Jonathon Blair

Free to Grow CFO

www.freetogrowcfo.com

Increase Profit and Cash Flow As You Scale. 

Outsourced CFO and Bookkeeping services for profit-focused DTC brands. 

Scaling a DTC brand is stressful. 

With messy books and no CFO on your team you run the risk of…

-Hiring too quickly 
-Buying too much inventory
-Scaling ad spend unprofitably
-Running out of cash

And that leads to stressful, sleepless nights. We don’t want that for you.

Free to Grow CFO has given dozens of DTC brands a plan for scaling alongside
healthy profit and cash flow. Our plan will work for you too


Fast, Insightful Reporting.  Proactive Strategic Advice.  From DTC Finance Experts.

-M&A
-Debt & Equity Funding
-Accurate Financials by the 15th
-Planning, Forecasting, Budgeting
-Financial Dashboards and KPI Tracking


All delivered through our proven, ready-to-implement “Free to Grow CFO Process”.

Founder | Fractional CFO

Luminous

Strategic Advisor

StoreHero

SureStop

SURESTOP (A Mark Cuban Company) is a patented brake technology which solves the problem of incorrect braking on bicycles and revolutionizes the experience of stopping on a bike. On a traditional bike, if a rider brakes too hard, or grabs the wrong brake lever at the wrong time, the front wheel can stop too soon, causing the bike to flip over. Not with SURESTOP. In addition to the safety advantage, SURESTOP also makes the experience of braking simple, requiring only one brake lever to control both brakes.

Learn more at:
www.surestop.bike

COO & CFO

Guardian Bikes

Guardian Bikes (A Mark Cuban Company) is a digitally native vertical brand focused on creating the world's safest kid's bikes, featuring our patented and award winning SureStop brake technology.

In addition to innovating the bicycle itself, Guardian has created the first truly seamless online bike buying experience. Our first of its kind online 3D sizing software (RideSizer), along with our 99% assembly and packaging methods, allow customers to receive the perfect sized bike to their door that's ready to ride in less than 10 minutes. www.guardianbikes.com

SureStop/Guardian Bike Company

SURESTOP (A Mark Cuban Company) is a patented brake technology which solves the problem of incorrect braking on bicycles and revolutionizes the experience of stopping on a bike. On a traditional bike, if a rider brakes too hard, or grabs the wrong brake lever at the wrong time, the front wheel can stop too soon, causing the bike to flip over. Not with SURESTOP. In addition to the safety advantage, SURESTOP also makes the experience of braking simple, requiring only one brake lever to control both brakes.

Learn more at:
www.surestop.bike

Guardian Bikes is a digitally native vertical brand focused on creating the world's safest kid's bikes, featuring our patented and award winning SureStop brake technology.

In addition to innovating the bicycle itself, Guardian has created the first truly seamless online bike buying experience. Our first of its kind online 3D sizing software (RideSizer), along with our 99% assembly and packaging methods, allow customers to receive the perfect sized bike to their door that's ready to ride in less than 10 minutes. www.guardianbikes.com

A Mark Cuban Company

Controller & Operations Director

RSS Manufacturing

Controller

Civil Solutions Incorporated

RSS Manufacturing/Phylrich

Accounting Manager

The Joseph Company International

DTC Brand Fractional CFO | Follower of Jesus | Husband | Father of 3 | Fractional CFO | Leadership, Strategy & Productivity Nerd

Formerly a founding team member, CFO, and COO for Guardian Bikes:
       -Shark Tank/Mark Cuban Company
       -High-growth DTC brand
       -Led business growth from $0 to 8-figure revenue in 4 years.  
       -Raised 8-figures in debt and equity capital 

Over a decade of experience working as a Controller, CFO, or COO at fast-growing companies with:
              -$5MM to $50MM in annual revenue
              -50% to 200% annual revenue growth

Founded Free to Grow CFO to:
       -Package hands-on experience leading growing brands
       -Help DTC brand founders increase profit and cash flow as they scale.

www.freetogrowcfo.com

www.freetogrowcfo.com

Fractional CFOs for High Growth Direct-to-Consumer Brands

Outsourced, part-time CFO services for high growth D2C brands, designed to help you scale your business with confidence.

You don't have to suffer through another sleepless night worrying about making difficult business decisions alone.  Hire a Free to Grow CFO and get the financial insights you need to make fast, effective business decisions with confidence.

Get access to the CFO you need to scale your business without the full-time salary:
-Strategic Planning
-Forecasting & Projections
-Cash Strategy & Fundraising
-Financial Statement Analysis

Jon Blair

SplitBase

We Help Lifestyle, Fashion and Luxury Ecommerce Companies Increase Profits Through Data & Experimentation, and our proven conversion optimization process is taking clients like L’Oreal + Kiehl’s to the next level. Want to be next?

As an ecommerce executive or marketer, you know increasing your website conversions would grow your sales, but you’ve got too much on your plate already.

Your team is at its limit. There’s just no possible way to build conversion optimization and more A/B testing into your daily workload. And you know simply running an A/B test here and there or changing a button color — isn’t the right way to get consistent results (plus it could seriously damage your conversions).

Our Testing Trifecta Methodology helps lifestyle, fashion and luxury brands like yours improve user experience and grow online through rigorous quantitative, qualitative and UX analysis, combined with A/B & AI testing.

Want a copy of our guide explaining our Testing Trifecta Methodology? Or would you like to schedule a free, 25 minute conversion assessment of your ecommerce store? Schedule it here: http://splitbase.com/conversion-assessment

CEO - Conversion Optimization & Conversion-Focused Design for DTC Ecommerce Brands

MeetRaphael.com

Helped clients of all sizes in various industries improve their web presence and increase their sales.

- Creation of complete digital marketing strategies
- Increased websites conversion
- A/B testing
- Social media strategies
- Email marketing automation / sales funnel creation
- Web analytics

Digital Marketing Consultant

Blockstream

Recruited directly by the CEO, Austin Hill, after their $21M seed round led by Reid Hoffman and Vinod Khosla, I led special projects that included partnerships, marketing, and implementation of scalable operational procedures.

Special Projects

DucatFlow

Bitcoin consulting, enterprise integrations and bitcoin ATM operations.

Also organized bitcoin events in both the USA and Canada, and was invited to talk in many corners of the world from NYC, Las Vegas to Lebanon.

Co-Founder/CEO

Propel ICT

Helped organize and coordinate Launch36's events, online marketing and bootcamps.

Co-op

Shopulse

Founder and CEO at Shopulse.com. An ecommerce store that aggregated the sales from the top luxury stores.

Founder

Idealinput

Owner and founder at Idealinput.com, an online marketing consultancy where we specialized in conversion rate optimization

Owner/Founder

MagieTeck.com

Online magic shop which later sold software for entertainers

Founder/Fondateur

CEO, SplitBase. Conversion Optimization & Landing Pages for DTC Brands.

CEO of SplitBase, we help 8 & 9-figure DTC ecommerce brands grow through conversion optimization and landing pages that get them more sales.

Through our Testing Trifecta methodology, we've generated a combined $100,000,000+ per year in additional revenue for brands like L'Oréal (Kiehl's, NYX, Urban Decay, Armani, YSL, Lancome, Biotherm), Dr Squatch, Manduka, Laura Geller, Amika, Glamnetic, Hyperice, and many more.

⭐️ "I can't rave more about the SplitBase team and the value we have gained” - Sharon Pak, Co-Founder, INH Hair

⭐️ “The end-to-end experience of working with the SplitBase team was incredible. The level of attention to detail that went into making this landing page is above and beyond. They also worked really well with our internal brand marketing teams to make sure we were creating a landing page based on brand performance marketing principles.” - Bobby M., VP of Digital - Laura Geller

⭐️  "Working with SplitBase has been a game-changer for us. Their comprehensive redesign of our main landing page boosted our conversion rate and allowed us to scale to new heights. They always have tests in the pipeline and really feel like they are part of our team. They've gone beyond just landing pages and worked with our media buyers to further maximize results." - Anthony Rumbello, Founder & CEO, NeuroMD

Through our optimization methodology, we're able to pinpoint exactly:

🎯 Where your website is leaking the most money (and how to fix it)
🎯 Which A/B tests and landing pages to launch to hit your growth goals
🎯 How to tailor your website messaging to get customers to convert

We've been helping e-commerce brands scale through Conversion Optimization for now over 7 years, and we'd love to make your brand our next success story.

I'd love to connect with you here on LinkedIn, and am always just an email away if there's anything I can help with (raphael at splitbase.com)

If you'd like to learn more about services or request a proposal, go to https://splitbase.com

Raphael Paulin-Daigle

Six months on a redesign.
Looks amazing. Conversion stayed flat.

This is the most expensive mistake in e-commerce. Brands rebuild entire sites based on what looks broken instead of what's costing revenue.

Here's how it happens:

1️⃣ The project starts with aesthetic problems
The site looks outdated. Navigation feels clunky. Design doesn't match competitors.

Every meeting focuses on what looks wrong.
Nobody researches why people aren't converting.

2️⃣ Decisions get made by opinion
Stakeholders vote on designs they like. The team debates colors, layouts, and typography. 

Conference room preferences drive every choice.
Customer behavior data never enters the process.

3️⃣ The redesign fixes visual problems
Six months later, you launch. The site is beautiful. Modern, clean, on-brand. Design guidelines followed perfectly.

You fixed what looked broken. The conversion barriers remain untouched.

4️⃣ Launch reveals the truth
Conversion stays flat. Sometimes it drops.
The confusion sets in because the site objectively looks better.

The work wasn't wasted. The prioritization was wrong from the start.

5️⃣ The real problems were never addressed
Perception gaps at decision points. Missing trust signals where customers hesitate. Unclear value communication. Friction in the buying process.

These require research to identify. 

Session analysis. 
Customer interviews. 
Behavioral data.

Redesigns built on opinions optimize for aesthetics. 
Redesigns built on research solve conversion barriers.

When you prioritize aesthetics over conversion drivers, the design looks genuinely good while making value communication less clear or burying critical trust signals.

Research identifies conversion-specific issues. Addressing them moves the metric.

Aesthetic decisions make your site look good in stakeholder meetings. 
Conversion decisions make your site convert visitors into customers.

Before you redesign, understand what's actually broken. 

Pretty doesn't pay the bills.

Follow for more on building sites that convert, not just sites that look good.

CRO & Conversion Design for DTC brands: Transparent Labs, Oakcha, Amika, Dr Squatch, Laura Geller & more. 12+ years in ecommerce optimization. Follow for daily A/B testing & conversion optimization insights.

How Kiehl’s generated ~$1.6M in additional ecommerce revenue 👇

Kiehl’s partnered with SplitBase to improve their online store’s performance as part of L’Oréal’s goal to bring CRO innovation to its ecom divisions.

Using our Conversion Blueprint research process, I identified key opportunities to increase revenue through in-depth quantitative and qualitative research.

The main focus was the cart and checkout experience, where A/B tests and UX improvements reduced abandonment and increased completed purchases.

Results:

✅ ~$1.6M in added ecommerce revenue
✅ Higher checkout completion rate
✅ Improved UX across Kiehl’s and other L’Oréal brands

The success of this work led L’Oréal to expand the partnership to other luxury brands including YSL Beauty, NYX Cosmetics, Urban Decay, Biotherm, and Lancôme.

Read the full case study: https://lnkd.in/egppQKV7

JSESSIONID

li_at

Accounts | LinkedIn Campaign Manager

Case Study - Kiehl's

Moon Pod added $273K in monthly revenue by grounding everything in research first.

When we started working together, their demand was strong.

Paid traffic was flowing.
But the site experience wasn’t keeping pace.

Instead of jumping into scattered tests, we stepped back and asked a simple question:
What are visitors trying to do, and where is the site slowing them down?

We mapped it out through:

• Google Analytics modeling of top paths to purchase
• Customer surveys to capture real buying triggers
• On-site polls and usability insights
• Heatmaps, scroll maps, and session recordings

Patterns began to form.

People were ready to buy. They just needed clearer answers, easier choices, and product pages that matched their intent.

So we tested the flows that mattered most:

• Introduced bundles, upsells, and cross-sells to lift AOV
• Improved clarity on product details, shipping, and returns
• Fine-tuned messaging to increase buyer motivation
• Built new landing pages aligned to the highest-performing ad angles

The outcome:

✅ $3.3M in additional annualized revenue
✅ Higher AOV and conversion rate
✅ Paid media performing more efficiently

The takeaway?

Optimization works when it’s rooted in understanding how customers think, decide, and move through a page.

Follow for more CRO breakdowns that turn insights into revenue.

Case Study - Moon Pod

The biggest myth in ecommerce is that a better-looking website equals better performance.

In reality, most redesigns focus on aesthetics… and then everyone is surprised when conversions stay flat.

This is where Ecommerce Conversion Design comes in — a redesign method built around how people actually shop, not just how a site looks.

It uses research, UX, psychology, and analytics to remove friction and guide visitors from landing → understanding → buying.

Here’s the high-level framework we use with top brands:

1) Research & Benchmarking
User testing, heatmaps, quantitative data, qualitative insights, and mapping the full buying journey.

2) Designing Solutions
Creative direction, solution research, wireframes, prototypes, and usability testing, all tied to real user behavior, not assumptions.

3) Optimization
Evolutionary rollouts, A/B testing, and continuous iteration after launch.

And when that process is followed, the results aren’t subtle:

• Hyperice → 78× ROI + ~$934k added monthly
• INH Hair → +26% lift from educational UX
• DIFF & Mackage → double-digit conversion increases
• Dr. Squatch → $9.6M+ generated from ongoing CRO

A high-converting ecommerce site is clear, fast, intuitive, and built on evidence.

👉 Follow for more CRO insights, A/B testing frameworks, and conversion-focused redesign breakdowns.

What Is Ecommerce Conversion Design

What happens when a 25-year-old beauty brand stops sending paid traffic to its homepage and rebuilds its funnel around customer research?

Here’s how Laura Geller increased conversions by 43% by restructuring their paid acquisition funnel with dedicated landing pages.

Laura Geller has been a trusted beauty brand for decades. 

Their retail presence is strong. Their products are proven.

But online? Paid traffic hit walls.

Visitors were landing on the homepage or isolated PDPs.
Acquisition costs were too high.
Conversions were too low.
The funnel was not built for scale.

Before any redesign, I ran a full Conversion Blueprint:

• Deep qualitative and quantitative research
• Surveys, polls, and support ticket analysis
• Social comment mining to decode objections
• Customer journey mapping to understand buying behavior

Here is what changed:

✔ Built an advertorial style page to drive education and trust
✔ Built a traditional landing page based on what customers said they cared about
✔ Created mobile and desktop versions for both
✔ Matched every page to their paid social messaging to lower acquisition costs

The results:

✅ 43% increase in conversion rates
✅ Lower CPAs on paid social
✅ A funnel that unlocked scale
✅ Customer insights the team now uses across marketing

Growth came from listening to customers first, then building pages around how they decide.

🔔 Follow me for CRO insights and real case study breakdowns.

Case Study - Laura Geller

We spent $200,000 on a redesign and it didn't improve conversions.

Panic follows...

I hear this all the time from brand owners and VPs of ecommerce.

The culprit? A fundamental mix-up between brand goals and performance goals.

Brand wants aesthetics that reflect positioning. Performance wants return on ad spend and conversions that make the CFO smile.

These teams are often pitted against each other. And rarely do brands know how to align them.

So what happens?

A full redesign launches with "best practices" baked in, and teams cross their fingers.

(Essentially playing the lottery with one of their largest marketing investments of the year.)

Then when the beautiful new site fails to outperform the old one, panic follows. 

"What now? We'll miss forecast!"

And yes, in my 13 years of doing CRO, more than once have I seen brands forced into layoffs because their new website tanked revenue.

The opposite is also dangerous: Let performance-obsessed teams ignore 
brand, and you'll get a copycat site that cheapens your positioning.

Here's the harsh truth:

No designer has a crystal ball. No "best practices" guarantee improvement. No design awards correlate with conversion rates.

Want a brand-aligned site that actually converts? Only two paths work:

Before & during redesign: Forget best practices. Conduct "Patterns" research.

Find the behavioral and emotional patterns driving abandonment and purchases on YOUR site. Keep what works. Remove what doesn't. A/B test major changes to validate.

After launch: Never treat it as finished. Your site needs ongoing optimization. Period.

This won't guarantee success, but it will ensure you hit aesthetic goals while maximizing performance potential.

Stop gambling with redesigns. Start treating them like the strategic revenue decisions they are.

The proof it works?

All the sites we've redesigned this year for 8 & 9-figure brands, from Transparent Labs to Riddle Oil, saw a performance boost post-launch.

And our CRO method generates an additional $100M/y across all our clients.

So yes, aligning brand and performance is definitely possible with the right approach.

The only question is: Will you keep rolling the dice, or finally stack the odds in your favor?"

P.S. Planning a redesign or stuck with one that didn't deliver? Book a free diagnostic to learn how to align brand and performance goals BEFORE your next redesign (or fix the one you just launched).

Get your personalized roadmap here: https://lnkd.in/e4vNtcvq

Most ecommerce "optimizations" are actually paper cuts.

They slowly bleed your revenue dry, and you don’t even notice.

Here is the scary pattern I see with almost every $10M - $100M brand I meet:

Before they hire us, they spend months "optimizing."

A homepage refresh here. A slick new PDP feature there. Maybe implementing "best practices" they saw on a competitor’s Shopify store.

The team feels productive. The site looks better.

But when we dig into the data? The revenue graph is flat. Or worse.

Then, we start working together.

Inevitably, the client has a backlog of "improvements" they want to ship immediately.

So we test them first.

And the results come back negative.

"Oh shit."

That’s the reaction I hear most often.

Because they realize that if we hadn't tested that "improvement," they would have rolled it out blind.

They would have permanently lowered their conversion rate, and they wouldn't have known why.

This is the dirty secret of ecommerce: most changes are silent revenue killers.

You ship a change, conversion drops by 2%, but you blame it on seasonality or ad spend. You never realize you caused it.

Here is a stat that should keep you up at night: Only 1 in 7 A/B tests results in a significant win. (Industry standard).

Now, you might think, "Those aren't great odds."

But think about the alternative.

If you aren't testing, you're rolling out all 7 of those ideas. You are baking the failures directly into your website.

Testing allows you to keep the 1 winner and trash the 6 losers before they cost you money.

That means the vast majority of ideas you have, even the "obvious" ones, are either doing nothing or actively hurting your business.

So if you aren't testing, you aren't optimizing. You’re guessing.

And when you're doing $50M a year, guessing is expensive.

Think of A/B testing less like "growth hacking" and more like insurance.

Yes, it finds new wins.

But more importantly, it stops you from accidentally setting your own house on fire.

So I’m curious: what’s a feature or change you were 100% convinced would be a winner, that actually ended up flopping?

Let me know in the comments. 👇

After BFCM, personalization becomes one of the most valuable levers in ecommerce.

The holiday rush brings a wave of new visitors with different levels of intent.

Once the weekend is over, the real opportunity comes from turning that mixed traffic into customers who return.

Here’s where top ecommerce teams focus 👇

1️⃣ Create a smoother path to the right product
Use preferences, browsing behavior, and purchase history to guide shoppers toward what fits them.

Clarity in the journey leads to stronger conversion performance.

2️⃣ Use recommendations that match real behavior
Suggest similar items, complementary pieces, or activity-based products.

Relevant suggestions naturally increase AOV and help customers feel understood.

3️⃣ Personalize content across channels
Segment email, onsite messaging, and retargeting based on what customers have shown interest in.

The more aligned the message, the easier it is for shoppers to take the next step.

4️⃣ Strengthen search and on-site discovery
Highlight favorited items, show what’s in stock nearby, and use smarter rankings.

A better discovery experience improves satisfaction and repeat visits.

💡 The takeaway:

BFCM brings attention.

Personalization helps brands turn that attention into ongoing revenue and long-term loyalty.

👉 Follow me for more CRO and ecommerce personalization insights grounded in real customer behavior.

Ecommerce Personalization - What It Actually Means

Your team ran 47 tests last year. Revenue moved 1.8%.

Here's what nobody tells you about A/B testing: 👇

Strategic prioritization is everything.

I've audited hundreds of testing programs over the last decade…

The pattern is always the same. 

Teams test what's easy to implement: button colors, headline variations, CTA copy tweaks, and minor layout shifts.

Each test moves the needle 0.2%. 
Compound that over a year and you get nowhere.

Meanwhile, the high-impact opportunities sit untested. 

Offer structure clarity. 
Perception gaps at decision points. 
Value communication for higher AOV. 
Trust signals in critical moments.

These require research. 

Behavioral data. 
Customer interviews. 
Session replay analysis.

Research-first prioritization unlocks breakthrough results.

One client ran 40 tests in 6 months with scattered effort and minimal movement. 

We rebuilt their roadmap around 6 strategic tests backed by customer behavior patterns. Same testing resources, 10x improvement in results.

The difference? 

Every test targeted a real friction point.

If your testing program feels stuck, audit your prioritization framework.

That's where breakthrough lives.

👉 Follow me for insights on CRO that cut through the BS and focus on what works.

Easiest way to miss your growth goals:

Test random stuff on your site and hope conversion improves 🫠

But that's still what most ecommerce brands do anyways.

We created a 3-step data-driven framework to help you get results from conversion optimization, so you don't ever have to guess what to test.

We call it the 3Ps Methodology. 

And it's been the backbone of the A/B testing and CRO programs we've built for brands like Dr Squatch, Kiehl's, Hyperice, Transparent Labs, and more.

Here's how it works:

1️⃣ Start with Patterns. Map out where visitors drop off and why. Use heatmaps, session recordings, and analytics to spot behavioral patterns. 

Then dig into customer surveys, reviews, and support tickets to find voice patterns. You're uncovering the gap between what people do and what they say.

2️⃣ Filter through Perception. This is where CRO often fails with DTC brands. Those patterns showed you opportunities, but opportunities without brand optics can cheapen your brand and your site.

Ask: Does this solution match our brand narrative? Will it elevate or cheapen our positioning? Does it reinforce why we're the only choice, not just another option?

3️⃣ Validate with Proof. Now you test. But instead of testing random ideas, you're testing solutions backed by insights from your Patterns research that also align with your brand's narrative and positioning.

Test offers (pricing, bundles, subscriptions). 

Test pathways (landing pages, product pages, flows). 

Test experience (copy, creative, layout). Track revenue impact, not vanity metrics.

Now here's the most important part:

The magic happens when you make this repeatable:

Every quarter: Fresh pattern analysis
Every month: 3-4 strategic tests minimum
Every test: Document what you learned

Yes, this takes more upfront work than randomly testing, but instead of guessing, you'll be strategic.

And strategy leads to wins faster than through guessing.

Our clients see measurable revenue impact in 30-90 days. 

In comparison, most come to us after wasting a year on tests that didn't move the needle.

This process easily 10x results.

---
Here's why this framework is so powerful:

1. Eliminates the guesswork that kills most testing programs
2. Stops wasting dev resources on tests that won't impact revenue
3. Turns CRO from a nice-to-have into a predictable growth lever

You'll know exactly which tests to prioritize when ROAS is tanking and everyone's panicking.

No more gambling with random test ideas or random UX "best practices" that hurt your brand.

Just systematic optimization that compounds quarter over quarter.

While your competitors are still testing button colors. 💪

--
P.S. Here's the link to our full 3Ps Methodology whitepaper, explaining this process in detail over 43 pages with real-life case studies and illustrations: https://lnkd.in/erEpcp8f

If I was running ecommerce at a $50M DTC brand struggling to increase conversions despite "testing everything," here's the exact 7-step CRO playbook I'd run to break through:

1. Stop testing random best practices. Those "147 Test Ideas That Increased Revenue" lists? Useless.

What doubled conversions for a $5M fashion brand will fail for your supplement brand. 

Testing generic ideas is like taking random pills hoping something cures you when you don't even know what's wrong.

2. Map your funnel performance by segment. Most brands just look at global CVR and AOV.

That’s why they miss the real leaks. Break your funnel down step-by-step:

Homepage/Landing → Collection/PLP → PDP → Cart → Checkout

Now split each step by:
↳Traffic source (Meta, Google, Email, Direct, Organic)
↳Device (mobile vs desktop)
↳Customer type (new vs returning, subscribers vs non-subscribers)

You’ll see stuff like:
- Email traffic: 70% cart completion
- Paid social: 28% cart completion

You don’t have a “site problem.” You have segment-specific funnel problems. Identify them, fix them.

3.  Pull surveys, support tickets, and reviews and look for repeated resistance patterns: 

↳"Wasn't sure about quality" means test material close-ups, proof and comparisons. 

↳"Couldn't justify the price" means you haven't convinced them their problem is painful enough, proven your solution actually works, or shown how much better their life will be. 

These exact objections reveal what's really broken in your messaging.

4. Test revenue drivers, not just page decorations. 

↳Test subscription offers vs one-time. 
↳Test $75 vs $100 shipping thresholds. 
↳Test 3-packs vs individual units. 
↳Test bundling strategies. 

These moves can grow your AOV, profits, and LTV. Stop testing font sizes.

5. Prioritize tests by evidence. Score every test idea: 

↳ How many data sources support it? (Analytics + survey insights = high priority).
↳ What % of traffic does it impact?
↳ What's the potential revenue impact? 

Stop wasting time on tests that have no data backing them.

6. Use brand as a conversion tool. The right story makes people pay more with less hesitation. Test positioning changes. Every test or optimization should align with your brand, not make you seem cheap or desperate. 

7. Launch tests consistently to compound wins.

Brands that test once a quarter never find patterns - or momentum. Launch 2-4 quality tests per month minimum. Not for volume's sake, but because consistent testing is how small wins add up into results that make your CFO smile.

—

With this playbook, you can expect to see results within 60-90 days. At this point, CRO usually pays for itself.

But remember, this only works if you do it right.  Skip research to get to testing faster, and you'll just waste another quarter on useless tests.

Who's ready to test strategically?

Get started with a free CRO diagnostic: https://lnkd.in/eGVtRY9x

Choosing a digital marketing agency is high-leverage and high-risk.

A great partner helps you grow with clarity, structure, and data.

A bad one drains your budget, sends vague reports, and leaves you further from your goals.

After years of working with founders, CMOs, and operators, these are the 7 questions that consistently filter the strong agencies from the risky ones: 👇

1️⃣ What’s your specialty?
Digital marketing is too deep for generalists. You want excellence, not “we do everything.”

2️⃣ How well do you understand my industry?
Every market has its own buying behaviour and funnel dynamics. Your agency should know the difference.

3️⃣ How do you decide what to change?
Good partners start with analytics, research, and testing instead of relying on opinions.

4️⃣ What research will you do on my customers?
Strong messaging comes from real insights, not internal assumptions.

5️⃣ What’s your process for driving growth?
You want a clear, repeatable methodology. Not guess-as-you-go projects.

6️⃣ Are you tool-agnostic?
Your tech stack shouldn’t be dictated by agency commissions.

7️⃣ Can you guarantee results?
No one can. Transparency and process beat promises every time.

The bottom line:

Hiring an agency shouldn’t feel like a gamble.
These questions help you cut through the noise and find a partner who actually moves the needle.

Your CAC looks terrible.

But before you fire your media buyer or test another audience, consider this:
What if your ads are perfect?

I've seen this pattern for 13 years. Brand hits $8M, CAC starts climbing. Panic sets in. 

Everyone blames the ads team.

But here's what's actually happening:
Your site isn't converting the quality traffic you're already paying for.

Think about it. 

You're spending $50 to get someone to your site who's ready to buy. 

They hit your landing page. 
Something feels off. 
They bounce.

Your CAC didn't get worse because your ads got worse.
Your CAC got worse because your conversion rate dropped.

The math is simple: Same ad spend ÷ fewer conversions = CAC looks like garbage.

Most brands respond by testing more audiences. 
New creatives. Different platforms.

All of that just burns more money sending traffic to a site that isn't converting.

The reality? 

If you're getting quality traffic (and you probably are), your problem isn't acquisition.

It's what happens after the click.

I'm not saying don't optimize your ads. 
I'm saying stop pretending CAC is purely a media problem when conversion is broken.

Fix the pages you're sending traffic to first.

Same spend. 
Better conversion. 
CAC improves without touching your campaigns.

Increasing ecommerce conversions didn't get harder.

Influencers just convinced everyone to copy "winning tests" without context.

Brands show up with websites that look like a museum of best practices.

Sticky carts, countdown timers, exit popups, trust badges everywhere, quiz funnels, bundles, one-click upsells... and I could go on.

All stacked on top of each other, and all because someone on Twitter said "this 3X'd our conversion rate".

The problem? 

That someone was selling $29 phone cases.

You're selling $80 supplements to skeptical first-time buyers.

Completely different game.

Even from an audience stand point, the game is different: 

How you'd optimize for a DTC celebrity makeup brand would be different from a legacy brand that's huge in retail.

Completely different game once again.

Here's what I've learned running 1000's of tests for brands like Dr. Squatch, Kiehl's, Once Upon a Farm, and Hyperice:

Brands who test internally usually see about 14% of their tests win. Brands working with good CRO agencies tend to get closer to 30%-40%

In either cases, it means that most tests are never going to be winners, regardless if they performed well for another brand.

Most "winning tests" you see posted online are cherry-picked, or they worked for a business nothing like yours.

The dangerous advice I keep seeing:

"Add all the information you can to your PDPs"

Now the content that actually converts is drowning in details nobody asked for. 

"Add urgency."

Now your premium brand looks desperate.

"Test more."

So you're running 12 tests a month with tiny sample sizes, calling "winners" at 70% confidence.

"Follow the data."

But you're following the wrong data because you never did the research to understand what actually matters.

Here's the thing:

Your site doesn't need more tactics.

It needs a strategy built on how YOUR customers actually think, buy, and hesitate.

That requires research. Patterns. Strategy.

Not copying what worked for someone else's business.

Before you implement any "proven" tactic, ask:

- What's their AOV vs. mine?
- What are their traffic sources?
- What's their customer awareness level?
- What's their brand positioning?

And even then, do they have the exact same conversion problems we have?

Context is everything.

Stop collecting best practices.

Start understanding your customer.

The most expensive customer in Q4 is the one who leaves your page without buying.

Someone seeing your product for the first time doesn’t need a checkout button.
And someone ready to buy doesn’t need a long story about your brand.

You need to build landing pages around how people actually buy:

1️⃣ Need Awareness - Realizing a problem exists
2️⃣ Solution Awareness - Learning what options are out there
3️⃣ Consideration - Comparing which product fits best
4️⃣ Purchase - Ready to buy

When your landing page meets buyers at the right stage, every dollar works harder.

Our clients see up to a 30% drop in acquisition costs, even during high-spend seasons like BFCM.

This season, don’t just design for traffic.
Design for how people buy.

👉 Want to see more breakdowns like this applied to real brands? Follow and I’ll share the next one.

Why BFCM Landing Pages Fail (and How to Fix Them)

I’ve optimized dozens of ecommerce brands.

And the brands that scale fastest all rely on one thing:

A testing portfolio that works in a continuous loop, not one-off experiments.

Here are the 4 components that make it work:

1/ Iterative Tests (Low Risk)
➟ Small, fast experiments that keep momentum high.
➟ Example: switching to text-only “Shop Bundles” links increased clicks by 130%.

2/ Significant Tests (Medium Risk)
➟ Larger UX improvements that meaningfully change behavior.
➟ Example: adding a fabric info chart lifted conversions by 26.8%.

3/ Disruptive Tests (High Risk)
➟ Major shifts that can reshape the shopping experience.
➟ Example: a bundle builder that increased conversions, AOV, and ROAS.

4/ Continuous Learning Loop
➟ Insights from every test feed into the next cycle.
➟ This is how small wins compound and set the stage for breakthrough results.

When these four parts operate together, testing becomes predictable, structured, and growth-driven rather than reactive.

That’s the Portfolio Strategy, the same approach powering growth for 8–9 figure brands.

Follow me for more CRO frameworks and breakdowns from real client work.

Why is your ROAS dying when your ads are performing better than ever?

The answer isn't in your ad account.

Brand is spending money on ads. 
ROAS declines. 
Panic sets in.

First move? 

Fire the media buyer. Test new audiences. Try different platforms.

Here's what actually happened:

Your ads are performing fine. Quality traffic is clicking through. 
But your site isn't converting them.

Landing page has a perception gap. 
Product page lacks trust signals. 
Checkout has friction at payment. 

Each stage bleeds revenue.

You're paying to get someone to your site who's ready to buy. 

They hit your landing page and most bounce. 
The survivors hit your product page and more leave. 
The remainder hits checkout and many abandon.

Only a small fraction make it through.

Your ROAS looks terrible because most of your ad spend is leaking out through conversion problems.

Better conversion means better ROAS without touching your ad strategy.

When ROAS declines, audit the funnel first. The ads are usually fine. The site is broken.

Fix the pages you're sending traffic to. 
Watch ROAS recover.

Follow for more insights on conversion optimization that most brands ignore until it's too late.

In this episode of Minds of eCommerce, I spoke with John and Mark Cronin, the father-and-son team behind John's Crazy Socks.

Many small businesses donate at year-end, deciding then which charities to support.

John and Mark changed that.

They built giving into the way they operate, turning every purchase into an act of support.

Here’s how:

1️⃣ They made giving part of the customer experience
A portion of each sale goes directly to a cause.

2️⃣ Each product supports a specific organisation
5% of profits go to the Special Olympics.
10% from Down Syndrome socks go to the National Down Syndrome Society.
Braille socks help fund schools for the blind.

3️⃣ Customers see the impact immediately
Every product tells people where their money goes and who it helps.

A simple, transparent system that brings purpose and community to every sale.

Watch the full episode here: https://lnkd.in/esftMfH4

John's Crazy Socks

Think bigger orders mean bigger effort?

Not always.

Smart brands know they need to raise Average Order Value (AOV) before chasing new customers.

Here’s where your AOV really comes from 👇

→ Top zone: High-impact tactics

Product bundling, cart upsells, and free shipping thresholds.
These are the fastest levers to pull. Dr. Squatch’s simple 2-pack test increased revenue per purchaser by up to 54%.

→ Middle zone: Confidence builders

Free returns, checkout upsells, and thank-you-page offers.
Once shoppers trust you, they’re more willing to add more.

→ Bottom zone: Supporting factors

Pricing, reputation, layout, and messaging.
They won’t lift AOV alone, but they amplify everything above.

The truth: boosting AOV depends on focus and discipline, each test should have a clear purpose and outcome.

That’s how brands stay profitable, even when ad costs keep climbing.

See the full AOV Optimization Framework → https://lnkd.in/esNdBg5F

We finished BFCM strong, but the real work starts now.

Every year, brands rush into Q1 planning and miss the most valuable CRO window of the entire year: the weeks after Black Friday.

I see this constantly with DTC teams.

Huge spikes in traffic.
Record-high intent.
And also the clearest view of where your site slows people down.

But most teams collect the data and move on.

What they don’t realize is this:
Post-BFCM behavior is the closest thing you have to a live stress test of your entire funnel.

It shows you:
• The pages that collapsed under pressure
• The steps that created hesitation
• The questions your PDP never answered
• The friction points that only show up at scale
• The patterns that held buyers back even with strong offers

Here’s the hard truth:
If you treat BFCM as “the big weekend” instead of the audit that informs your next twelve months, you will repeat the same problems in 2025.

Want to turn this into growth?

Only two paths work:

✔️ Before planning new campaigns: Dig into the behavior patterns revealed during BFCM. Identify where shoppers hesitated, where they scrolled without acting, where they dropped off. This is the roadmap for Q1 optimization.

✔️ After the analysis: Test. Don’t assume. 
Your highest-intent weekend showed you what needs improvement. Now validate changes with experiments that follow real user patterns, not guesses.

This approach won’t guarantee overnight wins, but it will ensure you walk into Q1 with clarity instead of noise.

And the proof?

Across every brand we optimized this year, the biggest long-term lifts came from the work done after peak moments. Not during them.

Your BFCM data is a gift most teams won’t use.

The question is: Will you?

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