Pro Conversion Research: UK vs US 

Executive Summary


The end-to-end conversion rate for Pro (i.e. /upgrade (or /pro) to Pro sub) is ~5% lower in UK as compared to the US (8.5% in UK vs 13.1% in US - Source: Pro web funnel conversion rates in EMEA). 

This may be due to a number of reasons: 
  • Dropbox Pro may be too expensive for UK users. The majority of Pro users are wealthy. 58% of them make over $100k per year (Source:Pro 101). In the US more than 20% of the population has an annual income (pre-taxes) greater than $100k per year (Source: census.gov). In the UK the % of population making the same amount of money (£70k per year pre-taxes) is less than 5% (Source: gov.uk). 
  • UK Basic users may store on average less content on Dropbox than US users and are therefore less likely to upgrade (87% of people who buy Pro do so because they need more space.  - Source: Research what do new Pro subs think).
  • People who use Dropbox for work and have a VAT number (e.g. freelancers or business owners) need the VAT and the name of the company on the invoices in order to have the VAT refunded from the government. EU law might be stricter than the US law on this.
  • 27% of Pro customers are freelancers or sole-proprietors. Source: Pro 101
  • UK traffic to /pro may be less qualified than in the US. 
  • Dropbox speed. Dropbox is slower outside of the US.  

Further research can help to better understand the reasons behind gap.

What info do we want to collect with further research? 
  • Objections:
  • Feedback from users who leave problem pages (high drop-off rate)
  • Differences between UK and US abandoners
  • What is Dropbox missing to be the home of all of their files? Why do they prefer using hard drives and alternative online file storage systems? 
  • How do people compare Pro vs alternatives?
  • Insights into price sensitivity for UK users
  • Frictions:
  • What elements of the site are confusing to UK users?
  • Hooks:
  • Differences between UK and US new purchasers  
  • What other drivers besides space stimulate purchase? 
  • Levers: 
  • Is the UK traffic to /pro less qualified than in the US?

How do we want to collect it? 
  • Objections people have to purchasing:
  • User studies
  • Pop-under survey/poll on problem pages
  • Emails to existing users who visit /upgrade and don’t convert
  • Frictions
  • Remote usability testing
  • Hooks:
  • User studies
  • Asking purchasers after they have bought in a survey/poll (e.g. on a thank you page), email or phone call
  • Levers: 
  • How is the traffic split by source in UK vs US?

This will help us to run new experiments and try to reduce the conversion gap between UK and US. 

Where are users dropping off? 



US visitors numbers by step
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UK visitors numbers by step
UK % Proceed to next step
Difference
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