Profit Margin Should Be Your Most Important KPI: How a CRO Program Can Protect Your Margins and Build Unique Experiences

Business doesn’t like uncertainty. With limited ability to plan, businesses need a way to take control of their strategy and funnel user behavior toward outcomes that benefit the bottom line. Simply raising prices is not going to work, and jacking up the sticker cost might even have the opposite result and end up alienating someone who was once a loyal customer. 

We believe implementing an analytic-backed CRO program is the best strategic response to margin pressure.  

The best CRO programs operate from a consultative model where the SI accounts for an organization’s most strategically significant KPIs, whether it is conversion rate, AOV, or revenue per user, and uses tools and expertise to build experiences that funnel users toward interactions that improve that KPI.  

We recommend tooling a CRO program to target product’s margins. Identify products that have low margin and high margin and create experiences that bundle and promote these products to encourage user interaction with them. This method protects your margin, offers new experiences to customers, and doesn’t risk the fallout of raising every product’s price by 25%.  

Here are 8 CRO experiments that respond to tariff impacts by creating experiences designed to target product’s profit margins. 

A/B Test How Product Price Increase is Presented 

Test different price presentation strategies. Customers are more receptive to pricing shifts when they feel informed and treated fairly. 

Experiment Idea: A/B test messaging like “Includes $4 import cost” vs. “Free shipping” to see which yields more conversions.  

Combine Different Margined Items in Bundles 

High-margin bundles can neutralize per-item margin hits. By combining fast-moving SKUs with profitable ones, you grow AOV and maintain profitability without blanket price hikes. 

Experiment Idea: Create Tariff-themed bundles containing domestically sourced items. 

Elevate UX and Content 

Experiment with product storytelling, scarcity signals (“imported stock running low”), and high-converting content that reframes value. When customers believe in the product, they are willing to pay more. 

Experiment Idea: A website that performs well, looks excellent, and has unique and exciting content suggests itself as high value making sticker shock less pronounced. Investing in the experience of a website justifies higher costs.  

Use Transparency as a Trust Builder 

Customers value honesty. Test subtle messaging around cost increases due to tariffs. Done well, it can increase brand affinity and reduce abandonment. 

Experiment Idea: Add a line of text in a flyover notification when products are added to cart that say something like: “Due to global import fees, you might notice slight adjustments. We will be monitoring the situation and will adjust prices accordingly when applicable.” 

A/B Test Discount Mechanics 

Test fixed vs. percentage discounts, first-time vs. repeat buyer promotions, or tiered offers based on spend. Optimize perceived value, not just the bottom-line cost. 

Experiment Idea: Run a sale on a product with fixed discount for a week then run a sale on the same product with percentage discount equal to the fixed discount amount for week. Compare which numerical presentation resulted in more conversion. 

Create Conversion Opportunities around Subscription and Loyalty Models 

Push toward recurring revenue. Subscription models not only increase LTV but can also insulate your business from short-term tariff impacts by improving predictability and customer stickiness. 

A CRO experiment around onboarding or upselling to subscription can unlock major retention gains. 

Experiment Idea: Implement a promotional banner on every page that prompts customers to sign up for a loyalty or rewards program. Removing friction from customer engagement improves conversion. 

Streamline Checkout  

Now’s the time to reduce friction. A/B test simplified forms, payment options, or one-click upsells to convert more of your existing traffic without increasing acquisition costs. 

Experiment Idea: Implement a one-page checkout flow and document if conversion rates increase.  

Redirect Demand to Low-Tariff Inventory 

Have SKUs that aren’t tariff-impacted? Promote them through curated collections, home page features, or targeted offers. CRO experiments can help you shift attention and demand away from high-cost imports. 

Experiment Idea: Create a special tab in the navigational megamenu for “Made in the USA” items. It isn’t necessary to indicate they are lower cost, but instead create a theme that encourages users to engage with products that yield higher margin  

These experiments aren’t just optimizing for clicks or conversion but are calibrated around profitability per session, margin per visitor, and AOV.  

For our clients, we’re increasingly running A/B and multivariate tests that connect directly to margin outcomes. Whether it’s pricing sensitivity, bundling strategy, or on-site messaging, we believe CRO initiatives should support the current realities of commerce 

If you’re navigating pricing strategy in a tariff-heavy environment, we’d love to show you how CRO can help protect your margin. 

Contact us today to talk to one of our CRO experts about how to start a program.