bigger CTA”
“What if we move the USPs higher?”

Those aren’t hypotheses. They’re opinions.

A real hypothesis answers three things:

1. What user problem are we solving?
2. Why should this change fix it?
3. What measurable outcome would prove it worked?

Example:

"We believe users bounce because they don’t understand the value fast enough. If we replace the generic hero with a benefits-led headline, we expect ATC to increase 5%.”

Now the test teaches you something - win or lose.

Bad tests don’t just waste time, they mislead teams, kill trust, and stall growth.

So before you test anything, ask:

👉 What’s the actual problem here?

Because most tests don’t fail in the experiment.

They fail in the thinking.

- - - 

Enjoyed this post? Join 5,000+ DTC marketers who receive our weekly newsletter. Link in the comments

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Incredibly proud of the team for the amazing work they did on these new landing pages.

We’ve just wrapped a set of paid-traffic landing pages for Raw Generation.

The goal wasn’t just to “make it look better.”

It was to rebuild the page around:

- What customers actually cared about
- What they were unsure or anxious about
- What outcome they were really buying into

What changed

- Redesigned the page around top Voice-of-Customer themes
- Clarified the value proposition immediately above the fold
- Simplified the product education flow (less effort, fewer decisions)
- Directly addressed common anxieties around the products
- Anchored messaging to the results customers wanted, not features

No gimmicks.
No “conversion hacks.”

Just small structural changes, clearer messaging, and better alignment with intent.

Pretty ≠ profitable.

Clarity usually wins.

P.S. I’ll drop a few more landing page examples in the comments 👇

- - - 

Follow me Will Laurenson for daily CRO tips - or join our newsletter to receive CRO deep dives, actionable tips & test examples each week - link in the comments.

Most brands start the year by tweaking ads.

Smart brands fix their conversion rates.

Here’s why...

A 10% boost in ad performance? 
Nice, you’ll see a few more customers from that campaign.

A 10% boost in conversion rate? 
Now you’re seeing more customers from every campaign, every channel.

Layer on a 10% improvement in AOV and you’ve got scalable growth.

This is where the best brands focus in 2026.

They’re not just obsessed with acquisition.

They’re obsessed with revenue.

And that starts after the click.

More AOV. More LTV. More growth.

Let’s make it a year of smarter scaling.

Most brands don’t have a growth problem.

They have an efficiency problem.

I sat down with Pete Stirling, CEO & co-founder of Skout's Honor® , and we went way deeper than I expected into what actually drives growth when you’re building a science-backed consumer brand.

Skout's Honor operates in a heavily regulated category, but what fascinated me wasn’t just the product science, it was how obsessive Pete is about efficiency. 

Not “cut costs” efficiency. 
Decision-making efficiency. 
Focus efficiency. 
Signal-over-noise efficiency.

A few things we unpacked:

- Why most brands drown in data but still can’t tell what’s working

- How they connect Amazon, paid media, retail, and content into one mixed media view (without overcomplicating it)

-What social listening really looks like when you care about sentiment, not vanity metrics

- Why influencer size matters less than timing, relevance, and credibility

And a line I loved: "products need to ship at 100%, tools can live at 90%"

We also talked about educating customers without over-educating them, especially when you’re dealing with things like the topical microbiome. 

The takeaway? 

Outcomes beat jargon. Every time.

If you’re building a DTC or omnichannel brand, anything in a regulated or trust-sensitive category, or you’re feeling the pain of tool overload and “shiny object syndrome”

…this conversation will give you a lot to think about.

I took pages of notes from this one.

👉 Give it a listen and let me know what lands for you most - link in the comments

P.S. I’d love to hear if you’re in the “do fewer things better” camp, or still wrestling with it.

Let's be honest, January sucks - especially in the UK. 

It's dark, grey, cold and wet 99% of the time, and it's draining...

I didn't realise just how much the start of the year drains me.

Q4 is full of energy, it's exciting, everything is moving fast and we've got the holidays to finish it off with.

and then January often feels like back to BAU.

But it's the remote aspect that I think can be most difficult.

It just slowly drains the edge.

- No real-time feedback.
- No offhand comments that spark better ideas.
- No one pushing back on your thinking.

Over the last couple of weeks, I’ve deliberately changed that.

- A few coffees.
- A handful of proper calls.
- A couple of in-person conversations with people who excite me.

The change I've noticed is fantastic.

- More energy.
- Clearer thinking.
- Better decisions about where to focus, and crucially, what to ignore.

Not because the advice was revolutionary.

But because these conversations have given me the chance to think properly, and get another opinion on things.

So if you’re feeling flat, stuck, or oddly unmotivated, don’t default to “work harder.”

Get out there and speak to people.

Book the coffee.
Take the call.
Go to the event you’ve been putting off.

Even if you’re an introvert. (I am too.)

How are you powering through the January blues? 

and god help anyone who says move to Dubai...

Most brands think CRO is about increasing conversion rate. It’s not.

It’s about increasing revenue.

Sometimes that means improving conversion rate.

But other times, it means reducing it slightly to increase AOV or LTV.

Sure for some businesses like subscriptions there will be a strong focus on conversion, and customer acquisition.

While for one time purchase brands there'll be a stronger emphasis on AOV and maximising that first purchase revenue.

But for the majority of brands out there, finding that balance is key.

Where can you find the highest conversion rate, that also drives the highest AOV, while also acquiring you long term customers who don't return their products.

Because it's not just about the first purchase either.

If you get loads of new customers to spend loads of money but they all return their products - you're worse off.

If you get loads of new customers who buy once and never come back - you're worse off.

and that’s the shift most teams (including agencies) miss.

They chase higher % rates on individual metrics, while losing sight of what really matters.

Because the real win isn’t a prettier dashboard, it’s more profitable customers.

That’s Customer Revenue Optimisation.

The reason most testing programs don’t show ROI isn’t because testing doesn’t work.

It’s because they’re testing low-impact changes.

Tiny tweaks.
Micro-optimisations.
Insignificant differences.

and tests that just aren't based on any research.

Things like:

 – CTA copy
 – Button colours
 – Minor spacing changes

Here’s the problem:

Small changes require more data and deliver less learning.

They’re narrow in scope, they answer small questions, and even when they “win”, the impact is forgettable.

High-impact testing looks different.

It asks bigger questions of users:

– What happens if we add or remove this step?
– What if we change the structure of the page?
– What if we redesign the flow entirely?
– What if we remove friction instead of polishing it?

That’s where insight comes from, and that’s where your ROI comes from.

If your tests are asking:

“How do users react if we change this text…”

Don’t be surprised when the result doesn’t move the business.

Big changes create learning.

Learning creates leverage.

P.S. If your testing roadmap feels “safe”, it’s probably underpowered.

Site search users convert up to 8x higher than non-search users.

Which means if your site search is bad, you’re not “missing opportunities”, you’re actively losing money.

Search users aren’t just browsing, they’re telling you exactly what they want.

And most brands still treat search as a checkbox item during site build.

That’s a mistake.

Here’s a simple checklist to turn site search into a revenue driver:

1️⃣ Make search impossible to miss

– Prominent in the header (centre or right)
– Magnifying glass icon
– Example queries inside the field (not empty placeholders)

If users can’t find search instantly, they won’t use it.

2️⃣ Reduce effort before they finish typing

– Auto-suggest + auto-complete
– Suggestions include categories AND products
– Clicking the search box shows:
   – Recent searches
   – Common searches

Don’t make users think. Show them paths.

3️⃣ Handle real human behaviour

– Supports typos and synonyms
– Search box wide enough for real queries
– Hitting “enter” always returns results

People don’t search like marketers. Your search engine should know that.

4️⃣ Make the results page do actual work

– Clearly shows what was searched
– Easy to edit and re-submit the query
– Results are clear, useful, and ranked by relevance
– Common searches return curated results
– No-results pages guide users forward (categories, bestsellers, help)

A dead-end results page kills high intent.

5️⃣ Treat search like a product, not a feature

– Optimise it
– Curate it
– Review search terms regularly

Search is one of the highest-intent moments on your site.

Ignoring it is choosing to leak revenue.

P.S. If you want help auditing or upgrading your site search, DM me “SEARCH” and I’ll tell you exactly where the money’s being left on the table.

- - - 

If you enjoyed this post follow me Will Laurenson for more CRO tips or grab our CRO checklist in the comments

Amazing opportunity with a really awesome UK brand here!

Ads get clicks.

Websites get judged.

Revenue happens after the click, but most people still treat CRO like:

button tests
random experiments
a “nice to have” once ads are scaled

That’s the old CRO.

It’s outdated.

CRO 2.0 is Customer Revenue Optimisation.

Not “how do we increase conversion %?”

But: “How do we increase the value of every visitor to the site?”

Look at the maths

If you’re spending $100k/month and converting at 2%, that might feel fine, but that $100k gets you less and less every month.

At 3%, you just unlocked 50% more customers without spending a single $ more on ads.

Same traffic.
Same ads.
Different outcome.

That doesn't even account for what we can do with AOV.

Few brands have a problem with traffic.

It's the post-click where performance is letting the team down.

High-performing sites don’t just convert.

They re-hook.

Re-hook attention - Message match. Immediate clarity. No guessing why you’re here.

Re-hook interest - Clear outcomes, real proof, objections handled before they form.

Re-hook action - Remove friction. Reduce effort. Make the decision easy.

That’s CRO 2.0.

Ads buy attention.

Your website decides what that attention is worth.

If you’re scaling paid and growth feels harder than it should, that’s where to look.

P.S. If your website had double the traffic tomorrow, would revenue scale cleanly with it?

Be honest.

PSA – if an app promises a huge uplift and claims you won't need to do anything except plug and play...

Run away.

Here’s why that’s a red flag:

1. Nothing is truly plug and play.

Every app needs time, setup, and a strategy. If you don’t invest that, it won’t deliver anything meaningful.

2. You’ll burn hours on tools that don’t move the needle.

Endless demos. Unused trials. Back-and-forth emails. All for features that never get implemented, or used at 10% of their potential.

We audit multiple brands a week and there’s always an app graveyard:

- Tools installed but never trialled.
- Tools trialled but ditched.
- Tools kept but barely used.

It adds bloat to your site. Slows your team down. And delivers zero value.

Here’s what we ask clients to do before installing anything:

- What problem are you solving?
- What’s your hypothesis for this tool?
- How will you measure success?
- Will it impact revenue in 30 days?

Take 5 minutes to think.

Instead of wasting 5 hours.

One 10-person dinner taught them more than months of research.

That’s one of the moments that really stuck with me from this week’s podcast conversation with Thea Mathias.

Thea leads international growth at Our Place, and what I loved about this chat is how grounded it was in real experiences, not dashboards, not frameworks, not “best practice”.

We talked about:

- Why cooking is inherently cultural. and why you can’t just copy-paste a launch playbook from one country to another

- How a single dinner with customers revealed insights no survey ever could

- How to talk about non-toxic cookware without leaning into fear-based marketing

- And the unglamorous work of building trust, market by market

There’s also a great section on partnerships and credibility, including why working with people like Kenji Lopez-Alt sends a much stronger signal than chasing mega influencers.

If you’re building a brand, scaling internationally, or trying to stay human as you grow, this episode is full of practical, thoughtful insight.

🎧 Give it a listen here: https://lnkd.in/eh-m4d4f

Not my first choice questions for post purchase 🤔

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