The full-journey approach to CRO: how Brancoy drives ecommerce growth

Most ecommerce teams want the same thing: more conversions. But according to Severi Niiranen, Shopify Account Manager at Brancoy, the way most brands chase that goal is fundamentally flawed.

They optimize individual pages, obsess over conversion rate as a standalone number, and reach for novelty when they should be nailing the fundamentals.

Brancoy is a Finnish Shopify Plus agency working with brands ranging from $1M to over $30M in revenue, spanning fashion, home goods, food, pet supplies, and lifestyle. They work with brands through project engagements, including store builds, migrations, and redesigns, as well as ongoing growth partnerships they call growth services, where they continuously optimize a client's store and report back on what moved the needle. Last year, across all of their growth service clients, Brancoy helped drive a 70% year-over-year lift in Black Friday Cyber Monday sales.

I sat down with Niiranen to talk through the CRO principles that actually hold up across seasons, how mobile-first development is still more talked about than practiced, and what a Rebuy-powered fashion brand taught him about the relationship between personalization and revenue.

Brancoy helps SME and mid-market brands grow on Shopify.

Why do you think so many CRO efforts fail?

Niiranen: I really believe that the online store needs to be considered as a whole journey. That's common knowledge, but it's treated superficially: it's like, "it's a journey," and then that's it. But I believe that it's really important to not fixate on a single page.

For example, let's say that you check your online store data and you find which page is getting the most cold traffic. And then you really try to optimize that one page and tell everything in that one page. I just don't see that it works because you can't say everything on one page.

You need to think about where the customer finds you first. Start conversion optimization from the top-funnel marketing. For example, in your Meta ads, your Google ads or whatnot. Don't focus on any single page type and try to say everything there. Trust the big picture and give the information that your customer wants and needs along the way. You also make it easier for yourself later because you don't feel the need to cram all the information in one place.

Single-page fixation. That's the first reason.

Another thing I've noticed is that the questions in the customer's mind actually change along the journey. Early on, they're asking: "Why should I buy from you and not anyone else?" But by the time they're close to buying, that question has already been answered. What they need to hear then is: "Why now?" Those two questions get mixed constantly. When you separate them, you can optimize each part of the journey for the right message.

What does mobile-first actually mean in practice and why do brands still get it wrong?

Niiranen: I believe the big problem is that people developing online stores are staring at the desktop preview when they're doing optimization. I get it. It's easier, you see more. But it feels like many optimize and build the store on desktop, and then right before publishing they check that it kind of works on mobile.

I encourage everyone to build mobile-first: stare at the mobile preview, and when you're ready to publish, check desktop to make sure it's not broken. Really, truly, do it mobile-first. And then the biggest challenge with mobile is that the real estate on a mobile screen is just so expensive. You need to be very clear with what you want to communicate and be good at visual communication and copywriting. Every pixel has to earn its place.

“The most important metric to follow in conversion optimization is sales, not conversion rate.”

What CRO changes tend to drive reliable gains regardless of season?

Niiranen: Clear calls to action. And that means understanding where the customer is in their decision-making process. When they first come to your store they're not necessarily ready to buy, but they are willing to learn more. So a softer call to action might work better at that stage. "Learn more" versus "Buy now." Then as they go further along, you lean into urgency.

But really, one of my favorite subjects is human cognitive biases and how to leverage them. I think it's common knowledge that these biases exist, but ecommerce teams struggle to actually put them to work. Social proof, authority bias, scarcity. These are so fundamental to human behavior that they apply year-round. The bias you lean into just shifts with the season. In Black Friday, scarcity and the power of 'free' are powerful. Outside peak season, you might lean harder into social proof or authority.

Brancoy's Severi Niiranen takes me down the rabbit hole of CRO tactics and strategies for Shopify. 

Can you give an example of using cognitive bias in a store?

Niiranen: Something I'm currently working on with customers is the real estate right next to the add-to-cart button. What can we put there to actually make the customer press that button? For one customer, we added a small line of text, freely translated from Finnish. It was something like "already 6,000 happy customers recommend." A number is always powerful because it makes it real. It's not just "happy customers recommend." When you say "6,000 customers recommend," it becomes credible.

And another angle people often miss: DTC brands and retailers can be their own authority. The CEO or founder recommending a product carries genuine weight. You don't always have to look outside for endorsement. You can trust yourself as an authority too.

What types of CRO experiments look promising but rarely move the needle?

Niiranen: The first thing that comes to mind is hovering effects. People build them, they look interesting on desktop, but they don't work on mobile. It's a waste of effort to build them on purpose when most of your traffic is on a device where they're invisible.

The deeper issue is that the longer you work on a store, the more you get used to it, and the easier it is to reach for new things you hear about in the industry; something that looks clever or functions interestingly. But a new customer who has never heard of your brand can get confused fast. If you confuse your customer in the store, you lose them immediately. So just make the basics right and only then, if you have the time and budget, try the gimmicks.

“When peak season hits and the ROAS is strong and profitable, the right move is to step on the gas.”

How do you evaluate whether a CRO tool actually helps conversion?

Niiranen: One mistake people make is that they focus on the conversion rate number. We need to remember, at least we at Brancoy, when we look into our customers' online store data we are looking at the sales. And it doesn't help you to increase the conversion if the sales are not increasing. So, I believe that the most important metric to follow in conversion optimization is the sales, and not the conversion rate.

And then when thinking about bringing new apps or tools to use with the online store, does the app actually bring more sales to you? And then another important thing, especially in our work as an agency, is that we need to understand how much workload it adds to our customer companies or to us. So if it reduces the workload, fantastic, but if it adds workload, then you really need to think about whether it's worth it. Those are the two things that we use to evaluate if something is worth it: does it bring more sales, and how does it affect day-to-day workload?

You've been using Rebuy with some of your clients. Can you share what you've seen?

Niiranen: For one example, a DTC fashion brand, we used Rebuy and it was really interesting to check the data because in their store, the dynamic bundle element from Rebuy contributed approximately, depending on the time period, one fourth or one third of [Rebuy-assisted] sales. That came from this one specific dynamic bundle element alone. 

And overall, after a 30-day test with Rebuy added to their store, we saw a 4% increase in total sales. The main contributors were the dynamic bundle and the add-to-cart popup. Those are the two things I'd recommend anyone start with if they're evaluating Rebuy or already using it. The add-to-cart pop-up was the highest performing widget during that period, contributing more than 50% of all the Rebuy-influenced revenue.

The reason I like the add-to-cart popup specifically is the timing. It fires after the customer has concretely shown interest: they've already clicked add to cart. So you're not interrupting anyone. The real estate doesn't eat into the front of the experience, and on mobile it's not stealing that precious screen space. If the customer doesn't want to act on it, they dismiss it. No friction. And the dynamic bundle follows the same logic: if you're already recommending products on the product page, why not use a version that actually personalizes those recommendations based on behavior rather than something fixed?

What's one mistake brands make heading into peak seasons that they could avoid?

Niiranen: This might be a left-field answer, but: they're too cautious with ad spend. Especially in our growth services. We're doing, all year round, year after year, this conversion optimization work on your online store. So, of course the online store is converting well. And there is not necessarily any single thing to do to prepare for the peak season. Because it's already optimized. That's the goal.

But then, when there are peak seasons and you have a highly converting online store, you just need to get all the traffic that is available and drive it in. So I think that's the biggest mistake that ecom businesses make. When we see from the data that the ROAS is highly profitable, we say to our customers: okay, let's press the gas. Don't hold your left foot on the brake during the campaign. Let's get all the sales we can extract from this.

What's one CRO principle that applies year-round, no exceptions?

Niiranen: Don't bury your add-to-cart button. That's the number one thing. It's surprisingly common how far down the product page the add-to-cart button gets pushed.

Customers who aren't ready to buy will scroll down and look for details on their own. But customers who already know what they want, especially if you've driven warm traffic from a campaign or event, just need to buy the thing. Make that as fast and smooth as possible. Get the button above the fold. And if someone wants more information, they'll scroll to find it. You don't have to put everything above the fold. Trust the customer to look for what they need, and trust your store to convert when they're ready.

Bonus question: you mentioned something about checkout button color?

Niiranen: Yes, I recommend navy blue, a dark blue tone. This goes back to fundamental human psychology. Blue as a color creates a feeling of trust. So at the checkout, the moment where the customer is making a financial decision, the color of the payment button can carry more weight than people think. It's a little speculative and opinions differ, but from what I've seen, it's worth trying. Make your payment button dark blue and see what happens.

Severi Niiranen is a Shopify Account Manager at Brancoy, a Shopify Plus partner agency based in Finland. Brancoy offers ongoing growth services, migration projects, and theme development for ecommerce brands ranging from early-stage to enterprise. Their annual ecommerce summit takes place in Helsinki each spring. Learn more at brancoy.fi and subscribe to their newsletter to stay current with their team's insights.

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