Together, we focused on understanding buyer intent, longer consideration cycles, and how to better introduce the brand to new audiences globally, turning e-commerce into a scalable, continually improving direct-to-consumer channel.
Alex Jeffrey, Global Head of Digital Experience, Brompton
Brompton Bicycles is an iconic British brand, handcrafting premium folding bikes in London since the 1970s. Known for its clever design, engineering excellence, and loyal community of riders, Brompton combines heritage with innovation.
Internally, the brand’s belief in its product runs deep, from welders on the factory floor to engineers and marketers shaping the future of urban mobility.
While Brompton’s reputation was strong in London and established cycling markets, the business recognised an opportunity to better translate that product brilliance to international audiences online. As commuting habits evolved post-pandemic and retail dynamics shifted, e-commerce emerged as a strategically important channel, offering greater control, stronger margins, and long-term growth potential.
At this stage, conversion rate optimisation (CRO) was the major digital lever being used to drive growth, making it essential that experimentation delivered both clarity and commercial confidence.
Brompton’s challenge wasn’t a lack of demand or product quality; it was one of translation.
Outside of core markets, many potential customers struggled to fully understand the breadth of the range, the differences between product lines, and which bike was right for them. Behavioural data showed hesitation on product pages and slower progression through the funnel, while user testing revealed uncertainty rather than disinterest.
Additional complexity came from the nature of the category:
Brompton was evolving from a brand understood instinctively by loyal fans into one that needed to clearly introduce its value to new, like-minded audiences, people who would love the product once they truly understood it.
So, the opportunity was clear - help unfamiliar browsers feel as confident as long-standing Brompton fans, and unlock e-commerce as a meaningful growth channel without compromising the brand’s heritage or credibility.
One of Brompton’s core objectives was to accelerate direct-to-consumer revenue, while improving both margins and the end-to-end customer experience.
Working in partnership, our objectives were to:
Over two days, we immersed ourselves fully in Brompton’s world. We toured the factory, spoke with welders and engineers, ran cross-functional workshops, and got hands-on with the bikes themselves. We test rode them, learned how to fold and unfold them, and even held a mini folding competition!
This hands-on experience helped us understand not just how Brompton bikes are built, but why they inspire such loyalty.
This qualitative grounding was paired with behavioural research, heatmaps, session recordings, surveys, and moderated usability testing, allowing us to see where internal understanding and external perception diverged.
This shifted CRO away from surface-level optimisation and towards narrative clarity, confidence-building, and behavioural alignment.
We delivered a structured experimentation programme, prioritised using ICE (Impact, Confidence, Ease) and supported by revenue forecasting. Every test was treated as a commercial hypothesis, not just a design change.
We introduced new comparison and decision-support components at key points in the journey, helping users understand differences between product lines. Pre-test validation showed a 92% preference rate.
By improving merchandising and promoting accessories at high-intent touchpoints, we increased revenue per user by 29.5%.
We simplified decision-making for non-expert buyers by clarifying USPs and reducing friction across the funnel. This work also informed wider conversations around rentals, audience segmentation, and performance media alignment.
Beyond the numbers, Brompton gained:
The breakthrough with Brompton wasn’t a single test or component; it was a shift in perspective.
By starting with people, product heritage, and real customer behaviour, we helped Brompton translate what makes the brand special into digital experiences that build confidence and convert. The result was not just improved performance, but a new way of thinking about e-commerce, one that balances emotion with evidence, and brand truth with commercial growth.
CRO became a strategic lens for understanding customers, unlocking revenue, and scaling globally, without losing what makes the brand iconic.
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