How Chillblast drove a 9% conversion uplift by reserving discounts for high-value visitors showing abandonment signals
The Challenge
Chillblast builds custom PCs, gaming rigs, and workstations. It's a high-consideration, high-AOV category where visitors spend time configuring specs, comparing builds, and weighing up whether to commit to a purchase that often runs into the thousands.
To drive conversions, the team used promotional offers - discount codes, money-off incentives, Black Friday-style price promises. The kind of tactics that feel essential in a competitive market where visitors are one tab away from a rival.
But there was a problem hiding inside the aggregate numbers; a significant portion of visitors receiving those discounts were going to purchase anyway. They had high intent, strong price band affinity, and were deep enough in the journey that the incentive wasn't changing their behaviour - it was just reducing the margin on a sale that was already happening.
Without a way to distinguish between visitors who needed an incentive to convert and those who didn't, every promotion carried a hidden cost. The discount wasn't earning the conversion, it was subsidising it.
The Hypothesis
By suppressing discount offers for visitors who were going to buy anyway and reserving them for high-value visitors showing real signs of abandonment, Chillblast could protect margin while driving higher-value incremental sales.
In the Closing the èƵ Gap report, 83% of shoppers use discounts when they’d have paid full price, and discounting with intent can deliver an average 42% margin saving. The report also found that 2.95× more visitors are “ready to buy” than those who actually end up buying.
A discount is information. For a visitor who's already committed, it's irrelevant - or worse, it anchors them on a lower price for next time. For a visitor who's wavering on a £2,000+ purchase, it can be the thing that tips the balance. The difference between waste and impact is timing.
The Solution
Chillblast used Made With èƵ to target their promotional offers based on two intent signals: price band affinity above £2,000 and high intent to abandon.
The first signal identified visitors actively engaging with high-value builds - custom PCs, premium configurations, workstation-grade machines. These were the visitors whose conversion was worth most to the business.
The second signal identified which of those visitors were showing signs of leaving. Not everyone browsing a £2,000 build needs a nudge. But someone who's configured a build, spent time on the page, and is now showing exit behaviour - that's a visitor worth intervening for.
When both signals aligned, the visitor received a targeted £100 off promotion. The offer was specific, substantial enough to feel meaningful on a high-value purchase, and timed to the moment it could genuinely change the outcome. Visitors who were going to buy anyway never saw it. The margin on those sales was protected entirely.
The creative itself was straightforward - a pop-up with a clear value proposition and an email capture mechanic. But the targeting underneath was what made it work. Same tactic, completely different economics.
The Impact
Without èƵ, promotional discounts were served broadly. Visitors who were already going to purchase received the same incentives as those who were wavering. Margin was lost on sales that would have happened anyway, and the team had no way to quantify the waste.
With èƵ, discounts were reserved exclusively for high-value visitors showing real abandonment signals. Everyone else saw no promotion at all.
Key Results: +9% uplift in conversion rate, and margin protected on visitors who would have converted without incentive
This play proved that the value of a discount isn't in the offer itself, it's in who receives it. By suppressing promotions for visitors who didn't need them and targeting only those where the incentive could genuinely change the outcome, Chillblast improved conversion while simultaneously protecting margin on their highest-value sales.
“We can see when someone's in the moment but stuck. They're interested, they're browsing, but they haven't locked onto a product. That's the signal. Instead of hoping they figure it out, we step in with the right guidance at the right time.”
Kevin Robinson, Head of Optimisation, Chillblast
The £100 off didn't cost more than it used to. It just stopped being given away for free. And by tying the offer to an email capture mechanic, the team also built their remarketing audience from exactly the right segment: high-value, high-intent visitors who've already shown interest in premium builds.
Promotions don't have to be a margin trade-off. The waste isn't in the discount - it's in giving it to people who don't need it. This play shows that when you target the incentive to the moment of hesitation, you stop subsidising inevitable sales and start earning incremental ones.
Ready to make your promotions work harder? Explore more about Discounting with èƵ.
