The Challenge

Ernest Jones noticed an increase in online shoppers engaging with products but not adding to basket. This suggested a growing segment of their audience wasn’t ready to purchase. The visitors were engaged, but hesitated when it came to checking out, so they exited the site without taking any consequential action.

Rather than letting them abandon entirely, the team wanted to offer a lower-commitment action to keep them moving. This shopper hesitation is common across premium and considered categories. Leading only with conversion tactics means teams risk missing out on long-term value.

Many ecommerce teams face this same gap. They treat all visitors as purchase-ready, but many shoppers would benefit from softer, more flexible next steps. Without intent, these needs go unseen, and valuable visitors are lost. Ernest Jones had another idea.

The Hypothesis

By presenting an alternative option to visitors who do not have high intent to purchase, we would increase engagement and make them more likely to come back to buy in the future.

The team believed that by guiding these visitors toward a lower-commitment action, like saving a product for later, they could maintain engagement and increase future purchase likelihood. Intent segmentation would allow them to do this precisely, rather than guessing who to target or distracting those who are ready to purchase.

With Intent, they also wanted to differentiate between those who simply needed time and those who had no interest, triggering only for the right group. And it makes sense why they would. In our The Intent Gap report, 78% of online shoppers told us they browse online stores casually. This supports the need for lower-pressure next steps for those not yet ready to convert.

The Solution

Ernest Jones used our AI agent to identify and prioritise the Build Struggle and Maintain Struggle segments. Our framework defines these as engaged visitors who have demonstrated product interest but are now showing signs of struggle, such as revisiting PLPs, hovering without progressing or navigating back and forth.

For these visitors, a simple prompt introduced the Save For Later feature as a softer next step. Deployed using their existing Bloomreach setup, it presented hesitant shoppers with a next step besides exiting the site, without pushing them to make a purchase they weren’t ready for. It was only shown to those exhibiting the right behaviours, ensuring it supported rather than distracted.

The Impact

Without Intent, hesitant visitors early in their purchase journey had the same experience as high-intent buyers, leading to unnecessary drop-off and missed engagement opportunities.

With Intent, the Ernest Jones team surfaced a softer call to action for the right users, adding engagement and impact without adding inappropriate pressure.

Key Results: 9% increase in conversion rate

This Play proves that encouraging softer actions, such as save for later lists, at the right time can lead to revenue. By offering appropriate next steps, Ernest Jones created a more considerate experience for visitors in the earlier stages of their purchase journey, finding new growth in the process.

The team is now exploring how to apply this logic to other discovery tools, such as product finders and recommendation blocks.

Not every visitor is ready to buy, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t or can’t support them. With real-time intent, retailers can adapt experiences to help visitors progress in ways that match their mindsets.

Want to give your hesitant buyers a better next step? Explore more about Discovery with Intent.