# Module 03 — The CRO Program
## 90-day conversion roadmap for sundayred.com

**Prepared by:** Slice of the Pie Marketing · Jim Smith · jim@sliceofthepiemarketing.com · (503) 539-7059
**Built on:** Module 02 site audit (audit.md) — every hypothesis below is tied to a finding observed on sundayred.com, Aug 1, 2026.
**Promise discipline:** expected directions are qualitative; any range shown is labeled illustrative. No uplift percentages are promised before a clean baseline exists.

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## From findings to program

The audit graded nine areas: Merchandising & Stock **D**, PDP Conversion **C-**, Cart & Checkout **D**, Email/SMS Capture **C**, Trust & Policy **B-**, Content Ops **C**, SEO Hygiene **B**, Performance **Pending**, Site Search **Pending** (both unobservable remotely; graded live in the meeting).

The program works the board in payback order: D-grades first (largest leaks, mostly low-effort), trust and retention gaps second, then a compounding test engine. If the live Core Web Vitals run fails, performance work is inserted at the top of Phase 1.

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## The Fix Stack — three phases

### Phase 1 — Stop the bleeding (Weeks 1–3)
Low-effort, high-leak fixes:
- **In-stock-first sorting** on collection pages; OOS demoted with waitlist chips (audit fix #1: 6 of first 8 polos OOS at the top of "Best Match").
- **PDP Klarna line** — "4 interest-free payments of $28.75" under the $115 price (fix #4: Klarna live at checkout for $35–$1,000 carts, invisible upstream — sundayred.com/klarna.html).
- **Cart rescue** — recommendations row, Continue Shopping, trust + payment strip on the dead-end empty cart (fix #7).
- **Incentivized welcome offer** on existing email/SMS capture (fix #5; offer economics agreed with the SDR team first).
- **Restock / demand-planning escalation** to buying (fix #2) — the one lever no website change replaces.

**Exit criteria:** no shopper lands on dead stock first; Klarna visible at the decision point; cart has recovery paths; capture has a reason to say yes.

### Phase 2 — Build trust (Weeks 4–8)
Proof and reassurance layer:
- **Reviews program launch** (fix #3): platform selection, post-purchase collection flows seeded from the existing waitlist/back-in-stock audience, PDP display module, review schema staged.
- **Free-returns merchandising** at the ATC — "30-day free returns · prepaid FedEx label" (their real policy per sundayred.com/returns, currently invisible on PDP; fix #6).
- **Free-shipping progress bar** toward $150 in cart and mini-cart (fix #8).
- Policy advisory: refund-speed / instant-exchange upgrade path (fix #9); content-ops freshness cadence (fix #10).

**Exit criteria:** first reviews live on PDPs; every trust asset the brand already owns is visible at the moment of decision.

### Phase 3 — Compound (Weeks 9–13)
The test engine takes over:
- **A/B testing program goes live** — the 8-test roadmap below, run against the clean baseline captured in weeks 1–2.
- Structured-data completion (fix #11) once reviews exist to mark up (Product / Offer / AggregateRating).
- Backlog re-ranked every two weeks on observed results; every shipped fix generates follow-on test candidates.
- Performance and site-search work slotted here or earlier, pending the live-meeting runs (fix #12).

**Exit criteria:** a running experimentation cadence with guardrails — the store improves on evidence from week 13 onward.

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## 90-day A/B testing roadmap (8 tests)

| # | Test & hypothesis (audit citation) | Primary metric | Secondary | Min runtime | Expected direction |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| T1 | **In-stock-first PLP sort vs. "Best Match".** 6 of first 8 polos were OOS at the top of default sort (Merchandising, D); buyable-first lifts grid engagement. | PLP → PDP CTR | PLP-sourced CVR, bounce | 2 weeks / full biz cycle | ↑ CTR, ↑ CVR |
| T2 | **PDP Klarna line ("4 × $28.75") vs. none.** Klarna live at checkout, unmerchandised on PDP (PDP, C-); pay-in-4 at the price reduces sticker hesitation on a $115–$145 ask. | Add-to-cart rate | CVR, AOV, Klarna share | 3 weeks | ↑ ATC |
| T3 | **Free-returns badge at ATC vs. none.** 30-day free returns w/ prepaid FedEx label is real but invisible on PDP (Trust, B-). | PDP → order CVR | ATC rate, return rate (guardrail) | 3 weeks | ↑ CVR |
| T4 | **Welcome offer: first-order incentive vs. early-access-only.** Capture currently has no incentive at all (Email/SMS, C). Offer tiers (e.g., 10% vs. access-only) are *illustrative* planning bands, not promises. | Email/SMS capture rate | Welcome-flow revenue per recipient, margin (guardrail) | 2 weeks | ↑ capture |
| T5 | **Free-ship progress bar in cart vs. static banner.** $150 threshold sits above every single-polo price with no progress merchandising (Cart, D). | AOV | % orders ≥ $150, cart abandonment | 3 weeks | ↑ AOV |
| T6 | **PDP reviews module vs. control** (runs once Phase 2 has a displayable review base). Zero social proof at a premium price (PDP, C-). | PDP → order CVR | Time on PDP, return rate | 4 weeks | ↑ CVR |
| T7 | **Cart recommendations row vs. none (with items).** Cart has no cross-sell surface (Cart, D); "Pairs Well With" logic already exists on PDP. | AOV | Units per order, RPV | 3 weeks | ↑ AOV |
| T8 | **OOS PDP: waitlist + in-stock alternatives rail vs. waitlist only.** Flagship Icon Polo II unbuyable in all 7 colors with waitlist as the only path (Merchandising, D). | Revenue per OOS-PDP session | Waitlist signup rate (guardrail — must not drop), exit rate | 3 weeks | ↑ RPV |

### Test-design notes
- **Sequential vs. parallel:** different funnel surfaces run in parallel (T1 on PLP alongside T2/T3 on PDP); same-surface tests run sequentially, or multivariate only if traffic supports it. Never overlapping treatments on the same element.
- **Runtime discipline:** minimums are floors; tests run whole weeks (full business cycles) to pre-registered sample size. No peeking-based early stops.
- **Sample-size reality:** final ordering depends on actual GA4 session volume per surface — verify live. Lower-traffic surfaces (cart) may need longer windows or larger minimum detectable effects.
- **Guardrails:** return rate (T3, T6), margin per order (T4), waitlist capture (T8), and sitewide CVR on every test — a primary win that damages a guardrail is a loss.
- **Pre-registration:** hypothesis, primary metric, runtime, and stopping rule written before launch. Results reported win/lose/flat — flat still retires a question.

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## Measurement

| KPI | Definition | Role |
|---|---|---|
| **CVR** | orders ÷ sessions | Headline metric, read per-surface (PLP-sourced, PDP-sourced) and sitewide so wins are attributable |
| **AOV** | revenue ÷ orders | Target of the free-ship bar, cart recs, and Klarna tests; watched against $150 attach rate |
| **RPV** | revenue ÷ visitors | Tie-breaker — CVR and AOV can trade against each other; RPV says whether the store got better |
| **Capture rate** | signups ÷ unique visitors | Top of the retention engine; read with welcome-flow revenue per recipient, never alone |

**Baseline plan:** weeks 1–2 capture a clean, annotated 2-week baseline for all four KPIs before any Phase-1 change ships. Some baselines (surface-level CVR splits, capture rate, checkout funnel steps) require GA4 and platform access — **verify live in the meeting**. Where history is dirty or missing, we baseline forward and say so.

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## Sources & methods

- Module 02 site audit — all findings from sundayred.com rendered-page fetches, Aug 1, 2026 (PLP, PDP, cart, checkout, returns, klarna.html, mobile-messaging-program.html, robots.txt, sitemaps, giftcards, help.sundayred.com)
- Klarna — official Sun Day Red store page (Pay in 4 terms, $35–$1,000 carts)
- Semrush, US database, July 2026 data month (traffic context for surface prioritization)
- Slice of the Pie testing playbook (pre-registration, full-cycle runtimes, guardrail metrics)

**Verify live in the meeting:** GA4/analytics access (baselines, sample-size math, test ordering); Core Web Vitals runs (a fail re-ranks performance into Phase 1); on-site search walkthrough; welcome popup, guest checkout, express pays; existing testing-tool and consent setup on Salesforce Commerce Cloud.

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*Next module: SEO + AIEO (seo.md). Previous: Site Audit (audit.md).*
*Slice of the Pie Marketing · Salem, Oregon · calendly.com/sliceofthepie/slice-of-the-pie-intro-call*