How to Prioritise CRO Like a 7+ Figure Brand

Hey ecommerce operators… 👋 we’re back with another CRO & PROFITS NEWSLETTER. Bringing real actionable value to brand owner to improve your funnel & profitability for your brand.

Here’s a quick gut check -

What’s the last test your team launched on your site?

Was it:

• A button color change?

• A headline rewrite someone “had a feeling about”?

• An idea implemented because “it’s just makes sense and will 100% be better so we don’t need to test it”

• A sticky banner test because someone saw it on a competitor’s site?

If any of that sounds familiar, don’t worry…

It’s common. And we literally hear it with our current clients (we then decide to educate them on why none of this works).

But also: 

It’s a HUGE reason most attempts at CRO fall flat.

The problem?

A lack of prioritization.

Today we’re breaking down a smarter way to decide what tests are actually worth your time…

…and how to build a process that consistently delivers meaningful results.

Because better tests…

Means bigger wins…

Which usually means more revenue. 

(usually, a LOT more)

Let’s dig in.

Why Most CRO Backlogs Are Broken

We’ve worked with dozens of brands that all say the same thing:

“We have tons of test ideas… we just don’t know which ones to start with.”

And that’s where things usually break.

Without a clear prioritization method, you default to:

• Low-effort, low-impact ideas that are “easy wins”
  

• Random stuff someone saw in a swipe file
  

• Executive opinions

What ends up happening?

You burn WEEKS testing things that don’t move the needle… all the while real revenue opportunities sit untouched.

The Real Job of Prioritization

The goal isn’t to test the easiest idea.

The goal is to test the right idea, at the right time. 

Based on:

• How close it is to the money (revenue proximity)
  

• How painful the friction is for users
  

• How confident you are that a fix would help - would it help your customer journey?
  

• How long it’ll take to build and launch? Is it a big effort for small output?

• And most importantly - has your customers requested or hinted at this through their surveys, feedback, reviews and also customer support
  

• We score every test across those dimensions. The better the score, the higher it moves in the backlog.

Our Favorite Prioritization Framework

Here’s what we recommend using if you don’t already have a system:

Impact • Confidence • Effort (ICE)

For every test idea, give it a score from 1–10 on:

• Impact: If this works, how much could it move conversion or revenue?
   
  → A cart page fix = high impact. A footer tweak? Probably not.
  

• Confidence: How strong is the data behind this idea?
  
  → Rage clicks, scroll maps, user replays = high confidence. A random hunch idea by a team member = low.
  

• Effort: How hard is it to design, build, and QA the test?
   
  → A copy test = low effort. A full PDP overhaul = high.
  

Then calculate:

(Impact × Confidence) / Effort = Priority score.

Simple, fast, and way better than winging it.

(We also align it with business goals - priorities can be pushed due to this and time of year).

🔍 How to Prioritize What You Test

Here’s how we approach testing in the real world, where every change has a purpose, and it’s different for all brands.

Start by identifying your highest-friction, highest-impact zones (example below of possibilities):

Top of Priority

Homepage, navigation, landing pages, product discovery

→ These influence first impressions and click-depth

Mid Priority

PDPs, image galleries, variant selectors, bundle builders

→ Where decision clarity and trust make or break action

Bottom Priority

Cart, checkout, payment/shipping flows

→ Where hesitation = lost intent

Now ask yourself:

• Where do users hesitate or drop off the most?

• Which pages get the most traffic and underperform?

That’s your testing sweet spot — not the About page, not a random visual tweak.

What High-Leverage Tests Actually Look Like

Here are the kinds of tests we prioritize first -

✅ Navigation confusion on mobile? → Redesign the menu to surface key collections, and highest RPV sections

✅ PDP overload? → Remove distractions, reorder content, improve copy based off winning ad angles and customer research through surveys and reviews - fillter this all above and add trust near CTAs

✅ Cart bounce? → Show delivery estimated delivery dates, better upsells, Inject urgency (stock, delivery), simplify totals, add reassurance

✅ Checkout hesitation? → Clean up payment form UX, add microcopy for security and trust elements

✅ Homepage bloat? → Repurpose hero sections to match winning ad angles and customer research, focus above-the-fold CTA, test the layouts of sections and copy

Each of these ties to money. That’s the filter.

How to Stay On Track

Here’s a cadence we run for all of our retained CRO clients:

Every Friday:

1. Review key analytics (drop-off points, conversion funnels)
   

2. Watch top 5–10 replays from high-exit pages
   

3. Look at scroll/click maps
   

4. Add any new ideas to the backlog
   

5. Re-score ideas using ICE
   

6. Move top 1–2 into “ready for build”
   

7. Kill anything that scored low 3+ weeks in a row

This habit ALONE will turn messy Notion lists into a free-flowing pipeline that actually produces more revenue.

All in all…

If you’re drowning in test ideas or just launching whatever’s easiest, hit pause.

Here’s what to do instead:

👉Score every idea by Impact, Confidence, and Effort
👉Start at the main visited areas, where friction is highest
👉Map ideas to revenue zones (homepage ≠ checkout)
👉Make prioritization a weekly ritual, not a one-time sprint
👉Ruthlessly kill weak ideas

The best of the best in eCom when it comes to testing - 

They’re not always doing things MORE. 

They’re just doing things SMARTER.