Sam's Fitness Australia x FERO
From eBay listings to a polished mobile checkout: how Sam's Fitness Australia achieved a 16% checkout conversion uplift with FERO.
“I was shocked about the mobile conversions.”
Meet Sam's Fitness Australia
Sam's Fitness Australia is an Australian distributor that sells heavy-duty home and commercial gym equipment, including weight benches, power racks, barbells, dumbbells, and multi-station fitness machines. The business began in the early days of online shopping, before the website even had a shopping cart, and it started out selling on eBay.
The Challenge
"When I started the business, my website didn't even have a shopping cart! Online shopping was relatively new, and I started on eBay."
Selling bulky fitness equipment made even the basics hard. Freight was calculated by weight and postcode, and the first shopping cart couldn't handle that.
"With my first shopping cart, freight calculations were always an issue. Selling bulky goods where freight was calculated by weight and post code was tricky on very basic shopping carts. Most customers would contact us directly and we would process the transaction offline."
The business grew and the checkout improved, but it never became a priority. Sam knew it wasn't optimised, and like many owners, never had the time to investigate.
"Yes I knew our checkout was not optimised, but like other business owners, I never had time to investigate. There were many other issues I had to deal with that were affecting sales."
The existing checkout was a styled, off-the-shelf plugin. It did the job, but nobody could say how much it was costing in lost sales.
The Experiment
What made FERO an easy yes was the offer to prove itself first.
"What I liked most about FERO when I started was the fact that they were prepared to trial for free and let the data support their product."
FERO ran an A/B test over two weeks, splitting traffic between the existing checkout and FERO Smart Checkout. Beyond the dashboard, Sam could see the evidence directly.
"The A/B test results do require some trust, but the checkout appearance on mobile especially was much clearer and cleaner. Plus we could see the sales coming in through the FERO checkout supporting the claims."
An adaptive checkout engine that uses predictive AI to automatically adjust, showing the right design, layout, or payment option based on the shopper's behaviour. It integrates easily with ecommerce platforms and can be deployed in under 10 minutes.
The Results
The A/B test delivered a 16% uplift in checkout conversion for Sam's Fitness Australia. Mobile stood out above all.
"I was shocked about the mobile conversions."
Why It Worked
Sam points to polish and clarity, especially on mobile, where the FERO checkout looked cleaner and was easier to follow.
"The checkout is just so much more polished. Our old checkout was a styled off the shelf plugin. It did the trick, but I imagine so much more time and effort has been invested in the FERO version."
More Than Just Performance
A few issues surfaced during the trial, as they do with any new integration. What mattered was how they were handled.
"During the trial period we discovered a few issues, but the FERO support team got them sorted quickly. There were constant updates so you knew how the issue was progressing."
For a business owner already stretched thin, that visibility meant one less thing to chase.
