#198 | Ethical CRO: How Better Experiments Build Trust, Retention & Revenue
Also: How Do You Experiment Offline?
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In this issue
Our latest episode: Ethical CRO: How Better Experiments Build Trust, Retention & Revenue
Community thread: How Do You Experiment Offline?
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Ethical CRO: How Better Experiments Build Trust, Retention & Revenue
Jon Crowder joins Tracy Laranjo to explain why ethical experimentation is not just better for customers—it is better for long-term growth. They unpack fake urgency, misleading pricing and subscription tactics, short-term A/B test wins that erode trust, and practical ways to design experiments that improve retention, lifetime value, and revenue.
Jon’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jc-awip
Jon’s agency website: https://www.anotherwebispossible.co.uk
Chapters:
0:00 Welcome & introducing Jon Crowder
1:29 Why ethical experimentation matters
2:17 The pressure to drive results at any cost
7:17 When winning an A/B test loses money long term
8:34 Reframing urgency into trust-building experiences
13:38 Choosing clients and setting ethical boundaries
16:37 The ethics of price testing
19:21 Fake sales, subscriptions & agency pressure
20:46 How to steer unethical tests into ethical ones
23:09 Have urgency and scarcity gone too far?
24:02 Why legacy businesses cling to outdated tactics
27:36 Gen Z, trust, and changing expectations
29:48 What an ethical future for digital experiences looks like
34:30 Brands that earn loyalty through values
38:27 Why ethical experiences convert better
40:15 A simple test for ethical experimentation
41:37 Where to find Jon
Community question of the week:
How Do You Experiment Offline?
Photo credit: Adobe Firefly
Experiment Nation’s Takeaways
Offline experiments require different statistical thinking. Unlike digital tests, in-store experiments often suffer from small sample sizes and require careful randomization at the store level to avoid misleading results.
Measurement is more complicated than it seems. Customers don’t always follow the intended path. Someone may see an in-store promotion but install the app later without scanning a QR code, so combining direct attribution with regional or store-level lift analysis can provide a more complete picture.
The same experimentation principles apply beyond digital. Organizations like Mastercard routinely test store layouts and other offline experiences, proving that rigorous experimentation can drive decisions in physical environments just as effectively as online.
An excerpt of the community discussion
Andrei S: Did anyone here run in-store (offline) experiments? I’m currently planning to take experimentation offline and I’m curious to learn how you went about it and if you found what you were looking for. Thank you!
Johan: It’s in a sense a bit like B2B experimentation, you run into sample size limitations (so you mostly learn about that there were no negative effects) and that you must be careful about randomization (if you randomize on a store level, either calculate metrics on the store level or do some clever clustering without tripping yourself) What kind of experimentation did you have in mind?
Andrei: Not final, but something along the lines of X% of stores to feature banners at the entrance with QR codes guiding people to download an app to see offers. The link would feature some UTMs so we know who downloaded the app via this channel & the main metric is.. total non-direct App downloads. I’m unsure of how to measure this in the best manner but we’re aiming to leverage stores to get more online customers. Any advice would be helpful!
Rommil Santiago: I have yes. Tested in-store SOPs for grocery stores - it was tricky because we had to pick comparable stores across many dimensions so that we could have a synthetic control. You ought to be mindful that folks may see the banner and download without scanning. so if you have a way to track installs by city/region that could give you some insight into the bigger impact of the effort.
Ishan Goel: Hey Andrei, I recently met Michael Paolini, VP of Test & Learn at Mastercard. They run a lot of offline experiments like testing out different store layouts. Also, Stefan Thomke’s Experimentation Works have a lot of stories of offline experiments that you can learn from.
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Jobs of the Week
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From the Community:
Senior Growth Experimentation specialist
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📍 Razorpay – MumbaiSenior Product Manager, B2B Growth
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