SPOTLIGHT ON INTENT
Conversio use Made With Intent to Help Finisterre Uncover 20.51% Uplift for Ready-to-Buy Shoppers
Beth Hodge and Paul Wilkins
Head of Client Strategy / CEO
From Page Optimisation to Customer Understanding: What Finisterre’s Intent Trial Revealed
Finisterre is a premium outdoor brand built on purpose. Every product, from technical rain jackets to recycled knitwear, is designed to solve a problem and built to last. Their ecommerce site reflects that ethos: considered, detailed, and rich with product storytelling.
Conversio is a specialist CRO agency that works with brands like Ocado, Sephora and Edyn. Their approach is built around customer progression, using data, insight and continuous experimentation to design experiences that guide rather than pressure. Down-to-earth conversion rate experts with a focus on validating decisions responsibly, not just chasing uplift.
When Conversio started using Made With Intent's platform as part of their work with Finisterre, they asked a different question: how is this carefully crafted product content best supporting customers, and at what stage of their journey does it create the most value?
The answer challenged widely held assumptions about how PDPs are typically structured.
The Assumption
Open any product page in ecommerce and you'll see the same thing. Product description front and centre. Features. Materials. Care instructions. All open by default, all prioritised as if they're driving the sale.
It's standard practice. And nobody questions it.
Finisterre's PDPs were no different. Detailed product copy sat open alongside the add-to-basket button, taking priority on every page, for every visitor. The assumption: this content plays a critical role in driving progression.
"We're all assuming this is best practice. But when was the last time anyone actually validated it?" Beth Hodge, Head of Client Strategy, Conversio
The problem is, without understanding who's actually reading that content and whether it's helping them, you're just following industry norms. Finisterre's product storytelling is strong. The question wasn’t whether it was valuable, but whether its default presentation and prominence were aligned with different customer mindsets.
Finding 1: For the majority, product copy isn't adding value current content prioritisation wasn’t influencing progression
77% of visitors arrived at the PDP with low intent. For these visitors, collapsing product copy had minimal impact. They were no more or less likely to build intent or convert.
That's a meaningful finding.
Brands like Finisterre invest significant time, technical expertise, and care into crafting product information. It reflects deep product knowledge and a commitment to transparency. Precisely because of that investment, it becomes essential to understand how that content is best deployed.
For over three quarters of visitors in a low-intent state, the current prioritisation and format of that content wasn’t progressing their journey.
"We cannot attribute progression impact to this content for the majority of visitors. The opportunity is to better align it with customer readiness." - Beth Hodge, Head of Client Strategy, Conversio
The opportunity isn’t to remove rich product storytelling, but to consider how and when it is surfaced to create the greatest impact.
Finding 2: For high-intent visitors, default-open copy introduced friction
~9% of visitors showed clear signals of high intent. These are the most valuable visitors on the site. People who've already decided they're interested and are looking for speed, clarity and efficiency to convert.
For this segment, collapsing product copy improved conversion for this segment by 20.51%.
For customers who had already built conviction, large blocks of open content alongside the primary action introduced unnecessary cognitive load. When collapsed (but still accessible) their path to purchase became clearer.
"These customers are already invested. At that point, the experience should prioritise clarity and pace. It’s not about reducing brand storytelling, it’s about presenting it in a way that supports their readiness state." - Beth Hodge, Head of Client Strategy, Conversio
The Bigger Picture
The immediate recommendation for Finisterre is straightforward: collapse product info as standard. There's no risk to the majority and a clear upside for the most valuable segment.
But for Conversio, the real takeaway goes deeper. Product pages across ecommerce are still designed around assumed best practice rather than validated customer needs. The same content, in the same format, served to everyone regardless of where they are in their journey.
This test reinforces that the format and prioritisation of content should reflect customer readiness, rather than relying on inherited design conventions.
"This isn't just about showing or hiding a bit of copy. It's about what the customer actually needs at that moment, and how we should be serving content based on where they are in their journey." - Beth Hodge, Head of Client Strategy, Conversio
For Finisterre, the next steps are about evolving the PDP experience by readiness state. Understanding the mindset of different intent levels. Designing for how customers arrive, what their true goals are, and recognising that a visitor browsing for the first time needs something fundamentally different from one who's ready to buy.
Conversio is already planning the next phase: moving beyond static content decisions to adaptive, intent-led experiences that better support both Finisterre’s brand investment and the needs of customers at different stages of readiness.
+20.51%
conversion uplift for high-intent visitors
77%
of visitors arrived at the PDP with low intent
60%
of people build an affinity with a product
How do we leverage intent in the bigger picture?
Sold on intent? Its pretty powerful stuff.
The combination of captured behavioural analytics data supplemented with real-time behavioural intent can drive insight, experimentation and personalisation to meet your customers where they are at.
Still got questions? Speak to Beth.
Our Head of Client Strategy knows here onions. Luckily, she also know an awful lot about this stuff so reach out and book a chat.
What problem was Conversio trying to solve for Finisterre?
Conversio aimed to understand whether Finisterre’s product page structure was helping or hindering customers at different stages of their buying journey. Using insights from the Made With Intent platform, they analysed how shoppers interacted with product information and whether too much visible content was creating friction for high-intent visitors. The experiment tested a simplified layout where detailed information was collapsed but still accessible. This helped identify how content presentation affects progression toward purchase, enabling Finisterre to optimise the experience based on customer intent rather than assumptions.
How does Conversio’s approach differ from standard ecommerce optimisation?
Rather than simply chasing short-term uplift, Conversio’s method focuses on customer progression, understanding where visitors are in their decision journey and what kind of experience helps them move forward. In the Finisterre trial, this meant questioning common assumptions about product page layouts and using data to tailor content based on intent signals. The result is optimisation grounded in validated customer needs rather than generic “best practice.”
Can the insights from this Finisterre case study apply to other ecommerce brands?
Yes. Although this case was specific to Finisterre, the underlying principle (serving content in a way that respects different customer mindsets) is broadly relevant. Many ecommerce sites present the same information in the same format to all visitors. By using behavioural and intent data to understand when and how content influences decisions, brands can design experiences that reduce friction for ready-to-buy customers while still educating those earlier in their journey. Conversio’s approach helps brands make these data-driven decisions across product pages and beyond.
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