Scotts Miracle-Gro + UserTesting

As America's premier name in the lawn and garden space, The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company sells most of its products at brick and mortar locations. But the company has noticed a market shift, particularly as the demographics of its shoppers change. 

According to Bill Litfin, Scotts' VP, Marketing Activation, Media & Performance, "Over the last few years, we've seen more and more consumers purchase online. And we don't expect that to change."

The Scotts Digital Experience Team oversees more than a dozen brand websites and mobile apps that serve consumers who need assistance with their lawns and gardens. With UserTesting, the team resolved to help customers shop online better and increase the company's sales.

The Digital Experience Team reviews the online presences for all of Scotts’ brands, from the product pages, to carts, to checkout flows. Their goals are to ensure that Scotts shows and demonstrates products in ways that customers can use and love – and that customers know their plants will show up healthy on their doorsteps when they click on the order button.  

Once they began working with UserTesting, the team evaluated the company’s main web pages (such as scotts.com and miracle-gro.com). They also began to focus their attention on Scotts’ emerging brands, including the following:

• Bonnie Plants, which sells starter herb and veggie plants at retailers. Scotts launched the ecommerce-direct business (as well as on Amazon and other websites) during the pandemic and relied on UserTesting to monitor and optimize the experience.
• AeroGarden, which sells indoor smart gardens, relied on UserTesting to evaluate the site to ensure AeroGarden purchasers feel comfortable and have all the information they need to purchase a smart garden online and successfully grow indoors.
• Greendigs, a new brand that Scotts launched, which targets millennial homeowners. UserTesting contributors will influence how the site brings project-focused content and ecommerce together. 

Hailey Schraer, Scotts' User Experience Analyst, has come to love the speed of UserTesting. "I recently launched a test and it wrapped up in less than two hours," she says. "The speed of receiving insights increases the speed at which we can improve our digital spaces."  

In one test, UserTesting contributors helped identify a required field that visitors frequently missed on a product page. Per Jess Bailey, the company's User Experience Manager, "With these insights, we optimized our product page to create a 20% increase in users generating lawn care plans." 

Bailey recalls a time when the company relied on traditional user research, with participants sitting in a room. This type of testing can cost tens of thousands of dollars per study—putting pressure on the team to minimize test volume instead of iterate. With UserTesting, the Digital Experiences Team can now iterate and test their work multiple times in a week. This extraordinary improvement in productivity and efficiency is leading to a projected return on investment of 477%.