We just wrapped a test that didn't move conversion rate at all.

And we're shipping the winner.

Let me explain.

The Test: Product Image Thumbnail Visibility

PM Digital clients, 8-figure Supplement Gummy Brand

Test Duration: ~ 3 weeks Total

What We Changed:

We tested showing visible thumbnail previews beneath the main product image — making it immediately obvious there's more to see in the gallery.

The carousel included product shots, ingredient callouts, taste and texture messaging, social proof, a customer testimonial with press logos, and a subscription offer slide.

The hypothesis: If customers can see at a glance that there's more information waiting, ingredients, reviews, subscription benefits, they're more likely to explore, educate themselves, and commit to Subscribe & Save rather than defaulting to one-time purchase.

Results:

→ Subscription % of orders: +9.2% uplift
→ Probability to beat control: 99.5%
→ CVR: No meaningful change
→ RPV: -1.38

On paper, you might look at this and think: "RPV is down, CVR is flat, why is this a win?"

Because their primary KPI isn't conversion rate. It's an LTV focused brand with subscriptions.

Why It Worked

The thumbnail visibility didn't add new information, it just made existing information more discoverable.

Most visitors don't swipe through every image. But it is the highest interacted with area in most product pages on heatmaps. When they can see there's a testimonial slide, an ingredients breakdown, and a subscription offer waiting for them, they engage more deeply.

Deeper engagement with the right content (especially that subscription slide) shifted more buyers into Subscribe & Save and helped them understand the savings they get.

This brand has strong unit economics on subscribers. A customer who commits to Subscribe & Save is worth significantly more over 12 months than a one-time buyer — even if that first order is slightly lower in value. Some even say its on average up to 1.7x LTV than the normal one time purchase LTV.

So when we moved more buyers into subscription without hurting CVR, that's a direct LTV win.

No discount change. No new offer. Just better presentation of the same thing.

Sometimes the problem isn't your content, it's that people don't know it exists.

The Bigger Picture: Subscription Strategy Isn't Just About Take Rate

They chase subscription take rate at all costs, deeper discounts, aggressive first-order incentives, "first box free" offers.

And it works. Take rate goes up.

But then Month 2 churn goes through the roof.

Why? Because you attracted the wrong customers. They wanted a deal, not a commitment.

Worse — if you give 30-40% off the first order on a 30-day supply, you've now sent them more product than they'll use before the second shipment arrives. They cancel because they're sitting on surplus.

What Actually Moves the Needle on Subscription Profitability

If you're running a subscription brand, here's how we think about it:

1. Optimise the offer structure, not just the discount

The goal is to give people a reason to subscribe beyond price.

Exclusive access, member-only perks, free shipping, low-cost gifts (a shaker bottle, a sample of a new flavour, something branded). These can outperform a straight discount in both take rate and retention.

Test different incentives month over month. Variety keeps people engaged and gives them a reason to stay.

2. Set expectations before the first charge

Most subscription churn happens because customers didn't know what they were signing up for — or didn't see results fast enough.

Build a visual timeline into your PDP. "Week 1: expect this. Week 4: expect this."

When people understand the journey, they stick around longer. They also buy into the vision around the copy of consistent use.

3. Make the subscription portal exceptional

If your customer has to email support to skip a shipment, you've already lost.

The brands that retain best have portals where customers can pause, swap, reschedule, and manage everything in two clicks. Control without friction = fewer cancellations. You can also opt in for downsells, upsells and making sure flows are all aligned.

4. Watch for the "too much product" problem

This one's subtle but expensive.

If your subscription cadence doesn't match real-world usage, customers end up with surplus. They feel guilty. They cancel.

Audit your delivery schedule. Offer flexible frequency options — 30, 45, 60, 90 days. Let customers match the product to their life, not the other way around.

Subscription Tests Worth Running

If you want to improve your subscription performance, here's where we'd start:

On the PDP:

→ Default selection testing — subscription pre-selected vs. one-time pre-selected vs. no default (force active choice). We've seen subscription-default with a "Recommended" badge lift take rate 15-25% on the right products.

→ Offer framing — "Subscribe & Save 15%" vs. "Join the Wellness Plan" vs. "Become a VIP Member" The language matters more than you'd think. Membership framing often outperforms discount framing for retention.

→ Benefit visibility — test moving subscription benefits inside the buy box (above the CTA) vs. below it. Or add a sticky benefit bar that follows scroll on mobile.

→ Guarantee messaging — "Cancel anytime" vs. "Skip, pause, or cancel anytime" vs. "Easier than Netflix to cancel" vs. showing a visual of the actual cancel button. Reducing anxiety around commitment increases conversions.

→ Social proof specific to subscribers — "Join 50,000+ subscribers" or subscriber-only reviews with tenure badges ("Subscribed 8 months") or a live counter showing recent subscription purchases.

On pricing and incentives:

→ Discount depth — 10% off + free shipping vs. 15% off vs. 20% off vs. 25% off first order then 15% ongoing. Find the point where take rate and retention balance.

→ First order incentives — percentage discount vs. first box 50% off vs. free gift with subscription vs. buy one get one on first order. Steep first-order discounts can tank retention, so measure churn alongside take rate.

→ Prepaid options — monthly only vs. 3-month prepaid with extra discount vs. 6-month prepaid. Prepaid customers churn dramatically less. The data shows monthly billing can see 10%+ churn, while annual billing drops to around 2%.

→ Low-COGS gifts vs. discounts — a free shaker bottle or sample pack can outperform a 10% discount in both take rate and perceived value. Test it.

In cart and checkout:

→ Cart upsell to subscription — banner saying "Switch to subscription, save 20%" vs. a popup modal with benefits vs. showing "87% of customers choose subscription" with a toggle.

→ Checkout subscription upgrade — last-chance checkbox to convert the order to subscription vs. split-path showing one-time and subscription side by side vs. a benefits reminder in the sidebar.

Post-purchase:

→ Thank you page upgrade offer — "Upgrade to subscription for 20% back on this order" vs. "Add subscription, get a bonus gift" vs. limited 24-hour upgrade offer with countdown.

→ Email flows — Day 7 email setting expectations ("Here's what to expect this week"), Day 21 SMS check-in, founder video after first delivery. Education and connection reduce early churn.

On mobile (where 60%+ of your traffic is):

→ Toggle interface — radio buttons vs. large toggle switch vs. tabs (One-time | Subscribe) vs. swipeable cards. Touch-friendly selection matters.

→ Benefit display — bullet list vs. horizontal scroll cards vs. expandable accordion vs. sticky bottom bar showing subscription value.

Retention Benchmarks Worth Knowing

If you're tracking subscription retention, here's what we see from brands doing real volume:

→ 3-month retention of 70-78% = strong
→ 6-month retention of 55-65% = healthy
→ Day 180 (Rebill 6) retention of 30%+ = elite territory

Anyone claiming 60%+ 6-month retention at scale on cold paid acquisition is either mistracking or not spending enough on ads. Those numbers are rare (or maybe they are a one off and just have a ridiculous product).

Small improvements in early retention compound massively over time. A 5% improvement in Month 1 churn changes everything downstream.

Why Customers Actually Cancel

We've pulled this from post-purchase surveys and helpdesk data across multiple brands. The top reasons:

→ "I didn't know it would auto-renew"
→ "Didn't see results fast enough"
→ "Too expensive after the discount ended"
→ "I forgot it was coming again" → "I have too much product"

Every one of these is fixable before the first charge happens. Clear renewal timing on the PDP. Usage timeline showing when to expect results. Honest pricing that doesn't bait-and-switch after order one. Delivery reminders. Flexible frequency.

Cancellation isn't the enemy. Silence is. The brands that retain best don't hide from cancellation — they make it easy, then offer a pause or swap instead. Control builds trust. Trust builds retention.

What We're Testing Next

Based on the thumbnail win and our subscription-first focus, here's what's on our roadmap for February and March:

Cart Drawer Subscription Upgrade Right now, subscription value lives on the PDP — but the cart drawer is where people pause, check totals, and decide whether to proceed. We're testing product-specific subscription messaging in the cart with clearer savings callouts, free shipping reminders, and simple cancel/skip reassurance. One tap to upgrade at the highest-intent moment.

Quantity Selector with Tiered Savings Instead of a single product option, we're introducing 1-, 2-, and 3-month supply tiers with clear savings at each level. A "Best Value" ribbon on the 2-month option, reinforced with "Stay consistent. Save more." messaging. This reframes the decision from "am I subscribing forever?" to "am I committing for a sensible period?" — lower perceived risk, fewer future purchase decisions.

3-Month Subscription Option Adding a longer commitment path to the buy box. The hypothesis: when you give people a 3-month option positioned as "the smart way to properly test the product before committing long-term," subscription selection increases because it feels like a bounded commitment rather than an open-ended one.

Subscription Pricing Anchor Test Restructuring pricing so subscription is the clearly best-value option with a stronger anchor against one-time purchase. Customers are already seeing the subscription price as the "real" price — we're testing whether widening the perceived gap increases take rate without sacrificing RPV.

Mobile Above-Fold Offer Clarity 91%+ of traffic is mobile. Bounce rate is around 65%. That tells us people aren't making it to the deeper sections where education lives. We're testing a tighter, purchase-led stack above the fold: clear outcome headline, one-line mechanism, taste reassurance, subscription value summary, then buy box. Everything they need to decide in the first screen.

Checkout Trust Content Checkout drop-off exceeds 50%. We're adding customer reviews, benefit icons, and subscription control reassurance directly at checkout. Industry data shows adding social proof at checkout improves completion rates by 8-12% for health products with subscription models.

Landing Page with Sticky Buy Box Previous landing pages underperformed against PDPs despite using ad-aligned angles. The issue isn't awareness — it's purchase friction. We're testing a sticky Add to Cart with price and subscription offer visibility, plus an on-page buy box earlier in the scroll. Let users act at the moment of conviction rather than forcing them to switch pages.

Popup Timing and Format The current promo popup is a full-screen overlay that appears before users have processed value. On mobile especially, this creates friction before they've even started scrolling. We're testing a smaller, mobile-friendly banner with delayed timing based on real engagement. Less intrusive, better UX, better downstream metrics.

Spring Circulation Reset Landing Page March buyer psychology shifts from January transformation mode to spring renewal. People want progress and "getting back on track." We're building a reset-themed landing page that frames the product as a simple daily renewal habit — energy, circulation, quick routine, great taste. Match the mindset, reduce the friction.

Every test gets measured against take rate, Month 1-3 retention, and RPV. We're building a system, not chasing isolated wins.

That's it for this one.

If you're running a subscription brand and want to talk through your offer structure, retention benchmarks, or where to focus testing — just reply. Happy to dig in.

The PM Digital Approach

We've rebuilt how we work with brands around this.

We don't just test pages. We optimise the funnel for profitability and LTV. We build the right experiences for the right intent of your audience. Results focused on revenue per visitor, not just conversion rate and average order value, because that tells us if the whole system is working.

And we put your customer at the centre of every decision. Because when you understand what they're thinking, what they're feeling, and what they need to believe, the conversions follow. You get a proper partner, selective of their clients, who cares about the growth of your business.

Want Help Applying This to Your Brand?

If you're sitting on Q5 traffic and not seeing the conversions you expected, there's a good chance your funnel isn't matching your customer's mindset.

Book a free 30-minute CRO call with us. I'll walk through your site live, explain some of our process, and show you where the gaps are and what to do about them.