When Your Customers Only Want One Thing
We all want bigger baskets. More items per order. Higher AOV. But sometimes your customers have other plans. They just want one thing.
That’s what we saw with one client. The average order size was a single item. We could have kept pushing bundles and recommendations, but it wasn’t moving the needle. So we asked a different question:
What if the fastest way to grow revenue wasn’t changing customer behavior, but making it easier for them to do what they already wanted?
Cutting Out the Cart
Here’s what was happening. Customers clicked Add to Cart. Instead of buying, they were sent to a cart page. One more step. One more chance to bounce.
Industry wide, about 70% of carts are abandoned. Every extra click is a risk. For a business where most people only buy one product, that cart page wasn’t helping. It was hurting.
So we removed it. Add to Cart → straight to Checkout. That was it. No magic trick. No complicated upsell flow. Just less friction.
The Results
The test ran for three weeks and touched every dollar of revenue. The lift was hard to ignore:
Conversion Rate: up 8.2 percent
Revenue per Visitor: up 6.8 percent
Results reached a 98 percent probability of beating the control
Yes, AOV dipped a little. But that wasn’t the story. The story was more people completing purchases. And the revenue followed.
What We Learned
Owning e-commerce growth means you’re pulled in a dozen directions. Marketing wants brand moments. Finance wants efficiency. Leadership wants results yesterday.
The instinct is to add more. More cross sells. More steps. More “features.”
But in this case, the answer wasn’t more. It was less. We took out the cart step, and customers bought more often.
Revenue didn’t come from bigger baskets. It came from aligning the flow with how people already shop.
Don’t Just Skip the Cart
That doesn’t mean every brand should start sending shoppers straight to checkout. Your cart should be designed around your products and your customers.
If people often buy accessories, that’s what the cart should highlight. If it’s a big-ticket item, the cart should reassure them on value. If you’re selling bundles, that’s where you help customers see the upside of adding more.
The only way to know what’s right is through research and experimentation. That’s how you figure out whether your cart is helping or getting in the way.
The Next Step
The lesson from this experiment isn’t “always skip the cart.” It’s that your cart should be built around how your customers actually buy. And the only way to know what’s right is to test it.
That’s the work we do with clients every day, uncovering how customers really shop, then building the funnel to match.
What’s New
Checkout our latest episode of Checkin to Checkout to learn how e-commerce directors shouldn’t try to own it all.
Want to be featured on our Podcast?
Send an email to justin@mobile1st.com, and we’ll set up a time to get to know you to see if you’re a great fit. We’re always looking for e-commerce leaders to feature on Checkin to Checkout
Digital Product Growth
At Mobile1st, we help e-commerce brands grow revenue per visitor.
We do it by combining customer-first research with testing and experimentation that cuts through the noise of dashboards and opinions. Our team uncovers what really drives purchase decisions, then runs experiments to prove impact — so you can stop guessing and start scaling
