Quiz Unboxing: Rooted
A shoppable quiz is the gold standard when it comes to growing your ecommerce brand’s email list — Octane AI boasts an impressive 3-16x list growth in the first month of brands launching their quiz* and unlike your standard 10% discount, it’ll fill your list up with segmented, warm leads.
*The difference between 3x and 16x list growth could have a lot to do with how frequently (if at all) the brands promoted their quiz ← but I’ll save that lesson for another time.
With that in mind, it’s time to rip open the packaging tape on one of the nicest shoppable quizzes on the interwebs - Rooted’s Find Your Plant quiz.
(side note: I first noticed Rooted a while ago, thanks to their brand name — a word that has a very different meaning here in Australia 😳)
So, what’s the quiz about?
Rooted are using the Find Your Plant quiz as a sort of digital shop assistant - designed to help customers find which plants will best suit their space and lifestyle.
This is clever for multiple reasons:
It helps customers overcome choice overwhelm and make a purchasing decision
It means they’re more likely to buy plants that they can keep alive (which will increase brand loyalty + repeat purchases)
It can uncover segments of customers with a higher AOV than your overall average — data you can use to drive product development and marketing decisions
It can also lead to higher AOV by showcasing multiple products that suit the user
And it reduces customer support enquiries related to picking out plants — both before and after purchase
This shows you how your quiz can be more than just a bit of fun — it can also help guide a customer to make a better choice for them.
What they’ve done exceptionally well
Not satisfied with just having a solid quiz framework, Rooted have gone all out creating a quiz experience that is fun, immersive and on-brand.
The questions use the same friendly tone they’re known for (three cheers for consistency 🙌), and the answers feature fun illustrated gifs that further enhance the quiz taking experience.
Branded gifs are used to create a more engaging quiz *oooh fancy*
With 7 questions, the quiz gathers enough info to give accurate results (and give the brand some valuable data), without being so long that the user gets bored and exits early. The explainer screens between questions also help nudge you along and are worded in a way that feels more like you’re having a conversation than taking a quiz.
The response you get if you say you have pets
The results page displays like a collections page — showcasing a handful of plants that will fit your lifestyle, along with a section of related items further down the page.
You can add to cart directly from this page (hell yeah!) or click through to the product page to learn more.
The Rooted quiz results page
Although it isn’t a total deal-breaker, I’d love to see a little summary for each plant on the results page without having to click through — something that can apparently be done with some faffing around.
Special shoutout to whoever decided to give the plants hooman names. Although not directly tied to the quiz, this is a case of knowing your audience...
Plant people name (and talk to) their plants.
It also adds a layer of anthropomorphization — humanizing an inanimate object, allowing us supposedly-more-evolved-creatures to feel connected to it.
Where they could make some changes
Let’s start with the obvious: despite collecting emails and names, and promising to send a follow-up email after the quiz… they don’t 😱
I’ve taken this quiz at least 3 times, and haven’t seen a single email yet (and yes, I’ve checked spam + trash.)
Hello? I was promise personalized plant recommendations sent straight to my inbox…
Sending a follow-up email with the quiz takers result is the lowest-hanging fruit when it comes to post-quiz emails.
You have a reason to be emailing them, they’re expecting to see you in their inbox, and they’ll appreciate being able to refer back to the plant recommendations at a later time.
When it comes to the Q&As, the question about travel only had 2 possible answers: A few weeks per month or up to a week at a time. I’d love to see an option for people who don’t really travel, because yes, we exist, and we have (too many) plants.
I call the big one Brian
Beyond included a little blurb under each plant on the results page, it’d also help to display the free shipping offer more prominently, both on this page and the product pages.
As it stands, it only appears in the announcement bar — something easily missed. While they’re at it, this is also something they could highlight in that follow-up email.
Could be good, could be not-so-good 🤷♀️
There’s a couple of things I’m undecided about, that could be worth testing. But also, if it ain’t broke (ie. it’s not causing massive user dropoffs), leave it the hell alone. So take these suggestions the same way I take my chips — with a very generous sprinkling of salt.
Rooted have opted to get the user’s name and email at the very start of the quiz — something that, although done in a super friendly way, could see a spike in dropoffs at the very start.
Oh hey, that’s my email address!
But on the other hand, it gets buy-in from the user and reduces the chance of them dropping off (and getting annoyed) when they have to enter these details just before getting their results. If you make them answer a bunch of questions and then gate their results, you’re lose some people.
See ya never 👋
There’s also no progress bar, which could help increase quiz completion rates… but at the same time, this quiz is such a quick, fun, immersive experience that I’m not convinced it’s needed here (and may even detract from it).
If they’re looking at the progress bar and wondering how much longer this is going to take, chances are your quiz is failing to engage them in the first place.
The final verdict
All in all, Rooted’s Find Your Plant quiz is an absolute cracker of shoppable quiz *chefs kiss*
Beyond increasing onsite conversions and customer success rates with the plants they buy, it’d also be helping grow their email list without giving away profit margin unnecessarily.
Adding a follow-up email sequence, tailored to each result type, would allow them really bring it home. And by “it”, I mean converting more quiz takers into happy customers.
TL;DR If you’re creating a shoppable quiz, this is what you’re aiming for.