Watch the funnel.
Two pricing pages. One A/B test. Watch 27 visitors beat 12 in real time.
Spicom converted 12% of trial users to paid — well below benchmark. The old page was cluttered, plan differences were vague, trust signals were absent. The redesign moved the decision out of the pricing page and into the product. The simulator below replays the 90-day A/B test in three seconds.
- Role
- Product Designer · Research, design, rollout
- Scope
- Pricing & Billing · Conversion · Growth UX
- Timeline
- Mar 2023 – Jun 2023
- Team
- 1 PM · 2 eng · 1 designer (me)
Customers couldn't tell the plans apart.
Three billing toggles, vague feature descriptions, no money-back guarantee, no testimonials. Trial users were interested but unconvinced — they spent more time in the FAQ than reading the comparison.
Trial-user friction
“I like the free plan, but I don't understand why I should upgrade. What exactly am I getting for my money?”
Funnel friction
“55% of pricing-page visitors scrolled the page without engaging with any CTA — interested, but uncommitted.”
Three things blocked every conversion.
01
Plan differences were invisible.
Vague feature descriptions ('advanced support', 'premium features') told users nothing. 25% dropped off after viewing the comparison table.
02
Trust signals were missing.
No money-back guarantee, no testimonials, no transparent billing. B2B SaaS data shows 10–20% lift from visible trust signals — Spicom had zero.
03
Five plans created decision fatigue.
Successful competitors used 3–4 plans, side-by-side comparison, prominent trust signals. Five plans with overlapping features paralysed users.
Exhibit · the page Spicom shipped before
12% trial-to-paid
Pricing Plans
Choose the plan that's right for you
Free
$0
- Feature one
- Feature two
- Feature three
- Advanced support
- Premium features
Starter
$9
- Feature one
- Feature two
- Feature three
- Advanced support
- Premium features
Premium
$19
- Feature one
- Feature two
- Feature three
- Advanced support
- Premium features
Pro+
$49
- Feature one
- Feature two
- Feature three
- Advanced support
- Premium features
Enterprise
Custom
- Feature one
- Feature two
- Feature three
- Advanced support
- Premium features
Frequently Asked Questions
Three billing toggles. Five plans. Disclaimers louder than the offer. The pricing page was the funnel.
One axis. Three answers.
Three plans is the sweet spot. Five made users freeze; two felt insufficient. Three forces a clear hierarchy: entry · value · power.
- 01
Simplify to 3 clear plans.
Renamed to communicate purpose — Basic, Standard, Pro. Removed 3-month and 6-month toggles. Annual discount badge replaces a toggle.
- 02
Lead with side-by-side comparison.
Replaced bullet lists with a feature matrix. Hosting space became the primary axis — a single dimension users could read in one glance.
- 03
Reframe Free as a value gate.
Free got full theme installation and site testing. Only the custom domain was withheld. Upgrade trigger is launch — not deprivation.
- 04
Anchor every change to an A/B test.
Money-back guarantee, testimonials, transparent billing — each had a research insight behind it and a measurable hypothesis ahead.
Every change had a hypothesis and a measurable outcome.
Recruiter intuition would have asked for bigger headlines. The data asked for testimonials, money-back guarantees, and a premium trial. Each lifted conversion measurably; the table below is the full ledger.
Hypothesis
Trust signals near the CTA increase conversion.
Variant · Added testimonials + money-back guarantee inside the Pro card. Removed FAQ section above pricing.
+18%trial-to-paidHypothesis
Soft paywall outperforms hard paywall.
Variant · Removed the 'card to start' requirement on Free signup. Card requested at upgrade intent only.
+47%trial-to-paidHypothesis
Three plans beat five.
Variant · Collapsed Basic / Standard / Pro / Pro+ / Custom into Free / Pro / Business. Realigned to capability axis.
+21%conversion · +29% comprehensionHypothesis
Premium trial reduces post-conversion churn.
Variant · Pro plan auto-includes a 7-day premium trial. Email reminder day 6.
−18%churn · +20% MRR
14
Variants tested
4
Variants shipped
2.25×
A/B winner margin
Six stages. One decision.
The redesign moved the decision out of the pricing page and into the product. Step through the moment as a merchant would — limit, soft paywall, plan compare, trust, card form, welcome.
Stores
You've reached your store limit.
Free plan includes 1 store. Add another store to scale. See plans
Stage 01 · Design decision
The trigger lives in the user's flow.
Limits appear inside the dashboard the user already opened — not on a marketing page they have to navigate to. The upgrade story starts where the work happens.
Trial-to-paid more than doubled.
Tracked over the first 90 days post-launch through analytics, in-product surveys, and revenue dashboards.
Hero metric
Trial-to-paid conversion lift
12% → 27% over the 90-day post-launch window. Same acquisition spend, same traffic. The page changed; the funnel converted.
+35%
Time on pricing page
users were thinking
+40%
Plan-selection CTA clicks
−18%
Churn rate
+20%
Monthly recurring revenue
2.25×
A/B test margin
redesign vs control
Stakeholder · 90-day retro
“This redesign had an immediate impact — we've never seen this level of conversion before. It's now our benchmark for future product changes.”
Four lessons that traveled with me.
- 01
Trust signals near the CTA outperformed every visual hierarchy change we tested. Recruiter intuition would have asked for bigger headlines; data asked for testimonials.
- 02
The 7-day premium trial reduced both pre-conversion hesitation AND post-conversion churn. Letting users feel the value before buying is the most under-used SaaS pattern.
- 03
Three plans is the sweet spot. Five made users freeze; two felt insufficient. Three forces a clear hierarchy: entry · value · power.
- 04
Tracking time-on-page alongside conversion is essential. Time went up AND conversion went up — proving users were thinking, not bouncing.