TowMotive Group is an independent knowledge center and distributor of towbars and everything related to them. With Trekhaakcentrum.nl and Trekhaakmontage.nl, they offer complete towbar installations and wiring set services at nearly 250 locations across the Netherlands. While we had already executed a full CRO program for Trekhaakcentrum in 2023 achieving a funnel ratio of over 5.0%, Trekhaakmontage.nl had long remained below 2.0%. And this despite both websites sharing many similarities. Our CRO team succeeded in raising the funnel ratio from 1.9% in Q4 2023 to 3.9% in Q1 2024! While Trekhaakcentrum offers complete towbar installations through 95 (both owned and franchised) Trekhaakcentrum branches, Trekhaakmontage does so via more than 150 installation partners, such as garages and repair shops operating under their own brand names. This distinction means that TowMotive Group brings towbar installations to the market under two labels through similar websites, where visitors roughly follow the same steps after selecting their car type or entering their license plate number. In the towbar configurator, users choose a type of towbar, select accessories, and then on the price overview page, decide between requesting a quote or scheduling an appointment. In most cases, the visitor selects an installation location and fills out a form, after which TowMotive Group calls the visitor to choose/confirm the date, time, and installation location.
TowMotive Group
CRO
Challenge
Two formulas, a similar offering with a comparable online customer journeyand yet such a huge difference in funnel ratio! Why does more than 5.0% of visitors at Trekhaakcentrum, who begin by selecting a towbar type, go on to complete an appointment or quote request form, while this figure at Trekhaakmontage is below 2.0%? That was the question we faced in December 2023.
From a technical perspective, we discovered that performance at Trekhaakmontage was lagging behind Trekhaakcentrum. Retrieving the correct vehicle information based on the entered license plate, and then displaying the matching offer (since not every towbar fits every car), took far too long. Although improvements to technical performance were already in the works, this issue could not be solved in the short term.
From a CRO perspective, we definitely saw optimization opportunities that we wanted to A/B test one by one to ensure that we only implemented changes that had been proven to work. However, we expected that the existing number of conversions and the accompanying funnel ratio would not be sufficient to demonstrate statistically significant improvements through A/B testing. More traffic would have been helpful, but increasing the SEA budget was only an option once the funnel ratio was higher. This made A/B testing a difficult path to follow.
Moreover, the effect of a few winning A/B tests, typically running for four weeks per experiment would only become visible after several months. By spring, caravans come out of storage and bike racks are mounted back onto cars, marking the high season for TowMotive Group. The funnel ratio needed to increase drastically, and we had no time to lose!
Strategy
As a CRO team, we naturally want to test everything or at least as much as possible and achieve measurable, demonstrable results. But what if that isn’t feasible or doesn’t move fast enough, as was the case with Trekhaakmontage? Does that mean CRO is off the table altogether? We didn’t think so. Instead, we decided to implement multiple changes at Trekhaakmontage simultaneously, on the condition that a comparable change had already been tested in an A/B test at Trekhaakcentrum and proven successful, or that the change would make the funnels of the two formulas more alike. In this way, we backed up our changes, despite the lack of testing opportunities, with insights and learnings from Trekhaakcentrum.
A previous A/B test at Trekhaakcentrum showed that adding a receipt directly after selecting a towbar type led to –18.4% fewer completed appointment and quote request forms compared to showing prices only in the price overview. As a result, we decided to hide the receipt at Trekhaakmontage, where it had been displayed by default (unlike Trekhaakcentrum). Similarly, any surcharge for updating the onboard computer was only shown at the price overview stage, if applicable.
In addition, at Trekhaakcentrum, the most frequently chosen towbar was preselected, and it was impossible to deselect the associated wiring set, since this is always included. We carried this over to Trekhaakmontage to make both funnels more aligned.
Finally, we also decided just as at Trekhaakcentrum to hide the € signs throughout the funnel, thereby reducing the so-called “pain of paying.”
On the appointment form, we hid the selected installation location and vehicle details to reduce the chance of distraction and keep the focus on completing the form. We also removed the redundant option to select the type of customer. With these changes, Trekhaakmontage moved one step closer to Trekhaakcentrum.
Finally, an A/B test at Trekhaakcentrum showed that skipping the step of selecting an installation location when requesting a quote resulted in 14.7% more quote requests. This step turned out to be unnecessary, since all quote requests for Trekhaakcentrum were followed up directly by TowMotive Group’s headquarters. Because this was also the case at Trekhaakmontage, for both quote requests and installation appointments, we decided to remove the step entirely. This not only shortened the funnel but also eliminated a stage with poor technical performance, as the loading of locations was slow.
TowMotive Group and our CRO team were very satisfied with this strong result, which gave us full confidence going into the new high season. In addition, this doubling created extra room in the SEA budget and expanded the possibilities for A/B testing with sufficient data. Meanwhile, work is also being done behind the scenes to improve technical performance—bringing Trekhaakcentrum’s 5.0% benchmark within reach!
