How an Order Upgrade Boosted Conversion and Revenue Per Session for Bombshell Sports

So when Bombshell evaluated Onward, they didn't take the potential impact on faith. They ran a controlled experiment to find out exactly what would happen.

When they added Onward to their checkout flow, they didn't just protect their customers' orders. They improved the experience of buying. The result was a 2.81% lift in conversion rate and a 4.69% lift in revenue per session, validated through a two-month, 340,000-session A/B test run and verified by Intelligems.

The data is compelling on its own. But the mechanism behind it is what makes this story worth understanding.

The Bombshell Sports Test

Bombshell Sports is a women's activewear brand known for fashionable and functional gym clothes and workout outfits. Like many apparel brands, they have a customer base that cares about the quality of their experience from first click through delivery.

To get a definitive answer on the conversion question, Bombshell ran a controlled A/B test using Intelligems, a leading e-commerce experimentation platform. The test ran for two months, splitting traffic between two variants:

The "Onward Placement" variant: Shoppers saw the Onward order protection widget in a default-on state at checkout.

The "Control Group" variant: Shoppers checked out without the Onward widget present.

The setup was clean, the sample size was substantial, and the results were statistically significant.

The Results

The variant with Onward present at checkout outperformed the control on every metric that mattered.

Conversion Rate: The Onward variant produced a 2.81% lift in conversion rate compared to the control. Shoppers who saw the Onward widget completed their purchases at a meaningfully higher rate.

Revenue Per Session: The Onward variant also produced a 4.69% lift in revenue per session. More shoppers completed purchases, and those sessions generated more revenue on average.

Reorder Revenue: The impact extended beyond the initial transaction. Bombshell is now generating reorder revenue from approved Onward claims. When a claim is resolved, the customer places a new order, creating a second revenue event from what would otherwise have been a loss.

Taken together, these results make a compelling case. Order protection, when implemented thoughtfully, does not suppress conversion. It supports it.

Why This Works: The Order Upgrade Difference

Here's the question worth sitting with: how does adding a cost at checkout increase conversion rate?

The answer depends entirely on what that cost buys.

If a shopper sees a $3 fee for order protection and nothing else, the value exchange is ambiguous. They're paying for something they hope they'll never need. That framing can create hesitation, and hesitation creates friction.

Onward works differently. When a shopper opts in, they're not just purchasing protection. They're unlocking an order upgrade: CashBack rewards, a 90-day satisfaction guarantee, and the assurance that their order is fully covered. The value is real and immediate, not conditional on something going wrong.

That distinction changes the shopper's experience at checkout. Instead of weighing whether the protection is worth it, they're evaluating whether the upgrade is worth it. When the answer is yes, and Bombshell's data suggests it often is, the widget becomes a reason to complete the purchase, not a reason to hesitate.

This is what Onward means by an order upgrade rather than a traditional protection add-on. The value delivery isn't deferred to a claim event. It starts at checkout.

What This Means for Your Brand

Merchants who have spent time optimizing their checkout flow are cautious about introducing anything that might interrupt the path to purchase. The Bombshell results offer a useful example to show that when the value is clear and immediate, the dynamic changes.

While these results are specific to Bombshell, the underlying principle is consistent: when shoppers perceive genuine, immediate value, checkout additions can support conversion rather than suppress it. It’s important to remember that what drives lift for any individual brand will depend on how the experience is implemented and how well it resonates with their customers

A 2.81% lift in conversion rate and a 4.69% lift in revenue per session are outcomes that compound. Across hundreds of thousands of sessions, those percentages represent real revenue. The only way to know what they look like for your store is to run the test.