Tweaks and hacks be damned… if you really care about your user, think empathy. Conversion rate optimisation in 2025 is about minimising friction, deeply understanding what customers value about your product, creating intuitive and exciting journeys, and designing with empathy. A key step for brands is asking themselves: Is it easy? Is it fun? Does it understand me? Jon Crowder, Digital Experience Director – who leads a team of UX specialists and CRO developers at Journey Further – gave a clear example recently at our Discovered. event: a popular fashion brand we’re working with found that sizing worries was stopping users from converting. But it’s deeper than just telling people the size of a blouse or jeans. Customers weren’t asking, “Is the size right?” They were asking, “Will this fit me?” The fix wasn’t just creating more sizing charts and hoping users figure it out for themselves. We instead worked out how to make it easier for customers to contextually work out if the item would actually fit but using imagery, references, semantic cues and context. This approach has since become commonplace, but at the time was modern experimentation: using a deep understanding of the user and their needs, and then experimenting with dynamic ways to communicate. At our latest event, Jon Crowder, Sandeep Shah (Head of Product at AB testing and personalisation tool Webtrends Optimize), and Sam Fogwill (Director of Partnerships at Digital Experience Software Company FullStory) broke down why this is so important, and where you can start.

1. Most websites have friction that they don’t even know about

“31% of users experience some kind of problem on-site, and 14% leave because of it”, according to Sam at FullStory. From rage clicks and scroll loops to broken forms and dead-end navigation, your site is full of hidden blockers that you’re not necessarily seeing in Google Analytics. In traditional analytics setups, that’s just a person who disappears somewhere along the way, with no signal to tell you how or why. Fullstory helps users with full capture of all on-site behavioural data and session replay to surface those silent signals. Start with mobile (which often is first-touch, consideration phase, new customers where most friction is likely to show up) and look for frustration and high-exit areas. Then quantify the business impact: what’s that busted journey costing you…? Fixing just a single broken journey could pay for a CRO programme for over a decade.

2. The generic homepage problem

“Your website isn’t doing the job on its own.” Sandeep Shah from Webtrends Optimize pointed out a huge problem: websites often dump users in a sea of products without any help. “Marketers just expect the website to do its job,” he said. “But the same way your first marketing campaign isn’t the campaign you run forever, we need to guide people: show bestsellers, personalise based on behaviour, reduce noise. Especially when your offering is wide, for example homeware and fashion, it’s not possible to design one homepage that does it all flawlessly.” You wouldn’t send a Megadeth fan and a Kendrick Lamar fan the same playlist and say “It’s music, what’s the problem?” Why give them the same landing page? Your campaigns are segmented, and you know that your audiences are nuanced. But websites are still treating everyone in the same way, as though they have the same journey, same intent and same process. But this mismatch can kill conversions! Your homepage (and beyond) needs to reflect who users are, what they came for, and what they’ve told you through their behaviour. Anything less creates a disconnect and drop-off.

3. Trust the power of the micro-conversion: Track the signals before the sale.

Not every conversion looks like a home page change that makes a user checkout way downstream. According to Jon, key actions like advancing past a form step or engaging with a product are hugely important. They show intent, and they’re optimisable. If you’re personalising, that’s data you’ve got right there, and you can do incredible things with data. Map out the micro conversions in your user journey. These are the breadcrumbs that lead to revenue.

4. You’re not using AI properly… yet.

AI is everywhere… We’re hearing it absolutely constantly, but many teams don’t know how to apply it to user experience, or they fear it’ll replace human judgement. Sandeep called AI a powerful assistant: great for surfacing insights, writing code, and empowering leaner teams. Sam added that Fullstory’s Story AI helps make sense of user behaviour, empowering analysts to deliver more meaningful insight, faster. Jon explained that “Once we understand intent signals, you can do incredible things, like offer just the right nudge at just the right moment, instead of relying on brand-wide deals and discounting that kill long-term profitability.” And it’s clear that the hype around AI is mixed, and business users feel different about it at work than consumers do in their day-to-day lives. Jon said: “The more we use AI for things, the more human we must be with our users. They want a real connection. If they think you’ve outsourced thinking about them or talking to them to a machine, you will lose them.” The absolutely important thing to remember is that you need to use an authentic human voice, and human brain, to make business decisions.

So where to start on Monday:

You can create a Fullstory account, for free, right now and start understanding your users better. You can create a Webtrends Optimize account, free for 30 days, and start experimenting right now. Don’t know where to start? Journey Further’s Jon Crowder is offering a free 45 minute consultation to help you build a better website or app. Stop guessing.

Sandeep’s advice: “Start with the 90%+ who don’t convert. Segment by campaign. Use the data – it’ll tell you what’s broken.” Sam added: “Be humble. Your website may not be as clear as you think. Accept that, and you can start improving it.”

If you’re thinking of CRO as a series of quick wins, or worse, if you’re not thinking about it at all… You’re missing the point. It’s a long-term mindset that combines data, empathy and experimentation with a shared goal across your whole marketing ecosystem.

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