The Forward Bar: four months of a CRO program
FollowThru started working with The Forward Bar in late May 2026. From March through May, the site converted 3.0% of sessions. From June through September it averaged 4.25%, and every one of those months beat the site's previous best (3.8% in February).
Revenue per session rose 57%. Between June and September, sessions fell 10% while orders rose 21% and revenue rose 18%.
The returning customer rate was 15 to 20% in spring and 39% in September. Subscription and repeat orders grew faster than first orders.
Conversion rate stayed at 4% or higher for four straight months while the business grew.
The problem
Paid traffic was growing, but the site converted about 3 in 100 sessions. With 80% of visits on mobile, shoppers had to work to find the bars and work again to learn what they were buying.
The insight
The visitors who reached the product were interested. Products sat below the homepage fold, the product page's first mobile screen named the brand but not the bar, and the mobile menu wasn't built around what the store sells. Each step lost people who were ready to buy.
Example changes
We audited the site and its tracking, ranked fixes by impact and effort, then tested and shipped them one at a time:
- Homepage
- Product page
- Mobile menu
- Data & research
What we built and what we saw
| Change | Result |
|---|---|
| Conversion tracking: lead and appointment events on every page | Pages compared on the same terms for the first time |
| Pricing and availability button in the hero | #1 tapped element on mobile |
| Photo tour of every space | Most attention on the page (attention map) |
| FAQs on dates and reserving one | Most FAQ taps on date availability and reserving a date |
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