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How NerdCow used Hotjar to triple conversions for a client in two weeks
It took Tomasz Lisiecki, founder of web design agency NerdCow, only two weeks to identify why users weren’t converting on a client’s site and fix the issue.
🏆 300% increase in conversions
NerdCow’s partnership with Hotjar resulted in a 3X increase in conversions for its client, The Transport Library, an ecommerce business selling historic bus, rail, and maritime images.
Keep reading to find out how they did it. 👇
🛠 Tools
✏️ Tactics
Hotjar Recordings: for playbacks of actions taken by individual users navigating a site or product
Filtering session recordings to find frustration signals in journeys of users dropping off
Hotjar Surveys: for easy on-site and external surveys that enable businesses to hear from their customers directly
Setting up exit-intent surveys to determine why users abandon their carts and leave the site before converting
I watch recordings like Netflix. They show me things I would never think about, and I use them for inspiration on how to improve a website’s interface.
Problems identified
With multiple fields and filters, The Transport Library’s search bar was too complicated for its older user base
Users struggled to distinguish between products they’d already viewed and those they hadn’t seen yet, resulting in hours of aimless scrolling
Many users added products to their carts, but abandoned them before checkout
Solutions implemented
1. Building a simplified, streamlined search bar
Tomasz used Hotjar Recordings to confirm his hypothesis that The Transport Library’s site visitors struggled to find what they needed with its current search bar. The NerdCow team simplified the website’s search functionality by removing unnecessary fields, improving overall user experience (UX).
2. Adding an ‘Uploaded’ badge to newly listed products
Recordings revealed several people scrolling through the site’s product database for hours without clicking into any products. To find out why so few visitors clicked through to product pages, Tomasz set up an exit-intent survey with Hotjar Surveys' free template to ask them directly.
Results revealed that users struggled to find listings they hadn’t seen before—they couldn’t remember which they’d already viewed (and which they hadn’t) in The Transport Library’s massive database of 140,000+ images.
NerdCow added an ‘Uploaded’ badge to products released within the past week and an additional tag showing users which products they had already viewed.
Watching recordings and reading survey responses gave the NerdCow team the insights they needed to eliminate friction and increase conversions.
3. Setting up an abandoned cart email sequence
Recordings revealed another issue: while NerdCow’s website optimizations meant significantly more users added products to their carts, many still weren’t going through with their purchases. Tomasz launched another survey to find out why. The answer? They forgot.
NerdCow set up an abandoned cart sequence to email people who didn’t finish checking out and added a reminder to the website, so returning visitors would be alerted to items still in their cart.
🍿 Hotjar and chill
Tomasz and his team watch 15 minutes of session recordings every day to gather user-centric insights and get inspiration to build better websites for their clients. It’s called a Hotjar Watch Party—and anyone can host one.